Kindley Air Force Base, TXKF, aka Bermuda International

[connieguy]

Kindley Field, on the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, was built as a joint RAF/USAAF facility during the Second World War. Subsequently the RAF area became the civilian terminal while Kindley Air Force Base was operated by the USAF between 1948 and 1970. It was primarily a staging post between the US and Western Europe for land-based planes unable to cross the Atlantic non-stop, very like Ernest Harmon in Newfoundland and the civilian Gander, and like Harmon it closed when the jet age had made such bases redundant; however, after 1970 it became a US Navy facility primarily concerned with tracking Soviet submarines, until closure at the end of the Cold War.

For more information, see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindley_Air_Force_Base

There are photographic albums by John Hewson on Flickr here:

www.flickr.com/photos/12530375@N08/albums/72157719787376609
www.flickr.com/photos/12530375@N08/albums/72177720303180544
www.flickr.com/photos/12530375@N08/albums/72157645527510801

And film material on You Tube here:

Queen Elizabeth II visits Bermuda in 1953.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz1qcKJQBok

Amateur footage of the base in 1958
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWnRYYpxPK4

1958 Pan AM DC-7C at the civilian terminal
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_i4TzFayeY

1965 Flying Boxcars take off on Runway 30
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYwnO2YwA54

1966 Air Display by the Thunderbirds
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU9dd9GwdDw

This important airfield already has Cal Classic civilian and MATS traffic. Al Von Pingel will add further traffic files, for example on the operations of the 59th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron between 1955 and 1959, and the 53rd in 1962, both when based there being known as 'Hurricane Hunters'. The 53rd had also been stationed at Kindley in the early 1950s, but dropped the title when it moved to Burtonwood in England late in 1953, hurricanes being in rather short supply in western Europe. Dan French is at work on a civilian terminal which was perhaps surprisingly fine considering the rather limited civilian traffic, which I believe was seasonal, but may have been built with the royal visit of 1953 in mind.

These screenshots are of a work in progress. The hills immediately north of the base restricted the amount of apron space available, but will only appear if you have a decent mesh installed. This is FSGlobal 2010. Al tells me that the default mesh has no hills.

The north apron, 1955. WB-29s of the 59th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and aircraft of the Military Air Transport Service and United States Navy:

[Tom/CalClassic]

Great choice for a new airport, definitely needed.

Thanks,

[connieguy]

Work is proceeding well and there is a fine civilian terminal by Dan French in the pipeline. The following screenshots are of a landing in real world weather, which can be tricky. There was no ILS but there was a VOR aligned with the runway; and, of course, GCA if you want to use it.

Visibilty 8nm. The passing liner tells us we are more or less lined up, because as it happens we know it is going to be there; so does the VOR needle.



Decision height:



And touchdown:



The area to the north of the base contained substantial buildings and what seems to have been a wharf where oil tankers probably docked. There was also a dock for cruise ships nearby (or, at least, there is now).

[aharon]

who painted this SHINY Connie please?

Regards,

Aharon

[connieguy]

I did, Aharon, and it is available along with four others on Flightsim here;

www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=94202436

But it is this shiny because I am using it with an env.map file by Tom Knudsen which Dave McQueen recommends here:

calclassic.proboards.com/search/results?captcha_id=captcha_search&what_all=tom+knudsen&who_only_made_by=0&display_as=0&search=Search

And is available here:

flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2705/fs2004-aircraft-shine/

Apparently it works in both  FS9 and FSX, but the aircraft does need a suitably adjusted alpha channel to get the best out of it. You could convert the paint into the FSX dds texture format using DXT.bmp

You can see the same effect on the Superfortresses further up the page.

Ken

[connieguy]

Dan French's very fine civilian terminal, by day and night.

[aharon]

Connieguy,

Thanks for answer That is pretty impressive repaint you did

Regards,

Aharon

[Al]

Well, Kindley is getting very close to release. A lot of changes have happened since the last post so Ken and I thought we would post a couple more shots of how things are looking.

Dan created the MATS termal along with many period buildings from this base.



A view of the North East Ramp with one of the "Barnes" Built in WWII for maintenance work.  Now painted with in the Checkered pattern.


The civil terminal in with 1959 Traffic


Here are a few special representations you will find in the various traffic years
From John Hewsons Album is a picture of 7 or 8 visiting RAF Canberas in 1957 which looked to be part of some display going on at the time

In 1959, the 1st Day fighter squadron led by the famous Chuck Yeager flew to Moron AB in Spain from George AFB in Calf. Not sure if they stopped here for refueling or did an aerial refueling, but what heck we have them stopping by.

John's album also cought the 476th FIS from George AFB, CA heading for a tour at Moron AB as well in 1962.

In 1962 with the Cuban Missile crisis going on in Oct/Nov you will see in the 1962 traffic P3 Orion's and a couple of P2V Neptunes with VP-8 squadron on temp duty from Paxtuant River NAS


Prior to 1956 rotating refueling squadrons did short duty at Kindley. In 1956 the 303rd ARS deployed to Kindley and stayed through 1963 with their KC-97s.


Continued......

[Al]

In the 1955 traffic you will also catch some B47s making a fueling stop along with frequent visitors like the EC-121.


For those of you who have global Mesh you will hopefully see the hills that were there but unfortunately not in the default Global mesh, like I have.


Another scene you can find in John's albums


in 1960 or 61 the 53rd WRS returned to Bermuda from Burtonwood/Alconbery and relieved the 59th for further assignment. Of course they added back the Hurricane Hunters emblem now that they were back.

Ken as provided unique paints for the 53rd and 59th for all years and both aircraft types for the individual traffic years they were present. Here is the WB-29 of the 59th WRS 1955


There is lot more to see.  Most of Traffic is from CC Civil and Mats traffic files augmented with Modified Charleston and McGuire updated Traffic files to use Kindley more as we did with Burtonwood.  Two smaler traffic files handle the unique traffic and aircraft stationed at Kindley.

Thanks
Al & Ken

[Tom/CalClassic]

Looks nice, thanks.

[aharon]

very impressive history using screenshots!!

[connieguy]

Now released on Flightsim and Avsim, and Al will be uploading to Sim Outhouse. I will give links when I have them.

[Al]

Now available on simouthouse

www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=109&linkid=29602

[Tom/CalClassic]

Looks great, thanks. Boy, the civil aircraft had a long way to taxi to take off on runway 30!

[johnhinson]

Dec 2, 2022 14:56:09 GMT -5 connieguy said:

Now released on Flightsim and Avsim, and Al will be uploading to Sim Outhouse. I will give links when I have them.

I couldn't find these on AVSIM or Flightsim (I don't have access to Sim Outhouse) - could you advise the filenames please?

Many thanks, John

John