Airport in Alton
Lasham Airfield
(
ICAO
:
EGHL
) is an
aerodrome
3.6 miles (5.8 km) north-west of
Alton
in
Hampshire
, England, in the village of
Lasham
.
The airfield was built on farming land in 1942 as a
Royal Air Force Station
during the Second World War. The RAF ceased operations in 1948, but an aircraft company,
General Aircraft Ltd
, continued to fly from the airfield. From 1951, the main activity at Lasham airfield became recreational
gliding
.
The airfield is now the home of the largest British gliding club, also one of the world's largest, Lasham Gliding Society Ltd (LGS), which bought the land in 1999 from the Ministry of Defence. The airfield is also the location of 2Excel Engineering Ltd., a company that maintains jet aircraft for various airlines.
Pilots of powered aircraft visiting the airfield require prior permission and a briefing on its hazards: in particular dense concentrations of thermalling gliders (up to 100 gliders can be in the vicinity at once), winch cables up to 3,000 ft (910 m) above the ground, and occasional movements of large jet airliners. Over-flying aircraft are requested to not fly below 3,618 ft (1,103 m)
QNH
. The airfield frequency is 131.03
MHz
.
Military history
[
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]
The airfield was built on farmland in 1942, causing the A339 (Alton-Basingstoke road) to be diverted to the west from Lasham village. Initial RAF operations (from November that year) were by 38 Wing,
Army Co-operation Command
.
Maps of the area before and after the airfield was constructed were displayed in the main corridor of the clubhouse of Lasham Gliding Society on the North side of the airfield to the South of Avenue Road. Also displayed were photographs and other details of aircraft and personnel of the squadrons that flew from Lasham and are listed below. The fire in the clubhouse in 2021 has meant these artifacts are temporarily stored during re-building.
In mid-1943, the airfield was transferred to
RAF Fighter Command
. Squadrons equipped with
Hawker Hurricanes
,
Hawker Typhoons
and
Supermarine Spitfires
operated from Lasham. Later in 1943, it became a base for the bombers of
No. 2 Group RAF
, part of the
RAF Second Tactical Air Force
. The squadrons of 2 Group used the
de Havilland Mosquito
and
North American B-25 Mitchell
.
Squadrons based at Lasham during the war
[
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]
(apart from one- or two-night stays)
- No. 107 Squadron RAF
Mosquito VI, arrived 1 Feb 1944; departed 23 Oct 1944
- No. 181 Squadron RAF
Typhoon IB, arrived 5 Apr 1943; departed 6 Jun 1943
- No. 182 Squadron RAF
Typhoon IB, arrived 3 May 1943; departed 2 Jun 1943
- No. 183 Squadron RAF
Typhoon IB, arrived 3 May 1943; departed 30 May 1943
- No. 305 (Polish) Squadron
Mitchell II and Mosquito VI, arrived 18 Nov 1943, departed 30 Oct 1944
- No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron RAF
Mitchell II, arrived 30 Aug 1943; departed 18 Feb 1944
- No. 412 Squadron RCAF
, Spitfire VB, arrived 7 Mar 1943; departed 8 Apr 1943
- No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron
Auxiliary Air Force
Spitfire VB, arrived 14 Apr 1943; departed 29 Apr 1943
- No. 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron
AAF, Mosquito FB.VI, arrived 12 Oct 1943; departed 30 Oct 1944
Units
[
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]
The following units were here at some point:
[1]
On 14 April 1944, at the request of resistance workers, six Mosquitos of 613 Squadron led by Wing Commander
Robert Bateson
bombed the Central Records Registry of the
Gestapo
in
The Hague
from a height of 50 ft (15 m). The accuracy was such that the incriminating records were burnt. There was loss of life amongst the Dutch and German staff, but there were few civilian casualties in the nearby streets.
On the nights preceding and following
D-Day
, the Mosquitos of 305 and 613 squadrons carried out low level attacks on enemy supply lines and armoured positions in Normandy to assist the allied landing forces.
[3]
[4]
The airfield ceased to be an operational Royal Air Force station in 1948, though General Aircraft Ltd continued testing military gliders there. On 14 September 2006, a memorial at the entrance was dedicated to those who served at Lasham between 1942 and 1948.
In 1952, future world champion
Mike Hawthorn
occasionally used its perimeter track to test his Cooper-Bristol
Formula Two
car, as did others.
[5]
In the 1960s the Space Department of the
Royal Aircraft Establishment
with its HQ at Farnborough, sited a number of satellite tracking and receiving dish aerials on the south side of Lasham airfield, one enclosed in a large white dome. These have now been removed, as have most of the buildings dating from World War II.
Gliding
[
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]
Early days
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]
In 1950, the Army Gliding Club was re-established by Major
Tony Deane-Drummond
, then an instructor at the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
. It operated at
Odiham Airfield
, but after two accidents, the Commandant of Sandhurst ordered it to suspend operations. In early 1951, he ordered Major Deane-Drummond to restart the club at Lasham. In the meantime, the Surrey Gliding Club and
Imperial College
Gliding Club were both seeking a new home because
Redhill Aerodrome
had many other users. The Surrey club and Imperial College therefore moved to Lasham in August 1951. As well as Tony Deane-Drummond, other notable instructors at that time included
Ann Welch
,
Lorne Welch
and
Philip Wills
. All of them went on to become British champions. A war-surplus barrage balloon winch was used for launches. Types flown included
Slingsby T.21
B trainer,
Grunau Baby
, and various other pre-war German sailplanes.
Lasham Gliding Society
[
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]
Competition
grid
at Lasham Airfield in 2009
Lasham Gliding Society (LGS) was established in 1958 to unify operations of the gliding clubs that had been operating since 1951. It later signed a long lease on the airfield from the
Ministry of Defence
. The airfield's boundaries were reduced but it still occupies over 500 acres (200 ha).
237
gliders
are based at Lasham which are used by 632 flying members, plus social members.
[6]
The airfield is in constant use throughout the year and regularly hosts national and regional
gliding
championships.
Oerlinghausen Airfield
claims to be the world's largest gliding club with "around 25,000" glider launches annually
[7]
whereas Lasham launched 25,750 gliders in the year to 31 October 2014.
[8]
There were approximately 59,000 aircraft movements (departures and landings) in that year (compared with
Southampton Airport
's 43,350).
In 1999, Lasham Gliding Society completed the purchase from the Ministry of Defence of the freehold to the airfield, making the final payment in 2001. It now owns all of the land within the fenced and gated area as well as the fields that form the undershoot area at each end of the main runway.
LGS
K13 glider
landing
LGS's 90+
[6]
instructors train new pilots at all stages from
ab initio
through to competitive
cross-country flying
. The training fleet consists of the following types:
The club uses three Skylaunch winches, normally delivering launch heights of 1500 ft and over 2000 ft in strong winds. The club also operates five tugs:
and can call on several privately owned tugs in busy periods.
There are 221
[6]
other gliders at the airfield operated by private owners and by affiliated gliding clubs:
Imperial College Gliding Club
,
University of Surrey Gliding Club
,
Southampton University Gliding Club
, The Crown Service Gliding Club and the IBM Gliding Club. Lasham Youth run a Saturday Evening gliding course during the summer months which is open to everyone, providing an environment where young members can fly with people of similar ages. The
Gliding Heritage Centre
has two separate hangars on the south side containing 42 historic gliders, many of which are in flying condition.
[9]
Derek Piggott
was Chief Flying Instructor at Lasham during much of the period from 1953 to 1989.
Ann Welch
,
Nicholas Goodhart
,
Ralph Hooper
,
Frank Irving
and
Peter Twiss
were also members for many years.
Imperial College Gliding Club
[
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]
Imperial College Gliding Club
is the oldest, and one of the largest, university gliding clubs in the United Kingdom.
[10]
Founded in 1930, the club was the second club to become affiliated to the
British Gliding Association
.
[11]
The club started by building its own glider
Payne I.C.1
. It has for most of its life flown from Lasham Airfield in Hampshire after transferring from Redhill in 1951.
[12]
It operates under the auspices of Lasham Gliding Society who provide its launching facilities and many of its instructors.The club maintains an archive website where details of the club's history since 1930 are kept.
[13]
It has 93 student members. Its current captain is Antoine Aulnette. Its most notable member was
Frank Irving
2Excel Engineering
[
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]
Dan-Air London
's
De Havilland DH 106 Comet
4C registration G-BDIW, at Lasham in July 1976
Companies based at the south-west of the airfield have used the main runway since 1954 to bring in large jet aircraft for overhauls. In 1954
Dan-Air
established a subsidiary,
Dan-Air Engineering
, at Lasham Airfield to service its own fleet and aircraft belonging to other operators.
Between 1972 and 1974 Lasham airfield regularly hosted six Douglas DC3 Dakotas owned by Roger Byron-Collins' Macedonian Aviation based at Southend airport for care and maintenance and resprays under arrangements with Dan-Air. Regular visitors were DH104 Dove G-APZU (04511), Douglas Dakota G-AMPO (16437/33185), G-AMHJ (13468), G-AMPZ (16124/32872), G-AMRA (15290/26735), G-AMSV (16072/32820)
[4]
[14]
From the 1960s to 1980s, Lasham hosted a number of unusual aircraft ? notably one of only two surviving
Avro Yorks
(G-ANTK in Dan-Air colours) ? and was the resting home of aircraft from around the world which came to be scrapped, including most of the old Comet 4 fleet. Dan-Air ceased trading in 1992, and after a period of operation by FLS Aerospace, the facility was let by the society to aircraft maintenance company ATC Lasham Ltd.
On 2 October 2015, the holding company of ATC Lasham went into administration and closed its Southend branch with immediate effect.
[15]
New owners of ATC Lasham Ltd, 2Excel Engineering Ltd, signed a new lease with the Society on 23 December 2015 and have continued to maintain large jet aircraft at Lasham.
[16]
The airfield occasionally provides storage for redundant aircraft. In 2008 these included aircraft from
XL Airways UK
,
Futura International Airways
,
Zoom Airlines
.
[17]
Six
bmibaby
737s arrived in 2012 when the airline closed. Several aircraft were parked at Lasham during the
COVID-19
recession, including some from
easyJet
,
TUI
and
Ryanair
.
[18]
References
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Citations
[
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Bibliography
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External links
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]