Base Hetel, United Kingdom

In Great Britain, there are also military facilities that can arouse interest of curious travellers. A good example of this is a military base of Hetel - the former military base of the Royal Air Force, which was actively used during the Second World War. The military base is located in the outskirts of the city of Noridge and is one of the few military facilities in the world, which after the loss of the original meaning got a second life.

Today, the military base belongs to a well-known racing cars manufacturer Lotus Cars, whose specialists use the starting grid for testing cars. The Hetel Airfield was built in 1942 in cooperation with the US Army and was used by the United States and Great Britain until the end of the war. After the war, the military base was used for educational purposes until 1948. Then the base was left. In 1964 the UK Air Force Ministry decided to sell the military complex. For a couple of years, the preserved buildings served as a home for the local residents whose houses were destroyed during the war.

In the 1950s, the Lotus Cars company was interested in the military constructions. In only a few years, the former military base was converted into a car factory, and the runways became an ideal place for testing high-speed cars. Today the military base is not as big as the original object used to be. A part of the starting field was returned to the local inhabitants and is now used as a farmland. Next - Fort Ord