An ordinary day at RAF Coningsby airbase, UK’s main Eurofighter Typhoon base

RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, England is the home base of several Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon units: 3 Squadron, 11 Squadron, 17 Squadron (Operational Evaluation Unit) and 29 Squadron (Operational Conversion Unit).

The Aviationist’s contributor Alessandro Fucito spent a day there in September and took the following interesting pictures of an ordinary day at the UK’s main Typhoon base.

Image credit: Alessandro Fucito

RAF Coningsby QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) and its armed Typhoons are often called into action to perform air policing and security purposes. On Apr. 12, 2012, two Typhoons were scrambled when a helicopter pilot accidently entered the 7500 squawk code, telling the Air Traffic Control units the aircraft had been hijacked.

The fighter jets accelerated through Mach 1.2 to intercept the allegedly hijacked chopper and the sonic boom was heard by thousands of people across the UK and even the British Geological Survery was contacted to see if the island had been struck by an earthquake.

RAF Typhoons both operating from their homebases (Coningsby and Leuchars) and temporarily deployed at RAF Northolt, enforced the No-Fly Zone established over London to protect the Olympic Games.

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.