Hatfield Airport

[pabely]

Talking to a friend the other day we talked about how he worked at Hatfield Airport just when the VVIP traffic was building up very nicely and actually pulling business from Luton & Heathrow. I remember Luton ATC handled the arriving aircraft vectering.
Then BAe chopped the whole airport, can give me links to history references. Google goes not appear to be my friend.

Just think, we could have had a Farnborough in Herts!?!

[Evanelpus]

History and skills means squat, aggregate is king! Once that was exhausted, housing and development became king.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Google "Hatfield Airfield" or "Hatfield Aerodrome". It closed in early 90s.

[pabely]

Thanks Heathrow Director but it does not bring up much. Lots of stuff about the Trident & Comet but was looking for infor about the early 90s before closure.

[JW411]

I have to say that the runway at Hatfield was pretty rough (concrete blocks that didn't fit together too well). I remember speaking to an American VIP 727 captain in the GA centre one night. After a decent landing he swore that every glass in the cocktail cabinet had shattered during the landing run and that he would not be coming back to Hatfield ever again!

[spekesoftly]

Hatfield Runway (http://www.hatfield-herts.co.uk/aviation/runway.html)

[Planemike]

Several references to the closure of Hatfield in the deH Moth Club's magazine "The Moth".

Planemike

PS pabely, please let me know if you would like copies. PM your postal address.

[jumpseater]

History and skills means squat, aggregate is king! Once that was exhausted

Hatfield was never dug up for aggregates. It was 'concreted over' with new housing and business parks. Radlett on the other hand, did go to aggregate production. In traffic terms it wasn't attracting enough away from the other airports to make money. The early 90's recession effectively killed it as did UK S.E. property prices and the requirement for housing space within the 'green belt'.

Also BAe weren't interested in paying Luton IIRC for ATC services in getting stuff in and out through controlled airspace. Luton did a lot of the co-ordination for their traffic in and out of controlled airspace. The relative proximity of Heathrow, Northolt, Luton, the Bovingdon arrival stack and Stansted all played their part in making it a concern for a viable future in terms of managing air traffic.

[compton3bravo]

Also parts of the site were turned into Hatfield Film Studios with the TV series Band of Brothers being made there. Remember passing by and seeing rather a lot of ''buildings'' resembling a French town and also fibreglass DC-3s and cows lying about near the perimeter fence!

[Mike Echo]

Wasn't some of the film "Saving Private Ryan" filmed there as well?

The rough runway was used many times as an excuse for my less than perfect landings in the Dynamics PA28 :O:O

M.E.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Looks like Woodford will go the same way. We currently have there a superb runway, with tower, hangars, ILS etc surpus to BAe requirements. What's the odds than in a few years it will all be gone?

[SpringHeeledJack]

As much as I abhor waste and would love for some type of practical use of Woodford, in reality what use could it be legally put to in aviation terms ? I'd imagine that the newer arrivals into the area would be expressing their nimby-ism if any aircraft started flying again low over their homes.



SHJ

[Evanelpus]

If the site is worth more for development etc you can forget any thought of previous heritage or usefulness as an airfield.

It's all down to hard cash I'm afraid.

[10002level]

JW411,

Was the Robert Holmes a Court's 727, or the One belonging to Nelson Peltz? Both were frequent visitors in the early 1990's. Though I wasn't flying from Hatfield, I heard from several people that the runway was very bumpy.

[Warmtoast]

I liked Hatfield in the 1930s as here - c/w swimming pool!

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Image1a.jpg

Photo was on the occasion of first display to be held by the Royal Air Force Reserve Flying Club.

[alexis_lambert]

Hatfield Aerodrome by Phillip Birtles is what you want.

[Allan Lupton]

Quote:
Hatfield Aerodrome by Phillip Birtles is what you want.

Published 1993, ISBN 0 9521613 0 3

[millerscourt]

Did some circuits in a HS125 at Hatfield with Trevor Copleston for rating purposes. He of Katanga/Algeria fame.

Also flew there with Cats Eye Cunningham from time to time demonstrating HS125-600.

[chevvron]

pabely: are you sure about Luton handling Hatfield arrivals? I seem to recall Hatfield had a 50cm radar of their own, either an S232 or an S264 (both Marconi) so surely they would have done their own thing. Not sure of the exact date that Luton Approach moved to West Drayton but that too must have been early 90s.

[spekesoftly]

Hatfield certainly had its own radar for many years, although I can't recall the types. I visited Hatfield's approach radar room in the mid-1980s not long after it had been refurbished, and by then I think they were using a radar feed from West Drayton. Perhaps Luton also did some initial vectoring of Hatfield inbounds that routed from that direction?

[Level bust]

Luton did indeed handle the Hatfield arrivals, as I did it for many years. Depending on workload and the Hatfield Approach controller we either did the initial vectoring and then handed it over to Hatfield or we put them on the ILS and transferred them straight to Hatfield Tower. We also dealt with their departures as well.

By the time Luton Approach moved to West Drayton, in Feb 2000 if my memory serves me right, Hatfield was closed.