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This bit of nonsense appeared on Monday, March 17, 2008, in the London Underground Metro newspaper.

White lines: This mysterious pattern on the ground at RAF Feltwell in Norfolk had conspiracy enthusiasts foaming with excitement.

Any ideas what this is? An interstellar TV test card, maybe? What about a way of talking to aliens?

There has been much speculation by conspiracy theorists as to whether these squiggles at RAF Feltwell, Norfolk, are a test pattern for orbiting spy satellites.

Even the MoD was a bit perplexed when we first asked what it was.

But the answer it came back with was much more down to Earth – it's a 'motorbike range'.

The base, one of few still not shown on Ordnance Survey maps, is used by the US Air Force. An MoD spokesman said: 'We are told it is to teach motorcycle safety.'

The pattern was discovered by anti-secrecy campaigner Alan Turnbull, an internet enthusiast who runs the website www.secret-bases.co.uk. He said he got a big surprise when he spotted it on Google Earth last month, while looking for changes to locations on his website.

The motorcycle area as seen from higher up

He immediately began investigating what it was. Kate Hudson, chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said RAF Feltwell was so secret 'almost anything could go on'.

She added: 'The 12,000 US troops based in Britain are involved in all sorts of surveillance operations.

'So, something as strange as a spy satellite test image appearing in the East Anglian countryside almost comes as no surprise.'

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