Royal Air Force Llandow or more RAF Llandow is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station situated near the village of

Llandow Llandow ( cy, Llandŵ) is a village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 726. The village is located south west of Cardiff. The community includes the villages of Sigingstone and ...

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, 15 miles west of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. It opened in 1940 and closed in 1957. It was while training at this airfield in 1941 that John Gillespie Magee, Jr. wrote his famous poem, "High Flight."

History

The major RAF unit based at Llandow throughout its existence was No. 38 Maintenance Unit RAF (38 MU) which was tasked with the reception, storage and despatch of RAF aircraft. 38 MU opened on 1 April 1940 and closed on 15 March 1957. Other wartime RAF units were based at Llandow between June 1941 and July 1944. The first was No. 53 Operational Training Unit RAF B Flight equipped with

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

s which arrived on 24 June 1941. A satellite station at

RAF Rhoose Royal Air Force Rhoose or more simply RAF Rhoose is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located near Rhoose, a few miles west of Cardiff, Wales. History It opened on 7 April 1942 as an RAF training base for Supermarine Spitfire pilots. ...

(now

Cardiff International Airport Cardiff Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Caerdydd) is the only airport offering commercial passenger services in Wales. It has been under the ownership of the Welsh Government since March 2013, operating at an arm's length as a commercial business. Pa ...

) was used by this unit. Three small transport flights were formed here during April 1944 with

No. 1312 Flight RAF No. 1312 Flight Royal Air Force, commonly abbreviated to 1312 Flt RAF, is an independent flight of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Currently based at RAF Station Mount Pleasant (more commonly known as RAF Mount Pleasant, and also known as Mount Plea ...

remaining based until 21 July 1944 with six

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) a ...

I's for transporting urgent personnel to and from the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

area. No. 614 (County of Glamorgan) Squadron had been formed at

RAF Pengam Moors Royal Air Force Pengam Moors (or more simply RAF Pengam Moors, or also known as RAF Cardiff) is a former Royal Air Force station and maintenance unit (MU), located on the Pengam Moors area of Tremorfa, 2 miles south east of Cardiff city centre i ...

in June 1937 before moving away at the outbreak of

Second World War 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 ...

. Post war equipment required a larger airfield as base and Llandow was chosen. The Squadron officially reformed here on 10 May 1946 and the first Spitfire Mk 16's were received in November, being replaced by Mk 22's in August 1948. Jet Equipment in the form of

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and ...

fighters arrived in July 1950 and continued in use until disbandment of the squadron on 10 March 1957, with all

Royal Auxiliary Air Force The Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF), formerly the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF), together with the Air Force Reserve, is a component of His Majesty's Reserve Air Forces (Reserve Forces Act 1996, Part 1, Para 1,(2),(c)). It provides a primary rein ...

units. Another long-resident post-war flying unit based at Llandow was No. 663 Squadron RAFs No. 1952 AOP Flight, equipped with

Auster AOP.6 The Auster AOP.6 was a British military air observation aircraft produced by Auster Aircraft Limited to replace the numerous wartime Taylorcraft Auster aircraft then in-service. History The Auster AOP.6 (Auster Model K) was designed as a succe ...

aircraft for spotting for local Territorial Army artillery units. This flight was based here from 1 July 1949 until disbandment in March 1957. The RAF's Burmese Conversion Squadron was based here for a period from 1953 to familiarise Burmese pilots with their newly acquired ex-RAF

fighters. No. 4 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit was based at RAF Llandow between 1 August 1951 and 1 July 1954 equipped with

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or ...

and Spitfire aircraft to tow targets and act as targets for army units in South Wales and nearby areas. The

Llandow air disaster The Llandow air disaster was an aircraft accident in Wales in 1950. At that time it was the world's worst air disaster with a total of 80 fatalities. The aircraft, an Avro Tudor V, had been privately hired to fly rugby union enthusiasts to an ...

occurred on 12 March 1950 when an

Avro Tudor The Avro Type 688 Tudor was a British piston-engined airliner based on Avro's four-engine Lincoln bomber, itself a descendant of the famous Lancaster heavy bomber, and was Britain's first pressurised airliner. Customers saw the aircraft as ...

V airliner G-AKBY of Fairflight Ltd crashed on final approach to runway 28 at RAF Llandow. The aircraft was returning from

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish language, Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (Irish company), DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinsto ...

with five crew and 80 rugby supporters, all except three passengers being killed.

Units

The following units were here at some point:

Current Use

The airfield is now in use as Llandow Kart Club and Llandow Circuit, with the main runways of the former RAF base being used as Hangar Straight and Spitfire Straight in the kart circuit. The names of the corners and straights of the kart circuit reference Llandow's history as an airfield, with names such as Hangar Straight, Bomber Straight, Lancaster Curve and Spitfire Straight.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Halley, James J. ''The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth, 1918-1988''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1988, . * * Sturtivant, Ray

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

and John Hamlin. ''RAF Flying Training and Support Units since 1912''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1997, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Llandow Royal Air Force stations in Wales Organisations based in the Vale of Glamorgan Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom