RAF Lyneham

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RAF Lyneham
IATA: LYE – ICAO: EGDL
Summary
Airport type		Military
Operator		Royal Air Force
Location		Wiltshire
Elevation AMSL		513 ft / 156 m
Coordinates		51°30′19″N 001°59′36″W / 51.50528, -1.99333
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
06/24	7,828	2,386	Asphalt
18/36	5,991	1,826	Asphalt

RAF Lyneham (IATA: LYE, ICAO: EGDL) is a Royal Air Force station in Wiltshire, England. It is the home of all the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force. The station is also home to No.38 Expeditionary Air Wing.

Originally constructed in 1939, RAF Lyneham is scheduled for closure by 2012 with functions and aircraft relocating to RAF Brize Norton. The base will remain open until the last of the C-130K fleet is retired. At this point the 25 new generation C-130Js will move to Brize Norton where they will join the A400M, the C-17 Globemaster and the aerial refueling fleet. It's not likely this will happen however, as it was scheduled to close a couple of years ago and they moved all of the aircraft out, only to put them all back again.

There are four Royal Air Force Squadrons at Lyneham. They are:

24 Sqn and 30 Sqn which operate Lockheed C-130Js.
47 Sqn and 70 Sqn operate the aging, but very adaptable Lockheed C-130Ks.

Home to No1 Air Mobility Wing, formerly known as the United Kingdom Mobilie Air Movements Squadron. They operate as the tactical air movements specialists, providing world wide movements teams to handle the RAF Transport Fleet aircraft whenever or where ever required.[1].

47 Air Despatch Sqn[2], which operates here is an Army Squadron.

No. 38 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) was formed at Lyneham on 1 April 2006 encompassing most of the non-formed unit personnel on station. The EAW does not include the flying units at the station or the other formed units ie TMW. The station commander is dual-hatted as the commander of the wing.

Lyneham is home to an Air Training Corps squadron & is often used for ATC annual camps.