Detling sites
Note: This map shows the location of the WW2 airfield - which is I believe roughly shared in ara with the WW1 airfield. Can anybody kindly confirm this?
DETLING: Military aerodrome
Military users: RFC/RAF/RNAS RFC Home Defence Night Landing Ground and RNAS Flight Station
Later RFC/RAF Home Defence Flight Station and Squadron Station
50 & 112 Sqdns (Vickers ES.1s)
143 Sqdn (Armstrong Whitworth FK.8s, Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5As, Sopwith Camels & Sopwith Snipes)
Location: Near the A249, roughly 3nm NE of Maidstone and presumably on pretty much the same site as the WW2 aerodrome?
Period of operation: 1915 to 1919
Site area: 95 acres 1097 x 457
NOTES: It appears this aerodrome was under Care & Maintenance from May 1916 to April 1917. Why? I seem to recall we British were waging a major war at the time and London was being subjected to the threat of airship and bomber attacks. DETLING was in an ideal location to resist them - so why was it, to all intents and purposes, closed down?
DETLING: Initially a military aerodrome in WW1 (see above), later a gliding site and from WW2 a military aerodrome
Military users: RAF
1938 to 1939: 500 Sqdn (Avro Ansons & Hawker Hinds)
NOTE: I cannot vouch for exactly which RAF Command these squadrons actually served under.
The listing is, at best, a guess.
WW2: RAF Fighter Command 11 Group
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
The outline of the WW2 airfield can just about be seen from this image.
318 Sqdn (Hawker Hurricanes)
Squadrons flying the various types of Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire were the most numerous.
184 Sqdn flew the VB in 1943.
No.1, 132, 165, 453 (RAAF) and 602 Sqdns flew the IXB in 1943/4.
80, 118, 229 and 274 Sqdns flew the IX in 1944.
124 Sqdn flew both the VII and HF.IXE in 1944 but 504 Sqdn flew only the IXE.
26 Sqdn (Curtiss Tomahawks later North American Mustangs)
239 Sqdn (North American Mustangs)
RAF Coastal Command 16 Group
48, 280 & 500 (County of Kent) Sqdn (Avro Ansons)
13, 53, 59 & 235 Sqdns (Bristol Blenheims)
OTHER UNITS
655 Sqdn RAF Air Observation Post (Auster IIIs)
4 (Army Co-operation) Sqdn (Westland Lysander)
567 (Anti-aircraft Co-operation) Sqdn (Airspeed Oxfords, Fairey Barracudas, Hawker Hurricanes and Miles Martinets)
No.1 Coast Artillery Co-operation Unit (Bristol Blenheims)
1025 Servicing Wing HQ
Note: These pictures were taken taken by the author in June 2018. No evidence of the airfield seems to have survived?
First picture: The Kent Showground occupies quite a large part of the southern part of the WW2 airfield. And, further north an industrial estate appears to occupy some of the remainder?
Post 1945: 1951 to 1955: 651 Sqdn (Bristol Sycamores)
1955 to 1957 1902 Flight (Auster AOP.6s)
Location: N of A249, 1nm NE of Detling village, 3nm NE of Maidstone
Period of operation: Military 1916 to 1919
Gliding 1930 to 1938?
Military 1938 to 1959
Gliding from ? to ?
Note: In the 1957 The Aeroplane directory, the Kent Gliding Club are listed a being based here. And, the Royal Engineers Gliding Club (Chatham).
It also appears that the Royal Air Force Gliding and Soaring Association was formed in 1950 and started operating here with one Slingsby T.21 and a Prefect. It was a big success and by 1952 they had twenty-seven gliders at seven clubs around the UK. The emphasis being to enable non-flying RAF people a chance to start flying. Since 2004 the 'Centre' has been RAF HALTON in BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
Runways: WW2: NE/SW 1280 grass E/W 823 grass
N/S 823 grass
NOTES: In his most interesting history of the London Gliding Club, Take Up Slack, (from which much of my information about gliding derives), the author Edward Hull relates the account of A E Slater, describing when the BGA (British Gliding Association), was formed on the 4th December 1929. The first gliding club to hold a meeting was the Kent Gliding Club at DETLING on the 23rd February 1930. It seems the word got out to the press, (who surely must have vastly exaggerated the event), and a huge crowd gathered, almost preventing the single ‘Primary’ glider from getting into the site. In those days, (in the UK at least?), almost all if not all launches were from a man-drawn, running. bungee cable and due to the pitifully short ‘hops’, of about thirty yards at best that day, the disappointment felt by the crowds nearly led to a riot.
It appears that DETLING was also used as a gliding site after WW2 and an account in the March 2010 issue of Light Aviation magazine describes the superbly flown arrival of a DH.82A Tiger Moth, (from the newly formed Tiger Club – so presumably arriving from REDHILL?), to provide glider tug services.
Still occasionally used by helicopters for one-off events such as County Shows etc?
We'd love to hear from you, so please scroll down to leave a comment!
Leave a comment ...
Copyright (c) UK Airfield Guide
