| Raf Northolt |
Article Index for Raf |
Website Links For Raf |
Information AboutRaf Northolt |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT RAF NORTHOLT | |
| royal air force stations in england | |
| northolt | |
| airports of the london region | |
| transport in hillingdon | |
| 1915 establishments | |
RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station in the London Borough Of Hillingdon , in North West Greater London , England . Approximately 10 Kilometre s (6 Mile s) north of London Heathrow Airport , it also handles a large number of civilian flights. RAF Northolt is ''not'' named after the town of Northolt , being situated in neighbouring Ruislip ; most early RAF airfields were named after the nearest railway station, in this case Northolt Junction which is now called South Ruislip . HISTORY Opened in May 1915 for aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps , it was an active base for RAF and Polish Air Force squadrons during World War II , became a significant civilian airport soon afterwards, and subsequently reverted to military use upon the opening of Heathrow. Communications aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force , the United States Air Forces In Europe , the United States Navy , and the Armée De L'Air were based there in the 1950–1980 period. Today, it is an important RAF airfield and the home of 32 (The Royal) Squadron. Since about 1980 movements of privately-owned aircraft, mainly corporate jets, have outnumbered military aircraft. When Fairey Aviation had a factory in Hayes , Hillingdon , some of the company's products – such as the Lysander Monoplane – flew first from Northolt Aerodrome. MEMORIAL A memorial to Polish airmen who lost their lives in the Second World War can be seen near the southeastern corner of the airfield; its presence is remembered by the name – " Polish War Memorial " – of the adjacent junction on Western Avenue . PRESENT DAY
The urban setting of the airfield came to prominence in August 1996 , when a Spanish Learjet 25 overran runway 25 to collide with a van heading eastward on Western Avenue; the aircraft was carrying an actress needing to reach Pinewood Studios , in Buckinghamshire . Presumably because of its proximity to Pinewood, the airfield has been used to represent several more-exotic locations in feature films, such as in the pre-title sequence of the James Bond film '' Octopussy '', in which it represented a Cuba n-style airfield. Media attention was also high when a seriously ill fugitive, Ronald Biggs , was flown here and arrested, and when the body of Diana, Princess Of Wales , was flown here from Villacoublay airfield, in Paris , France , after her death in that city. RAF Northolt is operationally constrained by its proximity to the much larger civilian airport at Heathrow. On October 25 1960, a Pan American Boeing 707 , heading for Heathrow, mistakenly landed at Northolt with 41 passengers on board.Pan Am 707 taking off from Northolt: http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607List of 'wrong way' landings: http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html In days before such navigational aides as Instrument Landing System (ILS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS), the letters ''NO'' (for Northolt) and ''HR'' (for Heathrow) were painted on two Gasometer s situated on the approach to each airfield, one at Southall for the approach into Heathrow and one at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt in an effort to prevent recurrence of such errors. After some 30 years of protracted consideration, an ILS was eventually fitted to Northolt's runway 25, and aggregate-filled safety pits were installed at each end of that runway to protect road users in the event of another Bizjet 's or military transport's failure to stop or ascend before the runway's end. Currently being extensively redeveloped under Project MoDEL , which also closes RAF Bentley Priory and RAF Uxbridge . SEE ALSO REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|