The Great West Aerodrome, also known as Harmondsworth Aerodrome or Heathrow Aerodrome, was a grass airfield, operational between 1930 and 1944. It was on the southeast edge of the hamlet of

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

, in the parish of

Harmondsworth Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon in the county of Greater London with a short border to the south onto Heathrow Airport, London Heathrow Airport. The village has no railway stations, but adjoins the M4 motorway and t ...

. The

Fairey Aviation Company The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military a ...

owned and operated it, for assembly and flight testing of Fairey-manufactured aircraft. The area was to later be the site of

London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the Airports of London, London airport sys ...

Construction 1929–1930

Since 1915, Fairey Aviation had been assembling and flight testing its aircraft from

Northolt Aerodrome ("Ready to carry or to fight") , pushpin_map = Greater London , pushpin_label = RAF Northolt , pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London , coordinates = , type = Royal Air Force station , code = , site_area = , height = , owners ...

, but in 1928 the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

gave it notice to cease using Northolt. Fairey Aviation needed an airfield for flight testing of aircraft designed and manufactured at its factory in North Hyde Road, Hayes. Its chief test pilot, Norman Macmillan, recalled a forced landing and take-off at

in 1925. He had noted the flatness of the land, and therefore recommended the area as suitable for an

aerodrome An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

. Macmillan flew aerial surveys of the site, then used for

market gardening A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

. In 1929, Fairey Aviation started by buying four plots of adjoining farmland in the hamlet of Heathrow from four local landowners: see History of Heathrow Airport#1930s. The total was , at about £1,500, at the typical 1929 farmland market rate of £10 per acre. The site was bounded to the north-east by Cain's Lane, to the south by the

Duke of Northumberland's River The Duke of Northumberland's River or D. O. N. River consists of separate upper and lower artificial watercourses in west London, United Kingdom. The older name Isleworth Mill Stream/River more accurately describes the economic motivation behi ...

, and to the west by High Tree Lane. The airfield boundaries were south of the

Bath Road The A4 is a major road in England from Central London to Avonmouth via Heathrow Airport, Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Bath, Somerset, Bath and Bristol. It is historically known as the Bath Road with newer sections including the Great West Road ...

, north-west of the Great South West Road, and about two miles west of the west end of the Great West Road. The airfield was about three miles by road from the Hayes factory, and it was declared operational in June 1930. That year, an additional plot of was bought, and a

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

was built.Sherwood, Philip (1999), pp. 53–61; Sherwood, Philip (2009), pp. 62–72Sherwood, Tim (1999)

Flight testing

On 25 November 1930, the maiden flight of the Fairey Night Bomber (K1695) was the first major experimental activity at the Great West Aerodrome. On 15 March 1931, the aircraft overran the boundary at Cain's Lane during an emergency landing, requiring re-design of engine installations, major repairs and project delay. Other notable types flown from there included

Fairey Fox The Fairey Fox was a British light bomber and fighter biplane of the 1920s and 1930s. It was originally produced in Britain for the RAF, but continued in production and use in Belgium long after it was retired in Britain. Development and desi ...

Fairey Gordon The Fairey Gordon was a British light bomber (2-seat day bomber) and utility aircraft of the 1930s. The Gordon was a conventional two-bay fabric-covered metal biplane. It was powered by variants of the Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIa engine. A ...

Fairey Firefly IIM The Fairey Firefly IIM was a British fighter of the 1930s. It was a single-seat, single-engine biplane of all-metal construction. Built by Fairey Aviation Company Limited, it served principally with the Belgian Air Force throughout the 19 ...

(biplane),

Fairey Fantome Fairey may refer to: People * Charles Richard Fairey, British aircraft manufacturer * David Fairey, English cricketer *Francis Fairey (1887 - 1971), Canadian politician * Jim Fairey, baseball player * Mike Fairey, British businessman *Shepard Faire ...

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also used ...

Fairey Albacore The Fairey Albacore is a single-engine biplane torpedo bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation. It was primarily operated by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and was heavily used during the Second ...

Airspeed Horsa The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British troop-carrying glider used during the Second World War. It was developed and manufactured by Airspeed Limited, alongside various subcontractors; the type was named after Horsa, the legendary 5th-century c ...

Fairey Barracuda The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo and dive bomber designed by Fairey Aviation. It was the first aircraft of this type operated by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) to be fabricated entirely from metal. The Barracuda ...

Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hi ...

and

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviatio ...

(monoplane). By March 1938, a second permanent hangar and a temporary canvas

Bessonneau hangar The Bessonneau hangar was a portable timber and canvas aircraft hangar used by the French ''Aéronautique Militaire'' and subsequently adopted by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) during the First World War. M ...

had been built.Gallop 2005, pp. 18–30Smith (2002)

Non-commercial uses

From 1935 to 1939, the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...

(RAeS) held its annual garden party fly-ins at the airfield, at the invitation of

Richard Fairey Sir Charles Richard Fairey Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, FRAeS (5 May 1887 – 30 September 1956), also known as Richard Fairey, was an English aircraft manufacturer. Ea ...

, chairman and managing director of Fairey Aviation Company Ltd, and a past president of the RAeS. The events were aviation society gatherings combined with promotion and display of aircraft and their manufacturers, before the development of aircraft industry shows in Britain, from 1947: ''see Heathrow (hamlet)#20th century from 1935 to 1939''. Richard Fairey, who started in business with model aircraft, let model aircraft clubs use his airfield at weekends.

World War II

The Great West Aerodrome was not an active RAF airfield, but sometimes in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

RAF fighters or bombers needing to land, landed there, and their crew sometimes found a bed for the night in Heathrow village.

Closure 1943–1944

In 1942, Richard Fairey was knighted as Sir Richard Fairey, and held the position of Director General of the British Air Mission, based primarily in Washington, DC. In 1943, the Air Ministry, headed by the

Secretary of State for Air The Secretary of State for Air was a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state position in the British government, which existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretar ...

(

Sir Archibald Sinclair Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a British politician and leader of the Liberal Party. Backgr ...

), secretly developed plans to requisition the airfield under wartime legislation – the

Defence of the Realm Act The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after it entered the First World War and was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war, such as the p ...

(1939). The plans were stated to be designed to suit the considerable needs of long-range bombers, such as

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Boeing B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fly ...

s, but they were actually based on recommendations from professor

Patrick Abercrombie Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English regional and town planner. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to the Second World ...

for a new international airport for London. The project was headed by Harold Balfour (then Under-Secretary of State for Air, later Lord Balfour of Inchrye), who kept the true nature of it hidden from parliament. The decision and plans were finally revealed in January 1944. In 1943, Fairey Aviation had bought 10 more acres of land to add to the acquired in 1929, 1930, 1939 and 1942. The company intended to relocate its production facilities from Hayes to the aerodrome. The wartime legislation provided no obligation to pay compensation; Fairey Aviation was offered compensation at the 1939 farming land market rate of £10 per acre, and rejected it. Sir Richard wrote to his co-chairman of Fairey Aviation: After eviction notices in May 1944, demolition of Heathrow domestic and farm buildings, and closing roads entering the site, the new airfield was still under construction at the end of World War II. By then, the plans had already changed from tenuous wartime military use to overt development into an international airport. On 1 January 1946, ownership of the site was transferred from the (military) Air Ministry to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. On 31 May 1946, the newly named London Airport was officially opened for commercial operations. The legal dispute with the government was finally settled in 1964 for £1,600,000. Fairey's 1930 hangar, in legal limbo for 20 years, and used as Heathrow Airport's fire station and as backdrop for an advertising billboard for

BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passi ...

, was then finally demolished.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * Gallop, Alan. (2005) ''Time Flies: Heathrow at 60''. Stroud: Sutton Publishing * Halpenny, Bruce B. (1992) ''Action Stations Vol.8: Military Airfields of Greater London''. * Sherwood, Philip. (1999) ''Heathrow: 2000 Years of History''. Stroud: Sutton Publishing * Sherwood, Philip. (2009) ''Heathrow: 2000 Years of History''. Stroud: The History Press * Sherwood, Tim. (1999) ''Coming in to Land: A Short History of Hounslow, Hanworth and Heston Aerodromes'' 1911–1946
Heritage Publications (Hounslow Library)
* Smith, Graham. (2003) ''Taking to the Skies: the Story of British Aviation 1903–1939''. Countryside * Smith, Ron. (2002) ''British Built Aircraft Vol.1''. Greater London: Tempus * Sturtivant, Ray. (1995) ''Fairey Aircraft: in Old Photographs''. Alan Sutton * Taylor, H.A. (1974) ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. Putnam . * Taylor, John WR. (1997) ''Fairey Aviation: Archive Photographs''. Chalford

External links

*Longford Residents' Association (thisislongford.com)

at the

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Aerial View (actually from the North-West) from the Imperial War Museum collection
{{Defunct airports in the United Kingdom Airports in the London region Defunct airports in England Airports established in 1930 History of Middlesex