RAF Cardington
Encyclopedia
RAF Cardington started life as a private venture when Short Brothers
bought land there to build airships for the Admiralty
. They constructed a 700 feet (213.4 m) Airship hangar
(the No. 1 Shed) in 1915 to enable them to build two rigid airships, the R-31 and the R-32. Shorts also built a housing estate, opposite the site, which they named Shortstown
. Most of the former RAF station is actually in the parish of Eastcotts, as is the settlement of Shortstown. In the 1950s, during the time of National Service, RAF Cardington was the reception unit, where thousands of conscripts went to be issued with their kit. The Paratroop Regiment were stationed there as one of the hangers housed the balloons from which trainees made their first drops. In 1954 RAF Maitenance Command used Shed No.1 for their rehearsals for the Royal Tournament.
in April 1919, becoming known as the Royal Airship Works.
In preparation for the R101
project the No 1 shed was extended between October 1924 and March 1926; its roof was raised by 35 feet and its length increased to 812 feet. The No. 2 shed (Southern shed), which had originally been located at RNAS Pulham
, Norfolk
, was dismantled in 1928 and re-erected at Cardington.
After the crash of the R101, in October 1930, all work stopped in Britain on airships. Cardington then became a storage station.
s; and it became the No 1 RAF
Balloon Training Unit responsible for the storage and training of balloon operators and drivers. In 1943 until 1967 it was home to the RAF Meteorological research balloons-training unit, undertaking development and storage (after 1967 this was undertaken by the Royal Aircraft Establishment).
For both airships and barrage balloons, Cardington manufactured its own hydrogen
, in the Gas Factory, using the steam reforming
process. In 1948 the Gas Factory became 279 MU (Maintenance Unit), RAF Cardington; and then, in 1955, 217 MU. 217 MU, RAF Cardington, produced all the gases used by the Royal Air Force until its closure in April 2000; including gas cylinder
filling and maintenance.
Hangar 1 was used by the Royal Aircraft Establishment
(RAE) to operate balloons on behalf of the Met Office
carrying instruments to measure conditions in the atmosphere. The balloons were also used in parachute
development (although they were unmanned - using a heavy dead weight) much of this work was carried out in secret.
as a whole building test facility for the Cardington test
s. Here, multi-storey steel, concrete and wooden buildings were constructed and then destructively tested within the huge space available. This shed was repainted and looked after in comparison with the Shed 1.
The buildings tests were mentioned during the course of the BBC series "The Conspiracy Files" as evidence in the controversy surrounding the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 on 11 September 2001.
association with site continues by maintaining a Meteorological Research Unit (MRU), this is responsible for conducting research into part of the atmosphere called the boundary layer
by using a tethered balloon which is kept in a small portable hangar.
134 Sqn of the Air Training Corps
has been based since 1953 within the former RAF Cardington site. As part of the redevelopment, a new Squadron headquarters has been built.
tried to revive the fortunes of the airship industry in the Shed 1 (on closure of the RAE operation) in the 1980s, but the efforts ended in failure. The site is currently being used for the development of a new design of airship, the Skycat, by the company Hybrid Air Vehicles.
Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition, U2, Rod Stewart, Take That and AC/DC http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.digitised_resources/cardington_digitisation_timeline.htm.
In 1968 some scenes for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
were filmed at Cardington Sheds. Also during the 1960s, much of the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
was shot in the vicinity of the village. In 1971 the sheds appeared in the First World War war film Zeppelin
starring Michael York
.
Shed 2 has recently been leased to Warner Bros.
and is used as a studio for film
and television
productions. Director Christopher Nolan
has used this location to film scenes for three of his movies; scenes from Batman Begins
, The Dark Knight
, and Inception
were filmed in Shed 2. Christopher Nolan is expected to return to this location during the summer of 2011 to film scenes for his third Batman
film, The Dark Knight Rises
.
The film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
was filmed at Cardington in 2004.
Rihanna
filmed parts of her music video for 'Shut up and drive
' there.
, Hangar Number 1 at RAF Cardington is at risk, needing complete repair and refurbishment
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first company in the world to make production aircraft and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s...
bought land there to build airships for the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
. They constructed a 700 feet (213.4 m) Airship hangar
Airship hangar
Airships are sheltered in airship hangars during construction and sometimes also for regular operation, particularly at bad weather conditions. Rigid airships always needed to be based in airship hangars because weathering was a serious risk.- History :...
(the No. 1 Shed) in 1915 to enable them to build two rigid airships, the R-31 and the R-32. Shorts also built a housing estate, opposite the site, which they named Shortstown
Shortstown
Shortstown is a village on the outskirts of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England.The village was originally built by Short Brothers for its workers, but evolved into a settlement for people working at the RAF Cardington base....
. Most of the former RAF station is actually in the parish of Eastcotts, as is the settlement of Shortstown. In the 1950s, during the time of National Service, RAF Cardington was the reception unit, where thousands of conscripts went to be issued with their kit. The Paratroop Regiment were stationed there as one of the hangers housed the balloons from which trainees made their first drops. In 1954 RAF Maitenance Command used Shed No.1 for their rehearsals for the Royal Tournament.
Royal Airship Works
The airships site was nationalisedNationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
in April 1919, becoming known as the Royal Airship Works.
In preparation for the R101
R101
R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airship completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry-appointed team and was effectively in competition...
project the No 1 shed was extended between October 1924 and March 1926; its roof was raised by 35 feet and its length increased to 812 feet. The No. 2 shed (Southern shed), which had originally been located at RNAS Pulham
RNAS Pulham
RNAS Pulham was an Royal Navy Air Service airship station, south of Norwich, UK. Though land was purchased by the Navy in 1912 the site was not operational until 1915...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, was dismantled in 1928 and re-erected at Cardington.
After the crash of the R101, in October 1930, all work stopped in Britain on airships. Cardington then became a storage station.
RAF Cardington
In 1936/1937 Cardington started building barrage balloonBarrage balloon
A barrage balloon is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against low-level aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult. Some versions carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up...
s; and it became the No 1 RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Balloon Training Unit responsible for the storage and training of balloon operators and drivers. In 1943 until 1967 it was home to the RAF Meteorological research balloons-training unit, undertaking development and storage (after 1967 this was undertaken by the Royal Aircraft Establishment).
For both airships and barrage balloons, Cardington manufactured its own hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
, in the Gas Factory, using the steam reforming
Steam reforming
Fossil fuel reforming is a method of producing hydrogen or other useful products from fossil fuels such as natural gas. This is achieved in a processing device called a reformer which reacts steam at high temperature with the fossil fuel. The steam methane reformer is widely used in industry to...
process. In 1948 the Gas Factory became 279 MU (Maintenance Unit), RAF Cardington; and then, in 1955, 217 MU. 217 MU, RAF Cardington, produced all the gases used by the Royal Air Force until its closure in April 2000; including gas cylinder
Gas cylinder
A gas cylinder is a pressure vessel used to store gases at above atmospheric pressure. High pressure gas cylinders are also called bottles. Although they are sometimes colloquially called "tanks", this is technically incorrect, as a tank is a vessel used to store liquids at ambient pressure and...
filling and maintenance.
RAE Cardington and other users
The two airship sheds ceased being part of the RAF Cardington site in the late 1940s and they were put to other uses. The fence was moved, so they were outside the main RAF Cardington site.Hangar 1 was used by the Royal Aircraft Establishment
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...
(RAE) to operate balloons on behalf of the Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
carrying instruments to measure conditions in the atmosphere. The balloons were also used in parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
development (although they were unmanned - using a heavy dead weight) much of this work was carried out in secret.
Driving Standards Agency (DSA)
The northern part of the site has for many years been used by the UK Government Driving Standards Agency Training and Development Centre to train Driving Examiners.Building Research Establishment
In 1971 Hangar 2 became the Fire Research Station (part of the Home Office) which conducted gas explosion experiments and for investigating fires, a 20 lease being given by the MoD. Full scale testing and Fire research was undertaken from 1989. In 1990 the facility was transferred to Building Research EstablishmentBuilding Research Establishment
The Building Research Establishment is a former UK government establishment that carries out research, consultancy and testing for the construction and built environment sectors in the United Kingdom...
as a whole building test facility for the Cardington test
Cardington test
The Cardington Fire Tests were a series of large-scale fire tests conducted in real steel-framed structures at the village of Cardington, Bedfordshire, England....
s. Here, multi-storey steel, concrete and wooden buildings were constructed and then destructively tested within the huge space available. This shed was repainted and looked after in comparison with the Shed 1.
The buildings tests were mentioned during the course of the BBC series "The Conspiracy Files" as evidence in the controversy surrounding the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 on 11 September 2001.
Meteorological Research Unit
The Met OfficeMet Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
association with site continues by maintaining a Meteorological Research Unit (MRU), this is responsible for conducting research into part of the atmosphere called the boundary layer
Boundary layer
In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is that layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface where effects of viscosity of the fluid are considered in detail. In the Earth's atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer is the air layer near the ground affected by diurnal...
by using a tethered balloon which is kept in a small portable hangar.
134 (Bedford) Squadron, Air Training Corps
Air Training Corps
The Air Training Corps , commonly known as the Air Cadets, is a cadet organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is a voluntary youth group which is part of the Air Cadet Organisation and the Royal Air Force . It is supported by the Ministry of Defence, with a regular RAF Officer, currently Air...
has been based since 1953 within the former RAF Cardington site. As part of the redevelopment, a new Squadron headquarters has been built.
Airships return to Cardington
A company called Airship IndustriesAirship Industries
Airship Industries was a British manufacturer of modern non-rigid airships active under that name from 1980 to 1990 and controlled for part of that time by Alan Bond. A predecessor company, Aerospace Developments, had been founded in 1971, and a successor, Hybrid Air Vehicles, remains active...
tried to revive the fortunes of the airship industry in the Shed 1 (on closure of the RAE operation) in the 1980s, but the efforts ended in failure. The site is currently being used for the development of a new design of airship, the Skycat, by the company Hybrid Air Vehicles.
Film and Television
In 1993 planning permission was granted for construction of theatrical stagings and the site was used for rehearsals by musicians including Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition, U2, Rod Stewart, Take That and AC/DC http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.digitised_resources/cardington_digitisation_timeline.htm.
In 1968 some scenes for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The...
were filmed at Cardington Sheds. Also during the 1960s, much of the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes is a 1965 British comedy film starring Stuart Whitman and directed and co-written by Ken Annakin...
was shot in the vicinity of the village. In 1971 the sheds appeared in the First World War war film Zeppelin
Zeppelin (film)
Zeppelin is a 1971 British World War I action/drama film of a fictitious German attempt to raid Great Britain in a giant Zeppelin and steal the Magna Carta from its hiding place in one of Scotland's castles...
starring Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
.
Shed 2 has recently been leased to Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and is used as a studio for film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
productions. Director Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...
has used this location to film scenes for three of his movies; scenes from Batman Begins
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
, The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
, and Inception
Inception
Inception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...
were filmed in Shed 2. Christopher Nolan is expected to return to this location during the summer of 2011 to film scenes for his third Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
film, The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises is an upcoming epic superhero film. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film will be the third and final installment in Nolan's Batman film series, and is a sequel to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight...
.
The film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a 2004 American pulp adventure science-fiction film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut. The film is set in an alternative 1939 and follows the adventures of Polly Perkins , a newspaper reporter, and Harry Joseph "Joe" Sullivan ,...
was filmed at Cardington in 2004.
Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
filmed parts of her music video for 'Shut up and drive
Shut Up and Drive (Rihanna song)
"Shut Up and Drive" is a song by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, from her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad . Released as album's second single, the song was solicited to the US radios on June 12, 2007 and was physically released on August 27, 2007 in the United Kingdom...
' there.
New Cardington Development
Construction company Bellway Homes has bought most of the RAF Cardington site and is building 1000 new homes on the site.Hangar 1 at risk
According to English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, Hangar Number 1 at RAF Cardington is at risk, needing complete repair and refurbishment