RAF Bovingdon

RAF Bovingdon
Bovingdon
Characteristics
Coordinates	51 ° 43 '37 "  N , 0 ° 32' 36"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 43 '37 "  N , 0 ° 32' 36"  W.
Height above MSL	152 m (499  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	1 km northeast of Bovingdon
Basic data
operator	Royal Air Force
Start-and runway
02/20	1496 m of concrete

The Royal Air Force Station Bovingdon , RAF Bovingdon for short (sometimes also known as Hemel Hempstead ), is a former military airfield and is no longer used for aviation purposes by the British Royal Air Force near the town of Bovingdon and four kilometers southwest of the town of Hemel Hempstead in the county Hertfordshire , England .

Construction and wartime

Aerial view of RAF Bovingdon, March 1944

In 1942, Bovingdon was opened as a bomber airfield for the Royal Air Force. The main runway 02/20 was 1496 meters long, the two other runways (09/27 and 16/34) each 1312 meters. After only two months of use in June and July 1942, the Royal Air Force handed the airfield over to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in August 1942 .

In addition to training and retraining flights, the Eighth Air Force of the USAAF also deployed Boeing B-17 and Martin B-26 bombers from Bovingdon .

Post war history

In April 1947, the USAAF withdrew from the airfield and returned Bovingdon to the Royal Air Force, which in the same year again handed control over to the Department of Civil Aviation. Also due to its favorable location, only 30 kilometers northwest of London, several airlines used the airfield for maintenance (such as British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA)) or as the basis of their operations, such as British Eagle International Airlines from 1948 to 1952.

Other airlines such as Air Charter (from 1947) were founded or relocated to Bovingdon such as Air Contractors (1948 to 1949), Air Freight (1947 to 1953), British American Air Services (from 1947), British Nederland Air Services ( from 1948), Lancashire Aircraft Corporation (from 1947), Skyways (from 1952), Trans World Charter (May 1948 to December 1951) and World Air Freight (1948 to April 1950).

Bovingdon also became popular as a cargo airport, e.g. B. Air Transport Charter from Jersey, which flew vegetables from Italy and France for the needs in London as well as Blue-line Airways and the French Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI). Starting in January 1949, the Compagnie Air Transport operated a daily flight from Caen to Bovingdon, on which around five tons of this cheese were transported with freighters of the type Bristol 170 on behalf of the French Camembert Export Association . This operation was jokingly referred to as the "Camembert Airlift".

Hunting-Clan Air Transport operated a liner service to Newcastle upon Tyne as well as military charter flights to West Africa and used Bovingdon as a maintenance base until 1954.

From 1951 to 1962 the now renamed United States Air Force (USAF) used the airfield, also as a transit point for flights to the USA. The Royal Air Force stationed various types of liaison aircraft in Bovingdon in the 1960s .

closure

In 1972 the airfield was closed by the Ministry of Defense. However, activities with light aircraft took place from time to time.

Incidents

• On May 13, 1948, a Handley Page Halifax C.VIII of Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI) ( aircraft registration F-BCJX ) coming from Paris-Le Bourget airport rolled over the runway end at Bovingdon military airfield and finally got stuck in the airport fence . The three-man crew were unharmed. The aircraft registered with Société Aero Cargo was irreparably damaged.

• On October 26, 1951, an Avro Tudor 5 of the airline William Dempster (G-AKCC) came off the runway on landing at the Bovingdon military airfield and only came to rest outside the airfield. The aircraft was destroyed, none of the seven occupants was killed.

• On 6 January 1954 a lost Vickers Valetta T.3 the Royal Air Force (WJ474) four minutes after taking off from RAF station Bovingdon (Hemel Hempstead) during a snowstorm in height and collided with a tree. Of the 17 occupants, 16 were killed, all 4 crew members and 12 of the passengers.

Web links

Commons : RAF Bovingdon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ in: Control Towers: Bovingdon (English), accessed on February 17, 2019.
2. ↑ Airfield Research Group , accessed February 17, 2019.
3. ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 .
4. ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , pp. 263-265.
5. ^ Air Authority - A History of RAF Organization , accessed February 17, 2019.
6. ↑ Air-Britain Aviation World (English), December 2016, p. 159.
7. ↑ accident report Halifax F-BCJX , Aviation Safety Network WikiBase (English), accessed on 17 February of 2019.
8. ↑ Tony Merton Jones: British Independent Airline since 1946, Vol. 4 . Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS International, Liverpool & Uxbridge 1977, ISBN 0-902420-10-0 , pp. 492-493.
9. ^ Accident report Tudor 5 G-AKCC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 10, 2017.
10. ↑ accident report Valetta WJ474 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 11 2020th
11. ↑ James J. Halley: Broken Wings. Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents . Air-Britain (Historians), Tunbridge Wells, 1999, ISBN 0-85130-290-4 , p. 154.