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-   -   Vanished airfields (https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/640605-vanished-airfields.html)

ve3id 6th Jun 2021 02:05

We have several right inside the city of Toronto. A few years back, they were excavating for a new development beside the East York Staples/Business Depot and they discovered a huge underground fuel storage tank that was part of an airport apparently abandoned in the 1930s. "Wow, imagine if all that jet fuel had blown up" was a comment heard by a young reporter on the CBC!

Planemike 6th Jun 2021 09:06


Originally Posted by ve3id (Post 11057698)
We have several right inside the city of Toronto. A few years back, they were excavating for a new development beside the East York Staples/Business Depot and they discovered a huge underground fuel storage tank that was part of an airport apparently abandoned in the 1930s. "Wow, imagine if all that jet fuel had blown up" was a comment heard by a young reporter on the CBC!

Yep.....an even even bigger "bang", if it had been filled with 100 Octane....!!!!

Krystal n chips 6th Jun 2021 09:53

" 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."

Ironically, bits of RNAS Stretton still remain relatively intact. Also RAF Cranage, albeit there's virtually nothing left to identify it as an airfield. Not an airfield, but once a prominent Station, RAF Hednesford on Cannock Chase "remains " with the various paths and some structures visible

DHfan 6th Jun 2021 16:21

There are reputedly, or were until fairly recently at least, still concrete airship mooring blocks visible at Howden in Yorkshire and Mullion on the Lizard in Cornwall.

Pat UK 6th Jun 2021 16:33


Originally Posted by Krystal n chips (Post 11057834)
" 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."

Ironically, bits of RNAS Stretton still remain relatively intact. Also RAF Cranage, albeit there's virtually nothing left to identify it as an airfield. Not an airfield, but once a prominent Station, RAF Hednesford on Cannock Chase "remains " with the various paths and some structures visible

Alas all the Nimrods were/are Welsh, constructed at Hawarden with only the final assembly taking place at Woodford ... The BBMF Lancaster is also Welsh.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1e85e96542.jpg


pulse1 6th Jun 2021 18:03

A closed airfield near the home where I grew up and enjoyed many flights as an ATC cadet was Llandow. Quite close to St Athan it was a training base during the war and then a civillian MU and home of 614 sqdn (Vampires) Probably most known for the worst air crash in the UK at the time when a Tudor airliner crashed on landing..

Pat UK 7th Jun 2021 00:28


Originally Posted by pulse1 (Post 11058022)
A closed airfield near the home where I grew up and enjoyed many flights as an ATC cadet was Llandow. Quite close to St Athan it was a training base during the war and then a civillian MU and home of 614 sqdn (Vampires) Probably most known for the worst air crash in the UK at the time when a Tudor airliner crashed on landing..

Llandow and St Athan airfields were connected with remnants of the taxiways and dispersals between the two still visible on Google Earth

crunchynutter 16th Jun 2021 21:02

Some 40 years ago i was growing up in Radlett Hertfordshire. During the summer hols we would often walk across the fields to what we called Handley page, but was infact Radlett aerodrome. Today most of it is an industrial site and some given over to housing. The old entrance to the aerodrome is still there, now its the entrance to the industrial estate. Not been there for some years now but i recall some of the taxi ways were still visible

Equivocal 16th Jun 2021 21:20

In my youth I did a bit of controlling at Leavesden, at the time home to a Rolls-Royce helicopter engine factory, and often had to sort out Leavesden traffic with flights in and out of Hatfield. Both long gone but they leave happy memories.

crunchynutter 16th Jun 2021 21:42

Leavesden now home to Harry Potter world (good grief !!). Brother in law worked at British aerospace Hatfield now home to Ocado (other food suppliers are available)

Pypard 17th Jun 2021 03:15


Originally Posted by crunchynutter (Post 11063246)
Leavesden now home to Harry Potter world (good grief !!). Brother in law worked at British aerospace Hatfield now home to Ocado (other food suppliers are available)

How time passes: I did a course at Rolls-Royce's Small Engine Division, Leavesden and remember at least one Moth Club rally at Hatfield.

treadigraph 17th Jun 2021 07:55

Quite a lot of Hatfield was developed into the de Havilland Campus for the University of Hertfordshire by my erstwhile employers. I subsequently spent quite a lot of time correcting "De Havilland" in bids and other business development documents!

DHfan 17th Jun 2021 09:37

I was born in Watford and moved to Hertford at an age when I was still measured horizontally rather than vertically and then 6 years later we moved to Welwyn Garden City.
I'm sure it wasn't actually so frequent but it seemed like every weekend we went to Watford to visit one or the other sets of grandparents. This meant passing Hatfield, Radlett and, every other visit, Leavesden.
I clearly remember the de Havilland office building and the airfield being open and many years later I went to one of the last open days and air displays there. It didn't matter what the company name was on the building, it was and always will be de Havilland to me. From the house in Welwyn Garden City we could see aircraft coming up from Hatfield but which particular aircraft now up to 60 years later I've no idea. Most likely Tridents I imagine.
A few miles later we crossed the end of a runway at Radlett, on what was then the A405. I only actually remember seeing one aircraft coming in there, or not really seeing it as it passed directly over the roof of the car, extremely low. Dad looked at the roof of the car when we arrived and when I asked what he was doing he said checking for tyre marks.
Leavesden I don't remember seeing any aircraft movements, although my dad remembered seeing new Mosquitos being pushed out of the hangars during the war. I guess any aircraft movements in the later 50s and 60s would be helicopters so probably nearer the factory buildings - and not necessarily at weekends anyway.
Again I remember seeing the name change from de Havilland Engines, to Bristol-Siddeley Engines and then to Rolls-Royce Small Engine Division.

Equivocal 17th Jun 2021 15:14


Originally Posted by DHfan
I guess any aircraft movements in the later 50s and 60s would be helicopters so probably nearer the factory buildings

In the early 80s there was a bit of business traffic and flying training along with a small number of privately owned light aircraft. Names that come to mind are Eagle Aircraft Services, operators of a variety of King Airs at the time, and for GA, David Fairclough Aviation, Leavesden Flight Centre and Leavesden Flying School, the last growing out of the ashes of the first if my memory serves. I vaguely recall also one or two HS125s (600/700s, I think) and Learjets, but I think these may have been performance limited and always had to position out before doing anything commercial. But I may be wrong, it's a looong time ago.....

DHfan 17th Jun 2021 15:35

I think I had known there was business traffic there later but by the early 80s my grandparents were all long gone so I passed by extremely rarely if ever.
Rethinking my last post, we moved to Welwyn Garden City in October 1959 so that would predate Tridents. I've never had a great interest in civil aircraft anyway and at the age of seven my recognition skills were limited, to say the least.
Panshanger, which I'd known for a while, as well as any 3 to 4 year old could anyway, and then again in my middle teens was only a mile or two from where we lived. That has been shrinking steadily over the years, in fact my sister now lives on what was airfield land, or very close to it at least. From what I understand, what's left of it is unlikely to reopen and is earmarked for housing.

jensdad 17th Jun 2021 23:32

Hi everyone. Don't know if anyone can help me here but I remember as a child in the 1980's, possibly even late 70's, heading for a family holiday. We were driving along a main road near London - at least a dual carriageway but might have been a motorway - and seeing tails of light aircraft (possibly some twins, Navajo etc.?) peeping above the top of the roadside embankment. The embankment seemed very high but I was only little so it might not have been as big as I remember it. I've looked on google maps and can't see an airfield that close to a major road so I'm guessing it's been built on.
I vaguely recall my dad saying it was 'Watford Airport'. Although my dad did once tell me that the Wombles lived in Blaydon, so this must be taken with a pinch of salt.

DHfan 18th Jun 2021 04:11

Denham? I haven't been there since the early 60s so no idea of any current roads in the area.

treadigraph 18th Jun 2021 05:28

That's got to be Leavesden - the hangars were at the top of a steep bank above the A41. Eagle Aviation usually had several King Airs on the ramp... when I was 15 I walked from Borehamwood station to Elstree, then Leavesden and ended up at Watford station!

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mXSiE5Nr55gCfHks7

Blackfriar 18th Jun 2021 06:26

Weston-super-mare was once, before the war, home to the busiest air route in the world with DH Rapides shuttling back and forwards to Cardiff. The pubs were shut on Sundays in Wales! It became a shadow factory for Bristol with Beaufighter production, (87 a month at the peak!) then post war helicopter production, first Bristol then Westland. A volunteer gliding school also operated for many years. Now a housing estate. The runway is now the main through route called “The Runway” and the roads have aviation names, like Slingsby Rd, Glider Ave, as well as some more obscure ( to non aviation folk) Leonides Avenue, Mamba Grove, Astazou Drive, Miles Row and Nimbus Way.

BRIEFING OFFICER 18th Jun 2021 10:27

LLANDOW
 
RE LLANDOW. I was working in editorial at the western Mail when the Tudor crashed (It was a Sunday I recollect) . Took the phone call from a member of the public and went with the photog down there. We were the first 'newsies' to arrive after a mad dash.
He was coopted by the police to photo bodies for ID. I always remember that day being 16 yrs old. Not a nice sight.
After that I joined the Feet Air Arm... and after Llandow dead bodies never affected me!:)

Any way. Brawdy Naval Air Staion is still in good nick (Served there)..the runways like new ..althothe place is closed. St Davids is still thhere. Dale and Templeton.
When you think of the number of Naval airfields at the end of WW2 we had AND a decent Fleet Air Arm...and now look at what we have...
Makes you weep.


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