Reference
Z1110
Title
Gift relating to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford.
Date free text
1949-1975
Production date
From: 1949 To: 1975
Admin/biog history
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Bedford was located at two sites, Thurleigh airfield and the Wind Tunnel Site (sometimes known as Twinwoods) to the north of Clapham and Milton Ernest, a few miles north of Bedford.
RAE Bedford was a government-funded research establishment, variously under the Ministry of Aviation, the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Defence. Its first wind tunnel, the 3x3 supersonic wind tunnel, was ready by 1952 and the whole establishment was officially opened on 27 June 1957 by Aubrey Jones MP, the then Minister of Supply.
RAE Bedford was established as part of a government initiative after World War 2 to foster aeronautical research. Construction began in the 1940s, with the first wind tunnel starting operations in 1952 and the research airfield opening in 1954. Initially known as the National Aeronautical Establishment, the name reverted to RAE in 1955 (with “head office” at Farnborough) and then became the Defence Research Agency (DRA) in 1991 and the Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA) in 1995. In 2001 DERA was divided into two parts: a commercial element (QinetiQ) and a government laboratory (Dstl). The QinetiQ site at Bedford finally closed in 2009.
Over the years RAE Bedford conducted aeronautical research in many fields, including naval aviation, the aerodynamics of low-speed and high-speed flight, automatic landing in fog, flight simulation, vertical take-off and landing, Concorde wing shapes and engine inlets, and advanced wing and missile aerodynamics. RAE Bedford was known world-wide for its research excellence and collaborated extensively with other research institutions in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA, including with NASA.
Some of this work is outlined in two published books:
Michael D Dobson (Ed), Wings Over Thurleigh, 2001, 4th Edn 2012 (ISBN 0-9541594-0-3)
Michael D Dobson, Wind Beneath the Wings, 2013 (ISBN 0-9541594-1-1)
The cataloguing of this collection began as a volunteer project in 2013. Initial work was carried out by volunteers from the Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group (Mike Dobson, Reg Harlow, Tony Manning, Ken Moreton, Gerry Shanks and Barry Tomlinson). More material related to RAE is held by the Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group in their own archive,
https://www.bahg.org.uk/. The final catalogue was completed in 2018 incorporating information provided by them and details from within the collection.
Scope and Content
The material in this collection comprises mainly photographs showing the construction of two of the five main wind tunnels: the 8ft x 8ft supersonic Wind Tunnel and the 3ft x 4ft High Supersonic Speed Tunnel. A few photographs show the other tunnels: High Speed Laboratory, 13ft x 9ft low-speed tunnel, and Vertical Spinning Tunnel as well as the site, aircraft and machinery.
Square brackets, [], have been used to include extra information or indicate where handwriting, terms or abbreviations are unclear. Acronyms have been expanded where known. These include:
BLEU Blind Landing Experimental Unit
GEC General Electric Company
HP High Pressure
HSST High Speed Supersonic Tunnel
M/C Main Compressor
MD Main Drive
MOW Ministry of Works
NAE National Aeronautical Establishment
RAE Royal Aircraft Establishment
VST Vertical Spinning Tunnel
W/S Working Section
WT Wind Tunnel
Most photographs have negative numbers added. In most cases the numbers have been recorded in the catalogue as they appear on the photographs or in the original albums. The format of these numbers on the photographs varies with spaces, slashes and full stops in different orders. For ease the format has been unified in the catalogue. B and C references are listed as RAE, space, letter then number, for example RAE B4098. Where no letter appears, but possibly should have been included, one has not been added. If searching for a photograph by negative number it is recommended that in the first instance a search is made for the number without adding letters.
It is unclear whether the dates on the reverse of the photographs or in the albums are the dates they were taken or the date they were printed. It appears that a photographer, possibly from Head Office at Farnborough, visited the site once a month to record progress.
Archival history
When deposited most photographs were in albums, but due to the condition and format of some of these the photographs have been removed. Original order has been retained and duplicates have been removed.
Level of description
fonds