The Gloster Meteor,standard 50's jet
The immediate post war period saw great strides in jet development.With the defeat of Germany Britian now held the upper hand.A year after the wars end the National Gas Turbine Establishment was opened at Pyestock.This was ajcent to the airfield,and the jet engines that were to shape the next 30 years were developed here.This also saw the end of all piston engined research. The aircraft used were the early jets,the vampire,Meteor,and Seahawk.Also former bombers such as the Lancaster and Lincoln.
The airfield as we know it today was developed in the early post war years.The runways were extended to their maximum years,and from 1948 the SBAC airshow made its impact on the site.Also several new offshoots were founded.These were the Institute of Aviation Medicine,The Meterogicial Flight,and the Empire Test Pilots school.All of which are still in existance at Boscombe Down.
Britian started peace time with very few quality airliners.The De Havilland company decided to take a bold step and produced the worlds first jet airliner, the Comet.it had a trouble free development,but during early passenger services suffered several crashes at high altitude. To investigate this,the Farnbrough based AAIB built massive water tanks pressure at Farnborough where the current Aerospace Center now stands.In the tanks a full sized Comet fuselage was constantly pressure cycled until failure.This was the first case of metal fatigue,and ment severe redesign of the Comet and once again the loss of a lead to the Americans.Several other aircraft were tested in these tanks in the next 20 years. This was the AAIB's first major investigation.It is still based at Farnbrorough,and investigates all fatal air accidents in the UK
During the 1950's the aerodrome had reached its capacity with no more land for development.Also with the growth of the nearby London airports there was a limited amount of air space for fast jet flying. So another aerodrome was constructed at Bedford.This concentrated on aircraft development, and left Farnborough to work on weapons,avionics,radar and other electronic aspects of flight. This included the first experiments with cockpit head up displays.The aircraft that were to last the RAE for the next 30 years became common place.Various Hunters,Lightnings,Canberras,Comets and Whirlwind and Wessex helicopters now became part of the local scenery.
A new structures building was built on the North West side of the airfield.This mainly concentrated on the development of Concorde.
The building opened in 1966,and tests on Concorde test sections continued into the 1980's.This building was eventually
replaced by the new DERA Headquarters in the 1990's.The Empire Test Pilots School departed to Boscome Down in the late 60's.This was the start of a gradual
wind down that was to lat until the early 1990's
