Vanished airfields
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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Vanished airfields
I've lived here in Texas for quite a while now so was aware of a few of these, but was surprised at how many airports there used to be, I found a 1967 map at a garage sale and saw quite a few listed on it like White Rock Airport that's now a car dealership, Mustang Field that's now a collection of 15 or so very nice apartment complexes, and Garland Airport (I think it was called that) which became a big box store with a huge parking lot. I read that they even used to make Spartans there
Some small airfields still hang on as well like Dallas Airpark, but you can see how 'civilization' is crowding in on them
Most surprising of all, and I forget now how I ran into this one, was Great Southwestern. It was built between Dallas and Fort Worth and had a beautiful art deco lounge area. The pictures I've seen made it look very impressive, however it only lasted a few years because they decided to build DFW in pretty much the same location, so they closed down Great Southwestern and its 18-36 runway became Amon Carter Blvd, which I believe became the access road into American Airlines headquarters. The article said you could still see a portion of the North end of the runway, just north of 183, so I checked it on Google maps and you certainly can. You just can't quite see it from the road which is why I'd driven past it so many times without really realising it was there
How many old airfields are near you? (Not just disused WWII ones)
Some small airfields still hang on as well like Dallas Airpark, but you can see how 'civilization' is crowding in on them
Most surprising of all, and I forget now how I ran into this one, was Great Southwestern. It was built between Dallas and Fort Worth and had a beautiful art deco lounge area. The pictures I've seen made it look very impressive, however it only lasted a few years because they decided to build DFW in pretty much the same location, so they closed down Great Southwestern and its 18-36 runway became Amon Carter Blvd, which I believe became the access road into American Airlines headquarters. The article said you could still see a portion of the North end of the runway, just north of 183, so I checked it on Google maps and you certainly can. You just can't quite see it from the road which is why I'd driven past it so many times without really realising it was there
How many old airfields are near you? (Not just disused WWII ones)
Gnome de PPRuNe
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I've got Croydon half a mile away and Kenley about three which is still active with gliders. There were a couple of strips at Warlingham/Hamsey Green before the war and one still hosts parascenders and paramotors - and a few years ago a Jodel I think, not sure what else it was doing as low as it was. 
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Last edited by treadigraph; 24th May 2021 at 08:08. Reason: Noddy-know-all predictive texting that knows less than me about parachuting derivatives...
Yatesbury is close by: two airfields in WW1, briefly (very) gliding and civil flying between the wars and Bristol/EFTS flying from 1936 before it became a fully-fledged RAF training base with flying elements at the outbreak of war. It doesn't have continuous history as a flying site, but microlights now fly from part of what was the eastern airfield from 1916. I doubt many sites can boast even an interrupted 105-year flying history like that.
Yatesbury is close by: two airfields in WW1, briefly (very) gliding and civil flying between the wars and Bristol/EFTS flying from 1936 before it became a fully-fledged RAF training base with flying elements at the outbreak of war. It doesn't have continuous history as a flying site, but microlights now fly from part of what was the eastern airfield from 1916. I doubt many sites can boast even an interrupted 105-year flying history like that.
(First used for powered flight 1908 and for balloons and airships before that.)
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Here's a link to a website dedicated to documentation of some 2,526 abandoned airfields in all 50 of the United States:
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields
There is probably a similar site for British and European airfields. As a matter of interest, I have a book titled: "Airfields of the EIGHTH Then and Now" documenting airfields used by the U.S.A.A.F. during WWII in the U.K.
Cheers,
Grog
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields
There is probably a similar site for British and European airfields. As a matter of interest, I have a book titled: "Airfields of the EIGHTH Then and Now" documenting airfields used by the U.S.A.A.F. during WWII in the U.K.
Cheers,
Grog
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A lot in the U.K. were used in the motorway construction as it was government owned land, see
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum...ic.php?t=20343
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum...ic.php?t=20343
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You can see the motorway down Burtonwoods runway here
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When planning my retirement, I had a plan to visit my local airfields for spotting every week.
Along comes the peace dividend, closing Coltishall, Honington, Bentwaters, Woodbridge and Wattisham.
Coltishall, and now West Raynham, are now solar farms..... they call it progress!
Along comes the peace dividend, closing Coltishall, Honington, Bentwaters, Woodbridge and Wattisham.
Coltishall, and now West Raynham, are now solar farms..... they call it progress!
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Bentwaters still has some activity.
http://warbirdsnews.com/aviation-mus...ar-museum.html
films on YouTube.
http://warbirdsnews.com/aviation-mus...ar-museum.html
films on YouTube.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Croydon does still have some flying activity in the form of RC models who have a small mown strip area for their activities. The last time it was used as an airfield was around 1987/88 when the Tiger Club staged an excellent airshow on the site, something which could not be repeated now with the transformation into a proper common, the addition of a stock area where cattle are occasionally allowed to graze and the addition of housing at the western end - not sure what was there in '88.
Rhodes Maritsa was used as a holiday charter airport until 1977 when Paradiso Diagoras Airport opened nearer the sea away from the mountains.
The airport was built in 1938 during the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese Islands as a base for the Regia Aeronautica and was called Aeroporto di Martisa.
It housed a squadron of Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 and a squadron of Fiat CR.32 biplane fighters. In 1940, during World War II, it was bombed by the British Royal Air Force but stayed under Italian control until the Dodecanese Campaign, when it fell under German control until the liberation of the Islands.
After the war, it became the main airport for the island until 1977, when the new Rhodes International Airport was opened.
You can still see it today when flying in on approach to RHO so not quite vanished.
The airport was built in 1938 during the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese Islands as a base for the Regia Aeronautica and was called Aeroporto di Martisa.
It housed a squadron of Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 and a squadron of Fiat CR.32 biplane fighters. In 1940, during World War II, it was bombed by the British Royal Air Force but stayed under Italian control until the Dodecanese Campaign, when it fell under German control until the liberation of the Islands.
After the war, it became the main airport for the island until 1977, when the new Rhodes International Airport was opened.
You can still see it today when flying in on approach to RHO so not quite vanished.
Lots of WW2 airfields in the UK had temporary existence for obvious reasons - in the New Forest there are 3 I can think of: RAFs Beaulieu, Ibsley and Holmsley South.
Last weekend on Sunday I drove through what was RAF West Malling, past the former RAF Detling and the former RNAS/RAF Eastchurch (the site of the first flight by a British pilot in Britain, effective birthplace of the Royal Naval Air Service and thus spirtual home of the Fleet Air Arm); on Monday past or close to the fomer RNAS/RAF Ford, RAF Tangmere, RAF Thorney Island and Portsmouth Airport. Except for Detling and Eastchurch all were still active airfields within my lifetime. The former RNAS/RAF Worthy Down isn't far from where I am typing; RAF/RNAS Gosport disappeared long ago but I keep my fingers crossed that Lee-on-Solent has a future. Thankfully the Lasham Gliding Society bought the Lasham freehold from the MoD in 2001 so that is secure for the foreseable future.
The airfield I first flew from, Woodford the home of the Lancaster, Vulcan and Nimrod, is rapidly disappearing under a housing development. All in all a somewhat depressing subject.
https://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/ this site may not look much at first glance but it is a mine of information of things aviation in my adopted county. Seems to cover every patch of ground ever used for aviation related activity.
rog747, I believe LGRD is still an active airfield; the HAF has a presence but I 'm not sure if it still has any aircraft there. (There were a Super Puma and Chinook not too long ago).
Last weekend on Sunday I drove through what was RAF West Malling, past the former RAF Detling and the former RNAS/RAF Eastchurch (the site of the first flight by a British pilot in Britain, effective birthplace of the Royal Naval Air Service and thus spirtual home of the Fleet Air Arm); on Monday past or close to the fomer RNAS/RAF Ford, RAF Tangmere, RAF Thorney Island and Portsmouth Airport. Except for Detling and Eastchurch all were still active airfields within my lifetime. The former RNAS/RAF Worthy Down isn't far from where I am typing; RAF/RNAS Gosport disappeared long ago but I keep my fingers crossed that Lee-on-Solent has a future. Thankfully the Lasham Gliding Society bought the Lasham freehold from the MoD in 2001 so that is secure for the foreseable future.
The airfield I first flew from, Woodford the home of the Lancaster, Vulcan and Nimrod, is rapidly disappearing under a housing development. All in all a somewhat depressing subject.
https://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/ this site may not look much at first glance but it is a mine of information of things aviation in my adopted county. Seems to cover every patch of ground ever used for aviation related activity.
rog747, I believe LGRD is still an active airfield; the HAF has a presence but I 'm not sure if it still has any aircraft there. (There were a Super Puma and Chinook not too long ago).
Stoney Cross (probably the most extensive one) , small landing ground at Ashley Walk bombing range, ALG at Lymington.
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Croydon does still have some flying activity in the form of RC models who have a small mown strip area for their activities. The last time it was used as an airfield was around 1987/88 when the Tiger Club staged an excellent airshow on the site, something which could not be repeated now with the transformation into a proper common, the addition of a stock area where cattle are occasionally allowed to graze and the addition of housing at the western end - not sure what was there in '88.
As well as the radio flying at the former Croydon Airport there is also a paved control-line circle which is used by the British F2A CL World Championships speed team for practice; around 300km/hr from a 2.5 c.c. engine running at 36,000 rpm. In the 1950s the airport was the scene of Buster's conversion onto Tiger Moths after a flying scholarship at Redhill with Magisters. I still have the helmet, complete with Gosport tubes. Happy days.
Chattis Hill Gallops and High Post
CHG is situated west of Stockbridge (on the A30) and became a Spitfire assembly and flight field (hangar bases still in woods)after the Southampton factories were blitzed. When I used to drive past in the 60's enroute to the west the road leading to the field was called Love Lane, but many years later was altered to Spitfire lane. High Post was a private club field north of Salisbury (not that far from Boscombe Down). Spitfire testing was transferred there from Worthy Down and utilised the original small club hangar (still there). Supermarines early jet prototypes also flew from there (grass airfield). The unlikely setting of Newlyn Harbour was next to a WW1 seaplane base (as was Tresco on the IOS).
The airship hangar bases at Mullion are still visible as are several blister hangars sitting in a 'sea' of crops in many places.
The airship hangar bases at Mullion are still visible as are several blister hangars sitting in a 'sea' of crops in many places.