RAF Elvington airfield

aerial photograph of the former RAF Elvington airfield in Yorkshire England UK. Constructed as a grass airfield at the beginning of World War II RAF Elvington was upgraded to hard runways in 1942 and was home to 77 squadron flying Whitleys and Halifaxes.From 1944 it was operated by the free French. After the war it was used for maintenance and then from 1952 by the USAF who added the 3000m runway but abandoned the site in 1958. The airfield was used by the RAF for occasional training visits until 1992. In more recent years the airfield was were Top Gear TV presenter Richard Hammond crashed a jet powered car. Adjacent the airfield is the Yorkshire Air Museum which contains many exhibits from the airfields past.