RAF Northolt

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RAF Northolt

Station badge
Active May 1915 (as a RFC base) – Present
Country United Kingdom
Branch Royal Air Force
Role Communications flying
Based in Ruislip, England
Motto Alit Portare Aut Pugnare Prompti (Latin: Ready to Carry or to Fight)

RAF Northolt (IATA: NHT, ICAO: EGWU) is a Royal Air Force station in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in north west Greater London, England. Approximately 10 kilometres (6 miles) north of London Heathrow Airport, it also handles a large number of private civilian flights.

RAF Northolt is actually 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.

Contents

[edit] 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. On 15 September 1940 during the Battle of Britain, No. 1 Squadron RCAF, No. 229 Squadron RAF, No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron, No. 504 Squadron RAF, and part of No. 264 Squadron RAF were based at the station. All except the No. 264 Squadron portion were flying Hawker Hurricanes; 264 Squadron was operating the Boulton Paul Defiant.

After World War II, Northolt 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 French Air Force were based there in the 1950–1980 period. Today, it is an important RAF airfield and the home of No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron RAF. 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.

The body of Diana, Princess of Wales was flown into RAF Northolt several hours after her death in a Paris car crash on 31 August 1997.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Present day

RAF Northolt
IATA: NHT – ICAO: EGWU
Summary
Airport type Military
Operator Royal Air Force
Location Ruislip
Elevation AMSL 124 ft / 38 m
Coordinates 51°33′11″N 000°25′06″W / 51.55306, -0.41833
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
07/25 5,545 1,690 Grooved Asphalt

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 Cuban-style airfield. Media attention was also high when a seriously ill fugitive, Ronnie 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 25 October 1960 a Pan Am Boeing 707, heading for Heathrow, mistakenly landed at Northolt with 41 passengers on board.[1][2]

In days before such navigational aides as instrument landing system (ILS) and the global positioning system (GPS), the letters NO (for Northolt) and LH (for Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers 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.

Current units at the station include No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron RAF, No. 600 Squadron RAF (Royal Auxiliary Air Force), 621 EOD Squadron RLC (part of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment), The RLC Royal Logistics Corps BFPO main sorting office including the The Defence Courier Service (DCS), both of which relocated from Mill Hill and the Northolt Station Flight, flying three Britten-Norman Islanders (CC.2 serial number ZH536,an Islander CC.2A serial number ZF573 and a Islander CC.2B serial number ZH537(delivered on 18 April 2008)) on electronic intelligence gathering tasks - described as 'embassy and anti-terrorist surveillance'.[3]

The Headquarters of London and South East Region (L&SER) of the Air Training Corps are also located at RAF Northolt.

32 (TR) Squadron flies 6 BAe 125 CC.3 executive jets (serial numbers ZD620, ZD621, ZD703, ZD704, ZE395 and ZE396), 2 BAe 146 CC.2 4 engine VIP short range transport aircraft (serial numbers ZE700 and ZE701),[4] and 3 Augusta Westland A-109E Power helicopters (serial numbers ZR321, ZE322, and ZR323).[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pan Am 707 taking off from Northolt: http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607
  2. ^ List of 'wrong way' landings: http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html
  3. ^ www.sbg.at/gebhart-sbg/scanner/england-spez.doc, Air Forces Monthly, May 2003 and http://website.lineone.net/~landair/nowbased.htm#bn2
  4. ^ A third BAE.146 CC.2 serial number ZE702 was sold to a private operator in Indonesia in 2002
  5. ^ Aircraft and Equipment from the Station's official website

[edit] External links