Culdrose
CULDROSE: Military aerodrome, Royal Naval Air Station later major base (HMS SEAHAWK)
Note: All eight of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: 2000: MoD by the Royal Navy
Note: This picture, from a postcard, was kindly sent to me by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection of British aviation postcards - see www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
Military users: WW2: RN FAA and RAF Coastal Command
Post 1945:
706 Sqdn (Hiller HT.2 & Westland Wessex HAS.10)
736 Sqdn (Fairey Barracuda and Firefly, Hawker Sea Fury and Vickers-Suermarine Seafire)
Note: This Squadron later became the Advanced Jet Flying School with the Gloster Meteor T.7 and Supermarine Attacker.
750 Sqdn (Fairey Firefly and Percival Sea Prince)
Note: It appears that during their stay at CULDROSE, 750 Squadron became the Observer and Air Signal School, later the Observer School.
1975: RN (Westland/Sikorsky Sea King, Wasp & Wessex)
1980: 771 Sqdn SAR (Westland/Sikorsky S-61 Sea Kings)
810 Sqdn (Initially Fairey Gannet AS4, later Westland S-61 Sea King)
Later: 814, 820, 824 & 829 Naval Air Squadrons (Merlin HM.2)
849 Sqdn (Westland S.61 Sea King ASaC7)
Gliding: 1950s to 1970s only?
Note: In 1957 the Seahawk Gliding Club were operating here.
Location: 1 nm SE of Helston
Period of operation: 1947 to present day
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
Runways:
1990: 07/25 1028x46 hard 12/30 1830x46 hard
01/19 1051x46 hard
2000: 07/25 1042x46 hard 12/30 1830x46 hard
18/36 1051x46 hard
NOTES: During and at the end of WW2 it seems CULDROSE was still under construction. The original runways in WW2 were planned to be ESE/WNW (12/30?) 1828x46 hard, N/S (18/36?) 1005x46 hard and ENE/WSW (07/25?) 1005x46 hard.
This leads me to think that CULDROSE must surely be unique in the UK in still having all its existing runways almost exactly in place today as when the original aerodrome plans were drawn up in late WW2.
In 1977 the Culdrose Gliding Club were using DHC.1 Chipmunk G-BCGC.
With permission GA business and private users can use this aerodrome today (Note from 2000)
A VISIT IN SEPTEMBER 2023
This was my first visit to this location, and two aspects were rather striking. From the ground it is a very large facility with hangars galore, (bit of a problem to get pictures), and, they had three 'gate guardians' on display. The public viewing area, whilst very welcome, is not best situated to get pictures of the site.
The third picture is of the Hawker Seahawk F.1, WF225.
Note: In the first picture, is there a Lockheed Martin F.22 Raptor on the apron? The second picture is of the Westland Sea King HAS.1, XV673.
The first picture is of the BAe Hawk T1A, XX280.
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