In 1963 students from Cranfield Aeronautics College decided to wheel their Corsair down from the college to the local village pub under the cover of night.

 This naturally caused a buzz of amusement in the village and the college sent out to retrieve the bird with a tractor. This aircraft is KD431, the only surviving Fleet Air Arm Corsair of around 2,000 delivered. It survived the chopping block whilst waiting for scrapping in 1946 when Cranfield requested a modern aircraft with hydraulic wing-fold as a learning aid for it's students.

The present day Cranfield University evolved from the original establishment of RAF Cranfield in 1937. This led to the founding of the College of Aeronautics on the site in 1946 and granted university status as the Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1969, becoming Cranfield University in 1993.

In 1984 the MOD selected Cranfield University to be the provider of degree-level education at the Royal Military College of Science (now absorbed into the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom)

https://cranfield.shorthandstories.com/cranfield-defence-aeronautics-and-space/index.html

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=395707782970070&set=a.187788823761968