Chichester
CHICHESTER: Military later civil aerodrome (Also known as CHICHESTER in WW1)
Also now generally also known as GOODWOOD and home for example of the Goodwood race circuit and its famous 'Festival of Speed'.
Note: A series of four aerial pictures taken by the author in October 2016 through perspex when being flown by Lee Merritt who created this website, from his Piper PA-28 Cherokee.
Military user: WW1: Night Landing Ground
39 [Home Defence) Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 and B.E.12 types. Possibly also the S.E.5 later on?)
78 [Home Defence] Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 and B.E.12 types. Possibly later Sopwith 1½ Strutters and later Sopwith Camels?)
WW2: Then known as RAF WESTHAMPNETT (See seperate listing for WESTHAMPNETT in WW2)
*WESTHAMPNETT was used in the Battle of Britain
145 Sqdn (Hawker Hurricanes)
602 Sqdn (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
Operated by:
1965: Goodwood Road Racing Co Ltd
1984/1990: Goodwood Terrana Ltd
2000: Goodwood Motor Racing Company Ltd
Activities: GA private, business, training and maintenance. Air shows associated with famous racing car circuit on aerodrome
Flying club/schools: Post 1945: Goodwood Flying School, Mistral Aviation, Ultimate High, Vectair Flying Club
Helicopter ops: Elite Helicopters, Shoreham Helicopters
Manufacturing: Post 1945: NDN Aircraft
Location: N of A285, 2nm NNE of Chichester
Period of operation: 1917 to - (interrupted operation between WW1 and WW2?)
These maps are reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014
Runways:
1965: 15/33 1317x122 grass 04/22 744x91 grass 11/29 707x91 grass
1990: 14R/32L 1287x46 grass 14L/32R 645x30 grass
06/24 847x46 grass 10/28 613x36 grass
2000: 14R/32L 1287x46 grass 14L/32R 720x30 grass
06/24 847x46 grass 10/28 613x36 grass
NOTES: The WW1 connection now appears somewhat spurious, (possibly another site nearby?), but it seems certain that ‘Freddy’ March, the grandfather of the present Earl of March, was both a pilot and aircraft builder, bringing aviation to this site between the wars, probably in the 1930s only?
THE NDN FIRECRACKER
In his book British Built Aircraft Vol.3 Ron Smith states that NDN Aircraft first flew their NDN Firecracker G-NDNI here on the 26th May 1977, this being developed into the turbine powered NDN-1T Turbo Firecracker. This aircraft competed for the RAF Jet Provost replacement programme but lost out to the Embraer Tucano version which was built by Shorts in Belfast. He points out that NDN and its successor companies were also active at BEMBRIDGE and SANDOWN (ISLE of WIGHT), BARRY – (My note; RHOOSE surely? (GLAMORGAN), OLD SARUM (WILTSHIRE) and HURN (HAMPSHIRE). NDN stands for Nigel Desmond Norman and Nigel was of course a major influence in Brittan-Norman company, arguably most famous for the Islander series later taken over by the Swiss comany Pilatus. It is well worth looking up the history of the NDN Firecracker on Wikipedia.
PERSONAL NOTES
I have flown into GOODWOOD a couple of times, and also collected and delivered aircraft here in my truck. One favourite memory is when, as a journalist covering a story for Truck & Driver magazine during the 'Festival of Speed' in 2000, concerning the 'classic' car transporters, and inviting my flying friend Guy Browning along, he contrived to get me a seat in the cockpit of the DH.104 Dove G-OPLC as a birthday present. This aircraft, flown by Captain Pritchard, was conducting pleasure flights around the Solent and on learning I was a PPL invited me to 'pole' the Dove around the route for a while.
Compared to a Cessna 172 or PA-28 the Dove flew as if "on rails" as befits its design duties. It felt "solid as a rock" and went exactly where pointed. On returning to GOODWOOD another car race had started, so I had roughly another twenty minutes sitting there flying the Dove before handing over to Captain Pritchard to perform the landing. What a privilege!
ANOTHER MEMORY
On the 3rd January 1993, Guy Browning and I flew down so that I could get some tail-dragger experience in the Citabria G-BSLW. After arriving we discovered we could, in fact, both get some tail-dragger experience in a twin-seat Spitfire, except that we couldn't quickly arrange to re-mortgage our houses. A picture below shows our lowly Cessna 152 G-WACU framed by the Spitfire. Also listed in the pictures below is the Klemm L25-1A, G-AAUP, (almost completely assembled), that I had transported in my truck to GOODWOOD in September 2011:
GOODWOOD PICTURE GALLERY
Note: Pictures by the author unless specified.
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