As work at Woodford Aerodrome grinds to a halt, just 25 members of staff are left clearing up before the site is closed for good.
Staff at BAE Systems have spent a huge part of their working lives building – and then dismantling – nine Nirmod MRA4 spyplanes.
They were decommissioned by the government following a Strategic Defence Review last year, resulting in the loss of more than 400 employees at the site.
For former worker Paul Dillon, watching the Nimrods being pulled apart was a sad end.
"For me after spending such a lot of happy years at the site, the last couple of months were dreadful and I wouldn’t want to go through anything like that again," said Paul, 57, who was site engineer at the aerodrome for 31 years.
"It was sad to see the closure, there were guys openly weeping. This was something they had spent years working on to put together and now they were breaking it up, nobody should have to do through that, it was a terrible time, it felt like a wake."
Paul, from Gatley, added: "The site has always been there in my lifetime and to suddenly have it gone is not just sad but another nail in the coffin of British industry."
Remaining staff, expected to finish in September, are mainly mechanics and electricians responsible for decommissioning boilers and the heating at the site.
A spokeswoman for BAE said: "This is a sad day for Woodford and BAE Systems.
"However, the company and the trade unions have worked extremely hard to mitigate the impact on jobs and we have successfully redeployed nearly 200 or the 444 employees who worked on the site."
