RAF Museum Digitised Airfields and Building Plans Catalogues

[flashgordon]

Many of you will know that the RAF Museum at Hendon hold many drawings of airfields and associated buildings although the quality of these 80 year old plans varies. After the Battle used these to produce the plans which occasionally come up on E-Bay. Not every airfield or building is covered as some plans were lost or too damaged to save whilst the plans of active RAF stations were not originally released but a number that have sadly since closed now appear in the current catalogue.

These are available to order for download in .pdf format @ £2.00 each from askcollections@rafmuseum.org . Some larger plans may be covered by more than 1 .pdf due to scanning limitations. The order limit is five sites per month or 15 building drawings and a response may take 2 to 3 weeks.

I have converted the original Airfield and Building Drawing Catalogues from the original Excel format to .pdf so that I can upload them if of interest.

 

[Frosty]

Very nice!! Thank you! That may come in handy. Too bad it all isn't in the public domain - free, that is - but at the same time that is understandable. Once I get to doing airfields again, I need to charge for the models to see some of my money back . But 2-3 weeks waiting before getting a response - jeez, it must be a public service...

 

[ian elliot]

thanks for this, i use the RAFM myself occasionally and this will come in very useful indeed

 

[gecko]

Do they also have plans for overseas RAF stations like Gibraltar, Malta, etc?

 

[flashgordon]

Do they also have plans for overseas RAF stations like Gibraltar, Malta, etc?

Quick search only

Wied-Dalam, Record Site Plan, A.M.D. petrol installation, 1949

but otherwise a number worldwide.

Egypt, Landing Ground & stations in Delta & canal area, 1942 India and Ceylon, Landing Grounds Overseas, 1941 Personally I would have preferred a posting to: Seychelles (Mahé Island), General Layout, 1943 rather than: Reykjavik, Iceland, Record Site Plan, 1945

Too bad it all isn't in the public domain - free, that is

Searches of the archive at https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/unit/eighth-air-force
will find many airfield plans in .pdf format for free download.

 

[flashgordon]

Examples of the detail of the Air Ministry airfield plans. The American Air Museum has many of the drawings for the stations they occupied for free download. These are to be found at page 20 of 65 images of aircraft, people and places for RAF Attlebridge @ https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/place/attlebridge.

 

[flashgordon]

Do they also have plans for overseas RAF stations like Gibraltar, Malta, etc?

Some basic details of Malta airfields and many other countries can be found here: https://www.forgottenairfields.com/

 

[sdsbolt]

I'm tempted to order the RAF Banff pdf in case I don't have another option. I see some nice releases for other MS sims but I am not sure if they can be converted.

 

[flashgordon]

I'm tempted to order the RAF Banff pdf in case I don't have another option. I see some nice releases for other MS sims but I am not sure if they can be converted.

I have the Banff AMAS and AMDS which I can e-mail to you. Send me your address via private message.

 

[Pat Pattle]

Thanks for the info Gordon. I could have done with this 20 years ago when the bulk of the ACC airfields took shape. Back then it was a letter or phone call to the museum and you could have copies mailed to you, albeit at a much higher price!

 

[flashgordon]

Hi Clive. The original tranche that was available on paper seem to be those with a reference starting MFC78/ whilst the more recent are those shown X0004/ which include. a number of Expansion Era bases like Scampton, Hemswell and Lindholme which are now closed as active RAF stations. When spy satellites are supposed to be able to read a newspaper headline not quite what the reasoning was.
The clarity. of some prints is not brilliant. In some instances the Ordnance Survey 1:10560 and 1:2500 scale maps are helpful in giving the basic layout and those outside the 50 year copyright can be viewed freely on the National Library of Scotland website @ //maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=5.08.

 

[Pat Pattle]

which include. a number of Expansion Era bases like Scampton, Hemswell and Lindholme which are now closed as active RAF stations.

Hemswell is now a big antiques centre with many of the buildings used. The whole technical site is pretty much open to walk around, it's quite fascinating.