LATEST NEWS – JUNE 2009

The Trust’s Annual Dinner was held at the Allerdale Court Hotel this year and the members welcomed Paul Cusack as the after dinner speaker. Paul entertained the gathering with tales and anecdotes relating to his running Cockermouth Travel. There were some surprising revelations such as being paid by the CIA for some travel arrangements! Both the dinner and the speaker were excellent.

Later in May a small party went on a very interesting visit to RAF Spadeadam. There we were given a briefing on the history of the site which was first used for testing Bluestreak missiles. When that programme was shelved the site was used for other defence purposes and its current role is as a “war games” centre. It is the only low level flying site of its kind in the West and plays a prominent part in the training of NATO personnel to prepare them for current and future conflicts. A typical exercise will see Spadeadam  become a country called “Umberland” and the participants in the exercise have to use “intelligence” as well as air “strikes” to win the “war”.  Movable targets such as tanks, radar equipment and anti-aircraft missiles serve to test the pilots as they have to identify enemy threats. All these “war games” are controlled from a central operations room and the success or failure of the attacks assessed. After a visit to the operations room we were taken on a tour of the old Bluestreak testing facilities and the various “targets” scattered around this huge and remote site.

Our summer visit this year will be to Morpeth and Cragside on Saturday 25th July.

If you are interested in joining the Trust (good value at only £5.50 per year) please complete the Membership Application Form on this website or contact our Membership Secretary Barbara Barker on 01900 827093 or at any meeting.