RAF Lyneham

RAF Lyneham opened in Wiltshire in 1940 and, after wartime service as a maintenance and ferrying base flying types such as the Consolidated Liberator and Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle, grew into the Royal Air Force’s principal transport airfield. For decades it was the home of the RAF’s Lockheed Hercules fleet, carrying men and supplies around the world and serving as the gateway for operations in the Gulf and Afghanistan; in later years it became the solemn point of return for service personnel killed overseas. Flying ended in 2011 and the station closed in 2012, after which it passed to the Army as MOD Lyneham, home to a tri-service engineering training school.