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RAF Weston Zoyland is one of the country's oldest airfields being established in the early 1920s. Somerset, England. The airfield is located approximately east-southeast of Bridgwater; about west-southwest of London Established in 1925 with summer camps which would last from May until September each year, it was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces. During the war it was used primarily as an army co-operation airfield but several squadrons were based there with a variety of aircraft. Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mosquito's. Briefly - the early Meteor jets were based before flying off to RAF CULMHEAD in East Devon. There after they were based at RAF MANSTON with the mission of shooting down the V1 rockets. After being stood down in 1947 it was recommissioned in 1952 as a Meteor jet training base as a result of the Korean War. It was home to 209 AFS where Lord Craig and Sir Patrick Hine were based before going to become Air Chief Marshalls of the RAF. Today the remains of the airfield are a mixture of farmland and a base for Civil Air Patrol activities. ==History== Weston Zoyland airfield originated in the mid-1920s as a landing ground, being in use by 1926 for drogue tugs using the anti-aircraft gunnery range off Watchet in the Bristol Channel. At first, it was no more than an extended cow pasture, subject only to seasonal use until the Second World War loomed, when the site was occupied on a permanent basis. During the pre-war years, buildings were erected piecemeal as required and the landing ground area gradually enlarged but, with the fall of France, Weston Zoyland was no longer a backwater airfield. To obtain the necessary amount of land for siting runways of sufficient length, the A372 to Othery was closed and diverted south on a former minor road. In 1942, the Air Ministry decided to upgrade the airfield to bomber standard and, early in 1943, work began on laying concrete runways and the perimeter track to the Class A airfield standard, the main feature of which was a set of three converging runways each containing a concrete runway for takeoffs and landings, optimally placed at 60 degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/research/landscapes-and-areas/national-mapping-programme/somerset-alsf-nmp/military-remains-in-the-somerset-levels/ )〕 The airfield runways were a main of 5.775 ft at 11/29, and ancillaries of 3,564 ft at 05/23 and 4,101 ft at 16/34. Two hardstands were of 150 ft diameter pans and there were 33 loops connecting to an enclosing perimeter track, of a standard width of 50 feet.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RAF Weston Zoyland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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