Hurn Airport (or Bournemouth if you insist)

[airsmiles]

Does anyone have any photos, plans, stories or interesting information about Hurn Airport? There's never been a comprehensive and properly detailed history book written about 'my local' and I wonder if there's any support out there for such a venture. There's been a couple of very good smaller publications, but nothing of "the full monty" type. All copyright etc. would be preserved/credited or whatever. I know a few people who could contribute but you really need a proper groundswell to make it work.

Anyone interested in contributing to such a venture?

On a point of personal interest, does anyone know when runway 13/31 closed?

Thanks
airsmiles

[paulc]

Have you tried contacting the Air Britain bournemouth branch - a chap (Mike) that goes there has written a book about the airport

[airsmiles]

Mike Phipp wrote a good book and I was hoping to approach him amongst others. I was hoping there might be some 'new' material to use for a new project.


Thanks
airsmiles

[KeMac]

Mike wrote a very good book on the subject and he followed it up with another one called I think Bournemouth's airports as opposed to Bournemouth airport. I felt the first book would have been a better read if it had been expanded to cover the early days of aviation in the Bournemouth area (eg the death of Frederick Royce of Rolls Royce fame in a flying accident in July 1910).
Good luck with your project and especially good luck when it comes to trying to get photographs to use without having to pay through the nose for the privilege. One place to start I reckon would be the local newspaper archives along with the local libraries.

[Sir George Cayley]

I have a photo of the cash point machine before they demolished the old terminal:ok:


Sir George Cayley

[merlinxx]

So it was you :* I thought it was that bloke from Genavco at S'oton:E

[airsmiles]

"I have a photo of the cash point machine before they demolished the old terminal"

WOW - that's it, I have enough to get started now :)


Seriously, I was just trying to see if there was any interest out there for such a project. Personally, although I lived 3 miles from the 08 threshold I have very little knowledge of the airport prior to the mid-1970's. When you think of the wartime and Vickers/BAC history amongst other things I would have thought more would have been published.

I'll see where we go with it.

Thanks
airsmiles

[KeMac]

Airsmiles - The thing is that if you are going to say prepare a book on the subject for possible publication, you will be asked what is the book's unique selling point. Considering that the subject has been covered by Mike Phipp, you would need to offer something that is different to his book/books or perhaps a far more detailed study of the Hurn than that covered by his book.
For example I have just had a book published on the History of Glasgow Airport and I was asked the above question as the subject had already been well covered by Dugald Cameron's excellent book published in the early 90s. So I tried to give a more comrehensive coverage of the RNAS side and concentrate on the later history of Abbotsinch.
In any event if you are passionate enough about the subject - go for it.

[ICT_SLB]

Airsmiles,
I can't help thinking your project has been largely published before as "Wings Over Dorset" by Leslie Dawson (Dorset Publishing Company,1985, ISBN 0948699 10 8). I appreciate there might be something to add about the period from 1985 onwards but compared to the loss of the BAe & Flight Refuelling's Fleet Requirements Unit I doubt it - unless you want to cover all the studies that put Hurn as London's Third Airport (at least pre-Stanstead or LCY). Of course I left in 1980 so....

[Krakatoa]

KeMac

Ref. your book History of Glasgow Airport, could you give me details
where to obtain a copy.

[KeMac]

Krakatoa

I am Delighted to, it is

Glasgow's Airports: Renfrew and Abbotsinch which has just been published with 200 photos (32 colour) by the History Press and it can be bought on AMAZON although they have spent my name wrong! (Keith McCloskey). It is going to be reviewed in one of the Aviation History mags next month.
Cheers
Keith

[Groundloop]

Glasgow's Airports: Renfrew and Abbotsinch which has just been published with 200 photos (32 colour) by the History Press and it can be bought on AMAZON although they have spent my name wrong! (Keith McCloskey). It is going to be reviewed in one of the Aviation History mags next month.
Cheers
Keith

Here's a review now! Very good book, well worth the money. Brought back lots of memories.

However, I did notice one little mistake on a picture caption. One caption refers to a Lufthansa 737 tail visible over the terminal - it's a 707. :ok:

[Krakatoa]

KeMac
Many thanks for the info re. your book

[Amos Keeto]

A book about Bournemouth Airport is an excellent idea that I could readily contribute photos to. The activities at the airport have been so diverse and interesting with the Vickers factory producing Viscounts, then BAC One-Elevens, the Fleet Air Arm Fleet Requirements Unit with Sea Furies, Sea Hawks, Scimitars and Meteors (I flew in one!), Airwork Services handling many interesting aircraft all on one side, whilst the airport operations have seen British United Bristol Superfreighters through to Channel Express's operations. I have colour slides of all these aircraft there taken from the early '60s to date.

[UZZY]

:ok: The book you want is, (well written) by Mike Phipps, Bournemouth;{A History of } ISBN.978-0752439235 available from Amazon @ £15.29 or from W H Smith branches in the Bournemouth area.

Happy reading !

[KeMac]

Sorry for the thread drift Airsmiles

Thanks for your kind words Groundloop and the error was noticed but the publisher didn't correct it. What gives it away is the picture on page 81 - it is the same aircraft (D-ABUJ) landing and the date is the same.

Note to airsmiles - if you go ahead with your Bournemouth book make sure you get at least one person to proof read it! :p

[airsmiles]

Many thanks for the various comments and advice. I'm familiar with all of the published material but there are still gaps to my mind. Things for me to think about are:-

- changes to the runway/taxy way layouts
- new hangars and who used them over the years
- there's still a lot of Vickers/BAC material that hasn't emerged, especially re; the Varsity and Viscount.
- I've seen precious little on the BOAC development unit
- I've seen nothing on the CAA flying unit that used to fly around for the benefit of the College of ATC
- There must be stories and anecdotes out there with ex-workers, locals etc.

and most critically the photos.

It would be a labour of love, not a profit-making venturem, so yes I do hope to scrounge a few photos from fellow minded enthusiasts!

Amos Keeto: We must meet up sometime and have the first consultative meeting at a suitable pub! What was/is your connection with Hurn?

airsmiles

[Amos Keeto]

No 'connection' with Hurn at all. In the '60s I had a friend that lived nearby and I stayed with him during the summer months. We used to cycle to the airport and during lunch time the 'security gates' on the industrial side were permanently open for workers to come and go, so we often just rode in, logged everything, took photos and cycled out before the gates came down again...happy days!

[Opssys]

From hazy memory, wasn't Hurn equippped with HTP facilities for the SR 53 Trials, or has my brain finally gone?

[CWO Geoff]

Hi there,
I did my Air Traffic Control Assistant's course at Hurn in April 1962. From there I was posted to Heathrow and managed to get a posting back to Hurn in early 1963. I worked in Hurn ATC in '63 and transferred to the ATCEU/School of ATC in late '63. Did quite a few flights as a Safety Pilot in the MoA Doves and took many B&W photos of visiting aircraft at Hurn. Was on duty the day that the BAC-111 (G-ASHG) crashed in Wiltshire.

Applied for and was selected to emigrate to Australia by the Australian Dept. of Civil Aviation in Feb '65 and eventually joined the RAAF as an Air Traffic Control Officer 1966-2002. Have fond memories of Hurn days. Lived in Christchurch and belonged to 606 (BCHS) Sqn ATC and then 171 (Christchurch) Sqn Air Training Corps and finally with 2330 (Homefield School) squadron ATC - did my ATC Gliding and PPL training at Christchurch.

Does anyone remember Laurie Earle whose wife (Carol) ran the original restaurant at the Airport? Anyone around from the Hurn ATC 1963, or the School/ATCEU in '64, or anyone who was in any of those three ATC squadrons in the '50s? Still live in Australia but most willing to correspond with anyone from my days at Christchurch and Hurn (email: gjksau at yahoo.com.au ).

[A30yoyo]

Does the 'Bournemouth Airports' book by Mike Phipps contain much on the use of Hurn from 1944-1946 when it was the London/southern UK civil airport for long-range services?

[pulse1]

Inclusion of a paragraph on the activities of the FRU before Flight Refuelling took over would be good. There must be some interesting stories from those days when, I believe, Airworks had the contract. I started to fly there in the late 60's and can remember sharing the circuit with Scimitars, Canberras and Hunters. I seem to remember a Scimitar crashed on the IOW. I well remember a Canberra only just clearing the fence taking off on a hot evening from 26 , which was somewhat shorter in those days.

Funnily enough, light aircraft used to start their take off from D1 in the days when 26 was shorter. Wouldn't dream of doing it now, even with a longer runway.

[betterfromabove]

Kemac - it was Charles Rolls who died at the airshow in Bournemouth in 1910.

Mr Royce continued until 1933.

[betterfromabove]

Was a local spotter/photographer at Hurn as a teenager in 80's/90's. Have a good selection of photos if interested.

Airport has transformed almost out of recognition. The new terminal and its shoddy trashing of the preceding building are a horror compared to the lovely terminal we had back in the late 80's, which had nearly as many (more?) people in passing trade than passengers at times. Was great place to hang out for hours.

Dumping the aviation museum out in the fields in front of the mansion on the south side also makes the whole place look very tatty....and now I hear we have pax trawling their suitcases through the mud beside the slip-road to avoid the parking charges.

Now wearing my piloting hat, what was once a wonderful place to visit as a GA visitor (nice terminal or the fantastic flying club restaurant) is £60 odd quid to taxy off to a remote portacabin near the fire dump (for a few hours only, else it costs even more....), then a min £15-20 cab to get anywhere else on the known planet.

[Proplinerman]

"Airport has transformed almost out of recognition. The new terminal and its shoddy trashing of the preceding building are a horror compared to the lovely terminal we had back in the late 80's, which had nearly as many (more?) people in passing trade than passengers at times. Was great place to hang out for hours.

Dumping the aviation museum out in the fields in front of the mansion on the south side also makes the whole place look very tatty....and now I hear we have pax trawling their suitcases through the mud beside the slip-road to avoid the parking charges.

Now wearing my piloting hat, what was once a wonderful place to visit as a GA visitor (nice terminal or the fantastic flying club restaurant) is £60 odd quid to taxy off to a remote portacabin near the fire dump (for a few hours only, else it costs even more....), then a min £15-20 cab to get anywhere else on the known planet."

When I read this, I thought, "The airport must now be owned by M/C Airports Group" and a quick Google confirmed this. So no surprises seeing the above, tho for all their faults, MAG do treat the spotters at M/C very well (if you can afford the outrageous parking charges at the viewing area).

Anyway..........getting back to Hurn, I spent two or three very enjoyable days spotting there exactly forty years ago and I took a small no of photos. One is on Flickr and is of a BEA Viscount taxiing out for take off (sorry, not good quality, due to the crappy Kodak Instamatic with which I took it, but that was all I could afford back then, aged 15):

ScanImage 3e | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/48975048@N06/5672335420/)

I recall that, to take it, I walked some considerable way from the terminal, to where there was no fence and took the photo close up-and Kodak Instamatics definitely did not have zoom lenses! I bet security has changed hugely since those-relatively-more relaxed days (there'd been a lot of terrorism by 1973 and airports were gradually beefing up their security in response to that).

The others, if you're interested airsmiles, comprise distant views of an Intra Dak and a BAF Carvair, plus close up shot of a Cessna, G-AZLD, with G-AXIS (can't ID type) in the background. Again however, taken on the Instamatic, so not brilliant quality (especially the shots of the Carvair and the Dak). However, the photo of G-AZLD could be made pretty decent (with say an hour's work in Photoshop removing the dozens of scratches put on it by Boots's very careless photoprocessing back then.......)

Send me a PM if necessary.

[CWO Geoff]

The book by Mike Phipps is a good read and is very useful in that it includes other adjacent airfields like Christchurch.


"Wings Over Dorset" by Leslie Dawson (Dorset Publishing Company,1985, ISBN 0948699 10 8) is an interesting read even if contains a few errors pertaining to the Christchurch airfield chapter.


Another interesting soft cover book on WW II airfields in this area (SW Hampshire) is "Twelve Airfields" by Alan Brown printed in about 1995 by Eon Graphics, Highcliffe. It covers the following airfields - East Boldre, Holmsley South, Stoney Cross, Bisterne, Lymington, Needs Oar Point, Beaulieu, Calshot, Christchurch, Ibsley, Hurn, and Winkton.


If anyone wants some old B&W photos of Hurn and Christchurch aircraft, potter on over to http://www.abpic.co.uk/results.php?q=Kingman-Sugars&fields=all&sort=latest&page=50&limit=50

[bgl]

I have a photo taken between 1964 and 1966 of all the cadets in 2330 Homefield School Squadron if anyone would like it.

[FinePitch]

Gents, plenty of interesting things in Hurn's (Bournemouth's) recent history, and I'm sure someone somewhere would have some good photos.

The Reds and BBMF Lancaster etc are regular visitors and it's the local base for the annual Bournemouth airshow.
Cobham's Falcon 20 EW and target towing operations still call Hurn home.
The RAF's last PR Canberras were maintained there until retirement.
When Steve Fossett did his nonstop round the world flight on the GlobalFlyer in 2005 he had problems on descent in to England and landed at Hurn, where Flight Refuelling helped him out and received a very nice thank you letter in response.
The RAF's new Voyager A330 MRTT tankers were fitted with their hose and drogue refuelling systems there.
The museum there still houses the first prototype of the Miles Leopard, possibly the world's first personal Very Light Jet.
The paint and mechanical shops there still get some interesting visitors. I remember standing in the car park only a few years ago watching a Hawker Hunter doing circuits and thinking, only in England...
Lived in the area for a while and I'm sure the very friendly people at the air museum would know people who would know people.

[Wander00]

Walked into the museum just before it moved and bumped into OC Standards from Valley 1966 who was a senior volunteer with the Museum

[Nostalgia19]

Good evening, I have only just been able to access this site as I have been seriously ill for a long time. However, I was intrigued as my late grandfather, my late uncle & my elderly uncle all worked at Hurn airport. My late uncle died of an accident many years ago, when there was no H & S in force & he had just returned from his first foreign holiday & was called in to acess an emergency with the engine of a plane & fell off the wing to his death some 60ft. He was so well thought of that at his memorium service in Christchurch there was over 60 wreaths in dedication to his memory. he had also previously been in action in the Navy. My grandfather (uncle's father) also worked at Hurn & my present Uncle who is still alive, but much younger than his other siblings was an engineer. I am about to have some treatment,but when I return I hope to be able to give more information & some old photos, which some may find interesting -at the moment the pics are in the loft stored,so its a matter of getting someone to root around for them-I know that I have some great old photos of Hurn going back to the early 1900's, if anyone is interested. Kind regards, Nostalgia19

[CWO Geoff]

<<I have a photo taken between 1964 and 1966 of all the cadets in 2330 Homefield School Squadron if anyone would like it. >> Do you have any connection to 2330 Sqn?
Yes please. I was a founding member of 2330 Sqn even though I wasn't a member of the school. I have a couple of photos from those days - a visit to Calshot being one.
Please send to gjksau @ yahoo dot com dot au
Regards,
GJKS