The War Office: Everyday Environments and War Logistics

Discussion article on RAF simulation facilities and the potential for new understandings of institutional sites.

Referencing the paradoxical nostalgias of high-tech computer simulations during military obsolescence processes. Visits to RAF Coltishall during the closure process revealed fascinating parallels between the actual site (which was becoming more and more shuttered and abandoned) and the virtual flight simulator site which remained pristine. The insistence of pilots on ‘flying’ from the virtual base during training was contrasted with other more obvious forms of regret on leavetaking. The “electronic false-day” (Virilio 1991: 14) represented by the pilots’ ability to cling to the enduring virtual structure became a paradoxical locus for nostalgia.