Those EC121s also operated into Blackbushe up until May 1960. The US Navy established its European base (called FASRON 200) there in 1957 and had planned to develop the airport with a 10000ft main runway and 7000ft subsidiary runway.
Then the UK government discovered that Gatwick was becoming a bit of a 'white elephant' and within a few months closed Blackbushe and shortened the runways leaving the FASRON 200 base area (with its own newly built hangarage and aprons) cut off from the rest of the airport all for the sake of getting a few of the smaller civil operators to move to Gatwick which could have left FASRON 200 operating without hindrance..
Last edited by chevvron; 22nd Jan 2023 at 18:01.