The Reds at Scampton

By Jason Cross

RAF Scampton was an RAF base with a long and illustrious history. It began life as a Royal Flying Corps landing ground called Brattleby as long ago as 1916. It then became dormant until the 1930s when it was reactivated and subsequently became a base for RAF bombers. The most famous of these were 617 Squadron, ‘The Dambusters’, a specially formed squadron charged with attacking the dams in the Ruhr Valley in Germany in May 1943. After the Second World War, Scampton carried on as a bomber base with USAF B29 Super Fortresses based there for a short while before the base was handed back to the RAF. Canberras were then based there until 1955 when the base became part of the V Force with the arrival of Avro Vulcan aircraft. From 1958 the base was home to nuclear weapons and the base expanded to cater for this with secure storage areas, associated workshops and an extension to the runway which resulted in the diversion of the A15 road (which is very apparent when viewed on Google Earth). As the UK’s nuclear arsenal was moved across to submarines, the base concentrated on tactical nuclear and conventional bombing capabilities. By the 1980s, Scampton was saying goodbye to its Vulcans with 617 Squadron ceasing using the aircraft in 1981, followed by 27 and 35 Squadrons in 1982. Scampton then became home to the Central Flying School from 1983 and this brought the Red Arrows to the base from their former home at Kemble. Apart from a short period in the 1990s when they were based at Cranwell, Scampton was the home of the ‘Reds’ right up until October 2022.

When it was announced that the Red Arrows were to relocate to RAF Waddington from RAF Scampton at the end of their 2022 season, I set myself a target of trying to capture a few images of the ‘Reds’ taking off and landing from Scampton. Although it was easy to stand at Scampton and capture them in the sky above, either practicing or breaking to land, such pictures, although nice, could be taken anywhere, so what I was after were a few landmarks, a bit of the surrounding scenery and some of the base’s infrastructure. I managed to make a few trips to do this, and on more than one occasion, I turned up in advance of their arrival back to base time only to find them already on the ground having cut short their itinerary due to weather issues.

My first attempt was on 19 June 2021 as the team returned to base from Belfast. The first picture was a murky arrival shot with Red 10 acting as camera-ship, followed by a ‘follow my leader’ shot of several aircraft taxiing in after they had landed on runway 04.

My next attempt was on 27 June when the team departed Scampton for Farnborough. I was hoping for a runway 22 departure, but had to move at the last minute when I heard on the scanner that it would be runway 04. As it turned out, this was the only time I made it into the field at the 04 end.

Families day at RAF Lossiemouth saw the team arrive back in the early afternoon and it was another runway 04 landing. The light was much better on this occasion and I was able to battle with the heat distortion to capture the aircraft exiting the runway just after the midpoint.

On 8 August, the Reds transited to Biggin Hill ready to perform at the Folkestone airshow. This was a lunchtime departure, and this time they called up runway 22 which afforded much better photo opportunities from the area around the crash gate at the end of Ermine Street, and a large pile of what appeared to be chicken poo afforded a view over the top of the fence as they taxied to the end of the runway.

On 12 August I had been over at RAF Shawbury for their families day and captured the Reds arriving there (from Exeter) and then displaying. They then headed across to RAF Valley to perform at another families day there, and while they did so, I drove across to RAF Scampton to catch them arriving back in the hope that they would come in on runway 22 for some shots with a bit of a backdrop. This they did and I managed a few images, the first of which was Red 1 laying a smoke trail to show the following aircraft which way the wind was blowing.

I had several failed attempts at catching the Reds at Scampton in 2022, and the only really noteable effort was on 26 June when they returned from Bournemouth. I was almost certain I would get an arrival on runway 04, but they opted for runway 22 instead which was a bit of a repeat from a previous visit, but slightly better light.

That was the last time I saw them at RAF Scampton. Most of my trips had yielded some pictures, and this blog shows some of the images that I managed to capture. There were many more angles that I was hoping to capture, but as usual with these things, time just ran out. It’s all history now though.