When a 600-mile-an-hour bomber landed at Chelveston Air Station on Tuesday afternoon it meant that the wartime base of flying Fortress adventure is ready to make new history.

After four years of preparation on a vast scale by American Air Force and Army units, a big welcome was justified when Colonel Maynard E. White, commander of the base, brought in a Boeing B-47 stratojet bomber—first plane to land on the new two-mile runway,

Civic leaders from the neighbourhood were there as guests. The Americans had brought their families along.

The B-47, which had left Upper Heyford at 10.30 in the morning and flown around the country on a training mission, came through a 1,500-foot cloud ceiling and flew low over the airfield before shaping at the sleek, smooth runway.

As the brakes screeched a parachute billowed out from the tail of the six-engined plane and helped to slow it down. The landing lights had been put on as a kind of celebration, and signals had been given from a temporary control tower.

Followed by a huge fire tender and preceded by a "Follow Me" jeep, the plane roared slowly into position near the waiting crowd, coming to rest shortly after 2.45.