Cranfield Airport is a former R.A.F (Royal Air Force) base approximately 7 miles away from Bedford Town in Bedfordshire & with close proximity to Milton Keynes off the M1 motorway in Bedfordshire. It was opened on 1st June 1937 & was the base for No 62 & 84 R.A.F bomber squadrons from No1 R.A.F Bomber Group during world war 2 (WW2 1939 to 1945). It was targeted by enemy German bombers on several occasions as the airfield’s use grew, in 1941 No 51 R.A.F. Squadron Night Flight Operational Training Unit moved there!

After the war it became The College Of Aeronautics & is privately owned by Cranfield University, the people who helped develop the technology used in the famous Harrier “Jump Jet” the Hawker GR1 Harrier. They also maintain The Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight & all the wartime aircraft in its ranks. 

Cranfield is also the base for The Met Office Facility For Airborne Atmospheric Measurements & is a training base for fixed wing & helicopter pilots so it is a non civil passenger airport, the infrastructure of the wartime airfield being unable to cope with a busy airport. 

This cap badge from the Cranfield Airfield Fire & Rescue Service is in great condition. Manufactured by Mike Trueman Badges of Birmingham, the badge is a fully pressed home office star with the enamel centre secured via 2 bent over straps, both cap fixing lugs attached to the rear.

 The words “ Cranfield Fire Rescue Service “ around the red enamel ring that surrounds the emblem. 

The emblem is a jet flying past a runnway cross with a fire raging beneath it, a white owl with wings spread above the aircraft & a gilt finish to the centre, a great cap badge from the Cranfield Airport Fire & Rescue Service, a university run fire service that compete’s on equal terms with its civilian counterparts.