Our Next Meeting
Please note the venue bar is cash only
Non Members Fees:
Guest Speaker Nights £5
In-house Speaker Nights £2
This includes a light buffet, tea/coffee & 1 x raffle ticket
Yearly WNAS Membership £20
Kevin Boardman will be joing us to present his talk on the fascinating and pioneering woman Katherine Johnson, who became so vital to NASA’s space race.
Some of Johnson’s many honours include: The Presidential Medal of Freedom; The Congressional Gold Medal; NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award and is an inductee to both The National Aviation & The National Women’s Halls of Fame. She was also the inspiration behind the 2016 acclaimed blockbuster ‘Hidden Figures’. A truly remarkable woman.
Guest Speaker
Last month’s write up
Simon Gladas presented tonights talk which was a truncated (due to time constraints) history of RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk.
Interestingly there is no such place as Bentwaters, the airfield is named after a couple of cottages/farms on which the airbase is built. This is quite unusual if you stop to thunk about it, RAF Horsham St Faith (now Norwich Airport) built near Horsham St Faith and RAF Coltishall built near, well you get the idea, but Bentwaters nope no such place. Interesting and little known fact No1 is that Bentwaters was the last airfield to be completed and handed over during WW2. For many years it had very poor infrastructure and was home to 6 RAF Mustang squadrons up to the end of the war. It then became a conversion unit for those pilots moving to the early jets, a pretty risky business so accidents were fairly common.
Eventually the airfield was passed to the United States Air Force(USAF) in 1951 after a period of Care and Maintenance a loosely used term which generally means abandoned. It took the USAF many years to bring the airfield infrastructure up to a decent standard. It was home to F86 Sabres and F84 Nuclear Strike Thunderjets. Following this the F101 Voodoo was resident for a number of years, built initially to escort the massive B36 Peacemaker bomber which were rendered instantly obsolete with introduction of Surface to Air Missiles. This left the F101 without a job and they were rounded up and all sent to RAF Bentwaters where they remained for 7 years the only base in the USAF to operate the type.
Next came the F4 Phantom a truly brutish aircraft and one which the speaker was clearly in awe of. It was the main type operated from mid 60’s until the introduction of the A10 in the, late 70’s. The A10 was withdrawn from Bentwaters in 1993 and allegedly retired as a type from the USAF, however its abilities remain unique and it is STILL in use in 2026, 50 years after it entered service in 1976, as those of you who saw the excitement last week when I believe 12 arrived at RAF Lakenheath! Not a bad advert for keeping things simple! Can’t imagine the current batch of electronic wonders currently in service will still be going strong in 2076!!
This was an entertaining talk and our thanks go to Simon for making the long trek from deepest Suffolk.
News in brief……….
Our Friday morning coffee socials are a great way to keep in touch if you cant make our main meeting. Non aviation related we meet at the bowls club for 11am and chat about anything. Quite often there’s cake too!
Please take note of the advertised flyer. More information on this event can be found here….https://www.aerosociety.com/Marham
The Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Guide (NASAG) has gone live! Hosted by WNAS this is a guide to all the aviation goings on across Norfolk and Suffolk, Scroll down on this page or click the NASAG link in the menu.
Non members attendance charges. WNAS has taken the decision to officially start charging a small amount for non members who attend our evenings, this is to help cover costs of speaker’s fees and catering. Becoming a WNAS member remains the most cost effective method of enjoying the Society,
We are always looking for speakers for our meetings, if you have any association or interest in aviation and would like to tell us about it please contact us using the attached form
