Header photo from TRADA

Langley Airfield was built on Parlaunt Farm in 1938 for Hawker Aircraft Ltd. A factory was built on the site to produce Hawker aircraft. The main runway was a grass strip 05/23 and 1,289yds (as of 1951) long, possibly reduced from 1,400yds. Two other grass runaways 10/28 of 1,100yds long and 17/35 of 984yds and the three runways were quite wide at around 197yds.

Second World War

During the Second World War, the airfield retained a Hurricane for its self-defence, it thankfully was never needed. Another defensive measure was the installation of a series of drums around the perimeter. If it was felt that an air raid was imminent, the contents of the drums would be burned and the resultant smoke would cover and hide the airfield.

It was a great idea except that more often than not the smoke cloud would drift away from the airfield and cover pretty much the whole of Slough in smoke creating all sorts of chaos. Considering the importance of the airfield for development and manufacture of Hawker aircraft and other military use, the airfield survived the war relatively unscathed. Here’s a memory from a reader:

‘My father William Tyrie worked at the airfield during the early part of the war before being called up. He told me that the factory was hit by a bomb, which went through the roof and hit a purlin or longitudinal member in the roof frame, the casing split open and did not explode. He and others spent time sweeping up the explosive powder for disposal.

Similarly he spoke of the airfield being bombed and having to measure the distance between the craters for others to estimate the height and speed of the bombers. Similarly, and it may have been the same occasion, he told me about the line of craters heading from the airfield towards where we were living in at 103 Meadfield Road, where by an act of god, the spacing of the craters indicated that a bomb should have hit our house, but did not. The line of craters continued beyond where we were living.

I also have a cousin who lived on the opposite side of the road at 142 Meadfield Road, backing onto the airfield where one of the tanks containing fuel to create smoke was situated and she remembers the pall of smoke it generated when the sirens sounded.’

Charles Tyrie

Significant first flights

Tornado            PS219       6 October 1939

Typhoon           PS212       24 February 1940

Tempest V        HM595      2 September 1942

Fury F.2/43       NX798       1 September 1944

RAF Film Production Unit (RAFFPU)

The RAF Film Production Unit was formed in 1941 and mainly headquartered at Pinewood Studios. The unit produced films to document the RAF’s work in the air and on the ground as well as to produce propaganda films during the Second World War. It had a number of aircraft of various types based at RAF Benson and RAF Langley including Bristol Beaufort, Avro Anson, Lockheed Hudson, Douglas Havoc and Auster aircraft. One source of my research suggests that Langley had at least four Havocs based there.

An example of a Douglas Havoc. This is a bomber version from a different unit. The aircraft types used by the RAFFPU would no doubt have been adapted from machines no longer required for ‘front line’ service.

Among the personnel with RAFFPU was Richard Attenborough who served under the command of Flight Lieutenant John Boulting (of the Boulting Brothers). Qualifying as sergeant, Attenborough flew a number of missions over Europe in the rear gunner’s position of various aircraft filming the outcome of Bomber Command sorties.

John Boulting joined the RAFFPU and became a flight lieutenant. Among other projects he worked on was the dramatised documentary movie Journey Together (1945) which followed the training and careers of two bomber crew. The film starred Richard Attenborough and was written by Boulting and Terence Rattigan. It was directed and produced by Boulting.

Filming by the RAFFPU ended in 1945 and the unit was stood down at RAF Stanmore Park in March 1947. It then became the Film Production Unit Library.

Personnel from the unit were sometimes present on raids, notably Operation Jericho, a raid on Amiens prison which was an attempt to free members of the French Resistance who were under threat of imminent execution. Personnel on this raid may not have been from Langley.

General Aircraft Hamilcar X

The Hamilcar X had a range of 1,675 miles and a maximum speed under its own power of 145mph.

The General Aircraft Hamilcar Mk X was constructed at Langley Airfield. It was a propeller-powered version of the Hamilcar I assault glider that was used during the Normandy landings by the Allied forces in World War Two. The engines were added so as to extend the range of the glider. It was thought that this might prove effective especially for use on Japanese occupied islands in the Pacific War. However, the war against Japan ended before the Hamilcar was needed.

A non-powered Hamilcar unloading a Locust tank

The Hamilcar had been designed to transport a single light tank, typically a Tetrarch or later a M22 Locust, or two Universal Carriers, commonly known as Bren Carriers, or one Universal Carrier and an anti-tank gun. Because of the lack of space, tank crews would travel to the destination in their vehicles as boarding them in flight was virtually impossible.

A display of a Locust tank emerging from the hold of a Hamilcar.

Many thanks to Dave Scott for additional information and photographs on this article.

Post-War

Airwork Limited

British South American Airways

State-owned airline British South American Airways (BSAA) was formed in January 1944 flying operations out of the new Heathrow Airport. Post-war the company used Langley Airfield by as a maintenance base.

The BSAA fleet included: ten Avro Lancastrian and six Avro Tudor for passengers; four converted Lancaster and seven Avro Tudor for freight; two Airspeed Consul and one Airspeed Oxford for navigation and radio training; and an Avro 19 and a Percival Proctor for company transport.

Silver City Airways

Silver City Airways was a private British civil airline established in November 1946 at Langley Airfield. The first aircraft types were four ex-military Douglas Dakotas and three Avro Lancastrians. The airline’s first commercial flight was by Lancastrian G-AHBW which took off in late 1946 from Heathrow Airport for Sydney via Johannesburg. When Langley closed in 1947 the airline moved its headquarters to Blackbushe.

Skyways Limited

Langley Airfield closure

The map shows that the part or the Hawker factory on the south-east side of the airfield was leased to Ford motors. The proximity of the developing Heathrow Airport, and the fact that Langley only had a grass runway and were entering the jet age, contributed to the demise of the airfield. According to the control tower records, the last recorded aircraft movement on the airfield was in 1956.

From 1951, Hawker began shifting aircraft production to Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey. The company continued manufacturing operations at Langley with most of the major assembly work on Sea Hawks and Hunters being done there. These components were then taken by road for final assembly at Dunsfold until about 1958.

Many of the airlines mentioned on this page had already moved their maintenance operations to other airfields such as Dunsfold and Blackbushe. The factory and site was eventually taken over by Ford Commercial Vehicles.

The site of the airfield was being redeveloped a long time before Ford left in 1997 into an industrial area and a housing estate. All that remains of the airfield now is the electricity substation rated at 33/11kV which I believe still bears the name Hawker Aircraft.

Group Captain PWS ‘George’ Bulman

Hawker’s chief test pilot Group Captain PWS ‘George’ Bulman flew the prototype Hurricane K5083 from Brooklands on 6 November 1935. He also did the flight testing on the final production Hurricane PZ865, ‘The Last of the Many’, which was completed on 27 July 1944.