Aldermaston
ALDERMASTON: Military aerodrome later civil regional airport
Note: Picture taken by the author with GREENHAM COMMON visible beyond. The layout of two of the runways can be discerned in this picture.
Military users: WW2: 8th & 9th USAAF 53rd Troop Carrier Wing
60th , 315th & 434th Troop Carrier Groups, 12 TRS, 370 Fighter Group
71, 72, 73 & 74 Sqdns (C.47 Skytrains)
Charter, air taxi: Post 1945: Eagle Airways
Manufacturing: Post 1945: Vickers-Supermarine used this site for assembly and flight testing of Spitfires manufactured in this region from late 1939/early 1940 until the end of World War Two or shortly after.
It appears Fairey Aviation had a flight assembly facility here, presumably taking over from Vickers-Supermarine. It is reported the first ‘Gannet’ prototype, the GR.17/45, serial VR546, was towed by road from Hayes, making it’s first flight on the 19th September 1949.
Training base: Post 1945: Originally the Central Training School, later Airways Training run jointly by British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC)
Location: 9nm SW of Reading
Period of operation: 1942 to 1950
Runways: WW2: Yet again the runways in use using the ‘official’ records according to Messrs Hollis & Willis is totally misleading because the third runway they list is actually the reciprocal heading of the second runway listed. Therefore I can only ‘guesstimate’ the third runway used in late 1944. However a look at the site on Google Earth in 2015 seems to indicate that the third runway was orientated 10/28, or thereabouts.
06/24 1829x46 hard 17/35 1280x46 hard 11/29 (?) 1280x46 hard
NOTES: Eagle Airways formed their first UK base here and became the formidable independent airline British Eagle. Amongst a wide variety of charters during 1949/50 they transported a circus from Valencia to Liverpool, including their animals of course, and live lobsters from Stornaway to Aldermaston. Other notable charters included a wide screen TV unit and studio to South Africa and pilgrims from Teheran to Rome! This aerodrome later became the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and the aerodrome pretty much disappeared beneath the mass of buildings later built on this site.
The Central Training School, later Airways Training provided facilities open to all civil air transport operators and even provided up to five Dakotas for aircrew training. Later this facility evolved into Air Service Training based at HAMBLE.
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