This is Building 2 and is a photo of the 2nd Control Tower to be built at Burtonwood and was ‘The RAF Control Tower’ for ‘All Commands’ built to Air Ministry drawing No. 12779/41 & was sited next to the main runway 09/27. This control tower was being used between 1942 – 1953 by the USAAF During ww2 until the new post-ww2 United States Air Force Control Tower was built. Building 77 isThe white Uni Seco building to the right of the Control Tower and is the Base Operations Centre.

Building 3 to the far right next to the windsock is the Ancillary to the Control Tower and was used during ww2 by the United States Army Air Force as the Aircraft ATC Ferry Centre. A-site hangars can be seen in the background Behind the back of the K-Type hangar on the left & the J-Type Hangar on the right at the Technical Site

Construction began on tech site in 1939 on farm land belonging to Brooke House Farm. Tech site opened on the 1st of April 1940 and was used by the Royal Air Force No. 37 Maintenance unit, for the storage and modification of British aircraft transferred to the United States 8th Army Air Force in June of 1942 as Base Air Depot 1 (BAD 1) and became the centre for flight testing, overhaul, modification, and repair of all USAAF aircraft. The USAAF left in 1946 but they would not be gone for long ….

In July 1946 No. 276 Maintenance unit RAF was formed as an equipment depot and the hangars were used for the storage of Spitfire’s & Lancaster’s. In 1948, the USAF were back using RAF Burtonwood as a maintenance base for C54 Skymaster’s and other aircraft for 200 hour inspections and servicing, turning out 7 aircraft a day during the Berlin Airlift. In September 1953, Burtonwood became USAF Northern Air Material Area & during these dates from 1953 – April 1959 the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron with long range Boeing WB29, then later WB50D Super-Fortresses were stationed there.

Military Air Transport Services (MATS) Aircraft were also based here until 1958. Tech site was the main headquarters, administration and stores and spares centre. The buildings were built of permanent brick with slate roofing.

When entering the site, the guard room was on the left. Opposite the guard room was an open square with the headquarters buildings located on either side. Also, building 28 – a black dome gunnery trainer which had no windows.

This building should never have been built at Burtonwood, but many RAF stations were built to house both maintenance unit and flying training school. The building contained a gun turret and a projector and the projector would project images of enemy aircraft on the walls for the gunner to be ‘trained’ to shoot at. Aircraft Hangars 2 aircraft hangars were built …. building 6 ‘J’ type, built to air ministry drawing number 5836/39 and building 9 ‘K’ type built to air administry drawing number 3084/39.

The hangars were constructed of a steel lattice frame with a curved roof covered with 1/4″ steel plate. The side of the hangars had 2 brick annexes running the full length of the hangars built of brick constructed under a flat reinforced concrete roof. The hangar doors were filled with gravel or sand to absorb any enemy gunfire.

The dimension of the hangars were: Door openings = 150′ Wide x 30′ High. The hangars are 300′ Long comprising of 18 bays 16′ 8″ each in depth. Covering 46,206 Sq feet.

The ‘J’ & ‘K’ hangars look identical, the difference being that the positioning & number of roof runway beams used for lifting gear are different for each hangar. The ‘J’ has 2 half ton runway beams at each end of the hangar & 1 x 6 ton at the centre running the width of the span. The ‘K’ has 10 runway beams running the full length of the hangar.

The ‘J’ had annexes along both sides of the hangar which were used for offices & workshops. The ‘K’ had the same but being used for storage. Control Tower Info 3 x Control Towers were built on the airfield. 1st Control Tower 1st Control Tower – to be built was a ‘Fort’ type on Mary Ann Site and this was to air ministry drawing number 207/36 concrete, as building of the airfield progressed it became apparent that the view of the main runway became obscured and therefore the 1st control tower was demolished. (Photo USAAF 1942)

Flying control flight planning inside the tower 14 April 1943 Flying control Ray Ponczeke standing and Walter Schnellinger July 1943 Flying control left to right, PEC Bachrack SGT?, SGT Austin, 2nd LT Steinfeld, SGT Ray Zimmerman, Major Fred, R? 24 September 1943. Flying control inside the control tower to the left is PFC Demos and to the right S-SGT Zimmerman 24 September 1943. Flying control OPS officers WO Mcroy to the left and Major Wm Buell to the right 6 May 1943. 6th aerial port squadron on technical site during 1955.

Passenger terminal, arrivals and departure lounge. The East end of the passenger terminal on technical site, the aircraft apron passenger stairs has the initials BOAC on the side British overseas airways corporation. BOAC used Burtonwood on many occasions during the 1950s using Boeing Stratocruisers Lockheed Constellations, and DC-7cs USAF C-124C Globemaster during May 1958.

Burtonwood Flying Control March 1944 T/Sgt Hubert Christian from Mississippi on top of control tower Standing on the QDM Boards With the 2 ‘K’ Type Hangars in the Background on ‘A’ Site. Photo From The American Air Museum in Britain – Ray Zimmerman Collection via Aldon Ferguson

The control tower built at Burtonwood is designed for the air ministry’s directorate of works and buildings, as a watch office for all commands designed to air ministry drawing number 12779/41.and with small windows to AM Drawing number 15371/41 The two-story building is constructed with permanent brick with a sand and cement rendered finish, and the roof is waterproofed with ash felt. The front elevation of the building is 34ft 6 ins and the side elevations are 36 ft 9 ins. The first-floor exit door leads out to the concrete balcony and onto a steel staircase gaining access to the roof.

The balcony and roof are fitted with tubular steel railings supported by iron columns. The ground floor has access to the first floor by an internal flight of concrete stairs. North West facing View of hangar ‘J’ August 1987

Major Building Work Info In January 1953 the USAF started major building work on Tech Site by demolishing part of the North Annex of hangar ‘J’ to make way for a new control tower and passenger terminal. Sir Alfred McAlpine Company LTD won the £750,000 contract for this work. Also at this time the main runway 09/27 was extended to 9,000 feet long and 250 feet wide at a cost of £1,500,000.

The new passenger terminal was built for the huge increase of freight and arrivals and departure of US Military Personnel and their families flying in and out of Burtonwood to the Unite States. British Overseas Airways Corporation used the terminal in 1955 operating 6 flights per week using Stratocruisers flying to New York. The terminal building housed a bank, customs, American Express, cafeteria, shop, lounge, check-in and offices for support staff.

The terminal building handled 260,000 passengers and air-lifted £72,000,000 of freight each year. The terminal building became known as ‘The Gateway To Europe’ In April 1959 the USAF left and all flying activity ceased. Tech Site was handed back to the RAF but was not extensively used.

The American’s returned again, this time the US Army, in February 1967. They took over ‘site 8’ called ‘The Header House’. The US Army had no use for ‘Technical Site’ but used the hangars to store their helicopters in their for a while.

They also used part of the disused passenger terminal as their NCO club for a while. The last fixed wing aircraft to use ‘Technical Site’ were the glider’s of 635 Air Training Corp’s gliding school. The gliding school moved out in 1983 when ‘Tech Site’ was finally demolished.

Building 23 is the latrine block and is the building to the right of the black dome. Building 54 with the chimney stack is the central heating boiler house. Building 32 is the main stores & is the large building on the right with 3 pitched roofs.

Building 28 is the black dome on the left of the photo (photo above & photo below) and was the gunnery trainer.The synthetic gunnery training dome was developed by the naval officer Henry Stephens and was constructed of reinforced concrete and was 25 feet tall and 40 feet wide. Stephens worked with Kodak to develop a cinematographic apparatus which projected the stop-frame films onto the interior walls of the dome. The gunners undergoing training were supplied with a small projector which shone a spot of light at the exact point where the operators were firing. this gave the instructor some idea of the estimation of the trainee’s accuracy. as the gunners pulled the trigger the soundtrack played the noise of a firing shot- with a duration of approximately five seconds – is the time it took to empty the cartridge of ammunition. the gunners wore yellow filter goggles so only the instructors could see the flash of light. 43 of this type of Synthetic gunnery training domes were constructed in the country and only 6 survive today.

This is building number 28 and is the synthetic gunnery training dome during the year 1983 on tech siteconstructed of reinforced concrete and built to air ministry drawing number 73/42. This example at Burtonwood has been demolished. This illustration shows the working of the dome trainer Air ministry drawing of the dome trainer.

Side elevation plan of the dome trainer. Building 35 – Station HQ Drawing No: 2878/37 In this period being used by USAAF Northern Air Material Area.

USAF control tower was the 3rd control tower and was built in 1953. It had 6 vertical steel ladders and 5 intermediate landings. This gave access to the control room at the top of the tower.

The landings also housed electrical and air conditioning equipment. The front and rear elevations of the tower was fitted with full height glazing for natural light onto all the landings. The control tower was the last building to be demolished on technical site in April 1988 by Fred Dibnah.

Additional Technical Site Photographs

Further photographs and documentation of the Technical Site facilities, including workshops, storage buildings, and maintenance areas that formed the backbone of RAF Burtonwood’s operations during World War II.