the Oxford Canal. RAF Upper Heyford About east of the village is the former RAF Upper Heyford airfield. The RAF used the airfield from the 1920s as a bomber station, then in the 1950s assigned to the USAF. Since its closure in 1994 the airfield has been converted into a substantial industrial and commercial estate. The runway, once the second longest in Europe, is used to store new cars awaiting delivery to dealers. Numerous Cold War relics remain including disused bunkers, water towers, huts and fences. Many of the buildings are now let out as industrial units. An estate of several hundred former MoD houses immediately south of the airfield is being redeveloped as an estate of 700 new homes called Heyford Park. Air crashes From time to time there were air crashes associated with the air base. Two serious air crashes that happened in Upper Heyford parish were in 1954 and 1992. In May 1954 a Boeing B-47 Stratojet of the 22nd Bombardment Group crashed in a field about northwest of the Oxford – Banbury railway line and burst into flames. The aircraft was not carrying bombs, but rounds from its two .50-calibre M2 Browning machine guns exploded in the fire and continued to do so for several hours. On 17 September 1992 a General Dynamics F-111E of the 55th Fighter Squadron suffered an hydraulic failure on a routine training flight. A controller on the ground at the air base told the two crew to eject. But pilot Jerry Lindh and navigator/weapons systems officer David "Mike" McGuire feared the aircraft could hit either Upper Heyford village or its neighbour North Aston, so they chose to remain with their aircraft to try to control its descent. A customer of the Three Horse Shoes pub who saw the crash reported "The jet was making a horrible sputtering noise and looked to barely be in control. I can only describe it as a wobbly wing-flapping with the wing tips alternatively going +/- 25-30 degrees with the right wing dipping furthest." The aircraft was on approach to the airfield's main runway but skimmed Somerton Road, struck the tops of a set of pole-mounted landing lights, ploughed through a hedge, crashed onto the runway and exploded. The landlord of the Barley Mow pub in Somerton Road said "The pub shook and I looked out and saw the aircraft skating across the road in two