RNAS Culham (HMS Hornbill) was a Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) near

Culham Culham is a village and civil parish in a bend of the River Thames, south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The parish includes Culham Science Centre and Europa School UK (formerly the European School, Culham, which was the only Accredited Europe ...

, Oxfordshire. It opened in 1944 as an Aircraft Receipt and Despatch Unit for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. The ground layout was typical of many bomber stations, with three runways. However it had many

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 ...

s, mostly sited around the field's perimeter. Initially HMS Hornbill was used to train reservists based in the Thames Valley area using several different types of aircraft including Supermarine Seafires,

Hawker Sea Fury The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single reciprocating engine aircraft ...

s and North American Harvards. In May 1947 the Photographic Trials and Development Unit was based at HMS Hornbill, and in 1951 1840 Naval Air Squadron operated from the airfield for a short time. Ab initio flight training of cadets from

Britannia Royal Naval College Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy. It is located on a hill overlooking the port of Dartmouth, Devon, En ...

, Dartmouth, flying primary gliders, was also undertaken here in the early 1950s. The following units were here at some point: * No. 1 Ferry Flight * 739 Naval Air Squadron * 812 Naval Air Squadron *

1830 Naval Air Squadron 1830 Naval Air Squadron (1830 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. From 1830 NAS participated in Operation Robson over Sumatra in December 1944. Naval Reserve 1831 Squadron reformed at RNAS Abbotsinch (HMS Sanderlin ...

1832 Naval Air Squadron 1832 Naval Air Squadron (1832 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land ...

* 1832A Naval Air Squadron * 1832B Naval Air Squadron * 1835 Naval Air Squadron * 1836 Naval Air Squadron * 1840 Naval Air Squadron The airfield closed on 30 September 1953 and the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

subsequently used it as a storage facility. In 1960 the airfield was transferred to the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

for use in nuclear and atomic research. The

Joint European Torus The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational Magnetic confinement fusion, magnetically confined Plasma (physics), plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, UK. Based on a tokamak ...

(JET) nuclear fusion project is now based at the site. RAF Beccles was a temporary lodging area under Culham's administration, and as such was called HMS Hornbill II.

References

External links

RN Culham Airfield

{{Defunct airports in the United Kingdom

Organisations based in Oxfordshire