PW_4_2020

IPA News

Sturgate: aeroplanes, motorcycles and FIDO Neil Hallam , Editor

FIDO cleared the fog to a height of several hundred feet, and the glow of the burners could be seen from a hundred kilometres away. Sturgate’s FIDO system was used only once, when a squadron of Lancasters needed safe haven from the Luftwaffe. FIDO used huge quantities of fuel, as much as 450,000 litres per hour. When the Sturgate system was dismantled after the war, the RAF found that a local farmer had been tapping into a free supply of petrol. In 1953 Sturgate was loaned to the USAF, who based a squadron of F-84 Thunderjet fighters there. The airfield ended its military service in 1964 and is now used exclusively by private light aircraft.

Notts and Derbyshire based members of the Motorcycle SIG joined up with the Blue Knights for a visit to one of Lincolnshire’s many wartime airbases. Retired Lincolnshire Officer, Chris Riley keeps a light aircraft at Sturgate Airfield, near Gainsborough, and arranged a tour for us. The airfield was opened in 1944 as RAF Sturgate. It was originally used to train 50 and 61 Squadrons in blind flying their Lancaster bombers. Both Squadrons moved to RAF Waddington in 1946. One of the stranger stories we heard, was about using the FIDO system to land a squadron of Lancasters in the fog. Fog was responsible for the loss of many aircraft returning from WWII bombing missions. Since most raids took place at night, fog often obscured the ground. In some cases, the pilot pointed his airplane towards the sea, with the crew bailing out by parachute. With significant numbers of bombers lost to fog, Winston Churchill tasked the Petroleum Warfare Department to come up with a hot air solution. They came up with Fog Investigation Dispersal Operations, or FIDO. The apparatus consisted of two parallel pipelines running along either side of the runway, through which petrol was sprayed from burner jets. Before an aircraft was due to land, ground crew with flaming torches ran along the pipes lighting the vapour. Flames shot up along the pipes, burning with a fierce glare, and the heat they generated evaporated the fog droplets.

POLICE WORLD Vol 65 No.4, 2020

23