Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields

[visibility3miles]

Interesting website on airports in the United States.

On the following pages, you will find information on vanished or abandoned airfields & their unusual histories.


As a pilot, a particular interest of mine has always been the abandoned airfields that dot the landscape of much of this country.

Both for their potential safety value to a pilot in an emergency,

and also for their sometimes fascinating history, this particular topic has always held my curiosity.

When I'm a passenger on commercial flights,

I've always found myself looking out the window, constantly looking for airfields below.

When I fly as a pilot myself, I've always tried to land at as many airports as possible,

to learn a little about each one.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/index.htm

[gbh]

So here's a challenge:
Are there any disused (hard runway) airfields that have been totally blotted out from view, such that no trace of their existance remains?
I am always surprised how field boundary shapes, farm tracks, trees, old buildings, street names etc always seem to remain as a clue.
Can an airfield ever be 'obliterated'?

[Double Zero]

Obliterated 'field

Portsmouth - as in Airspeed, off the Eastern Rd into Portsmouth, just on the north west edge of Langstone Harbour ???

Not sure if it was grass or hard, but there are plenty of pertinent road names there, 'Airspeed Way' etc, but the largest landing strip visible is on top of PC World !

Either way a shame.

[visibility3miles]

Unfortunately, suburban sprawl is eating up small airports that used to be in the middle of nowhere. The original straight line of the runway may still be there, but now it is a street lined with houses.

[treadigraph]

I was going to suggest Hatfield which might be largely invisible now - Googlemap and Local Live don't appear to be recent, but developments on the airfield site for the University of Hertfordshire and others are fairly extensive.

However then I re-read your challenge properly and spotted the bit about names: University of Hertfordshire part is the "de Havilland Campus". Bit of a clue there!

[wet wet wet]

One example might be Bitteswell, which was a typical WW2 field with three hard runways that remained active until the 80s. The site is now Magna Park industrial estate and totally unrecognisable as a disused airfield, so much so that the CAA has renamed it as a reporting point.

[Atcham Tower]

I thought about Bitteswell too, but then remembered that its roads have aeronautical names.

[JustaFew]

If airfields can be created from 'nothing', then an airfield can just as easily be
'obliterated'.

Christchurch - was a manufacturers airfield, Fairey?, only clue now are roads
with aviation connections.

Ibsley - was dug up to access the gravel underneath.

Numerous more in the UK. Search for disused airfield on t'internet, some websites have a link through to aerial pictures of the location.

[windriver]

Sunderland is about as callous as it gets! If we ignore grass landing grounds.....

http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/av...underland.html

[Ginger Tom]

Wrexham comes to mind (OK, there was about 150m of runway left last time I flew over there; I get students to find it if they can). Burtonwood seems to have vanished, along with Hooton Park, now the Vauxhall car plant. And what was the name of the one under the approach to 23 at Teesside? Thornaby? It's a business/retail/industrial park now.
There was also one (I think pre WWII grass, but hard runways laid wartime) just to the north of York. I think it may have been called Rawcliffe. It's now a retail park, with absolutely no trace left of its former purpose. No monument that I know of; could be said that the biggest vandals are sitting on councils!

[chevvron]

Tarrant Rushton is fairly invisible, and there are many in East Anglia that are only barely discernable from the air or Google Earth pictures
Also West Malling in Kent; you wouldn't know it was an airfield once looking at the site from the air; the local council really did a number on that one!

[MReyn24050]

Whitchurch Airport Bristol

During World War II, Bristol Airport was the only civil airport still in operation in the UK, meaning all flights usually bound for London were terminated in Bristol. The newly formed British Overseas Airways Corporation were dispersed to Whitchurch from Croydon and Gatwick Airports. They operated on routes to Lisbon, Portugal and to some other neutral nations. Whitchurch continued to be used after WW2, but the introduction of heavier post-war airliners made a runway extension highly desirable. However, this was very difficult, because of the proximity of the surrounding housing estates.
Consequently, a decision was taken in 1955 to develop a new airport at Lulsgate Bottom Airfield near Redhill, from a former wartime RAF station, which had been operating in peacetime as a glider station. The new airport was called Bristol Lulsgate Airport and was opened in 1957 by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
All that is left of Whitchurch Airport is a few street names and a short length of runway.

[izod tester]

Acklington is now an open cast coal mine. The M5 just south of Gloucester runs along the main Moreton Valence runway. The hangars where, as a boy, I saw Gloster Javelins being made were demolished about 3 years ago.

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

<<<
Burtonwood seems to have vanished
>>>

Well, the M62 goes right through the middle of the old Burtonwood, but you can clearly see the remains of old taxiways, aprons and (if I recall, drove it last year) some hangars.

Is another possible candidate Hornchurch ?

[Saab Dastard]

Hasn't Hornchurch pretty well vanished?

Also Heston - although some original hangars remain. Hendon is another London airfield that has vanished - though the RAF museum is an obvious reminder.

SD

[izod tester]

I have just remembered that a thread on Aviation History and Nostalgia gave a link to a superb site that provides links to Google Earth images of just about all UK airfields, including WW1 airfields such as Rencombe. The site still exists:

http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/

Sorry, I can't remember who posted the link a couple of years ago.

[chiglet]

Stretton?
watp,iktch

[ICT_SLB]

Looks like it's also hard to remove some airfields in Canada. This is St. Eugene, Quebec - once one of the largest RAF/RCAF training fields anywhere.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...wloc=addr&om=1

But Bombardier seems to have just about obliterated Montreal's original airport, Cartierville (CYCV) see http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...wloc=addr&om=1

Although you can see the original Noordhyn (Norseman) & Canadian Vickers (Canadair) buildings along Henri Bourasa.

[gbh]

JustaFew - I believe that Ibsley still has a control tower. http://www.controltowers.co.uk/H-K/Ibsley.htm
So not yet obliterated!

[grow45]

Grangemouth in Scotland - now completely obliterated and as far as I can see no evidence in the street names.
http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/av...angemouth.html
g45