History of Langley Airfield, Sutton Lane, Bucks

[Chris]

I wonder how many local residents of the Slough area don't realise the aviation history of Langley airfield?  A large proportion of the Hurricane fighters used in the battle of Britain were made here!

The Typhoon was made at the Hawker factory here in Langley, about 2 miles down the A4 from the patch.  This is all of direct interest to me as I currently sit here at home on the site of the Langley airfield, in a new development built on the site.

[Russ]

The Typhoon was made at the Hawker factory here in Langley, about 2 miles down the A4 from the patch.  In fact it was right here where I'm sitting as where I live was built on the site of Langley airfield, where the Hawker factory was, so I don't want any sport scale nonsense or short cuts taken.  Do the job right lads, in honour of Slough's Hawker heritage 

Being in ignorant sod I never realised this fact. Hallowed ground indeed  .

Unfortunately there appears to be little info regarding the Langley Factory on the internet, but I did find the following map -

Details Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

   

and short cine film

that may be of some interest.

[Both resources credit Ian and Susan Ottaway, www.flywiththestars.co.uk]

[Chris]

Great map Russ, it looks like it might be the same one that Slough Museum (bottom end of Slough High St) have on their display about Langley airfield.  That's where I first learned about it because as you say, although it's quite recent history (50 years or so ago), it's not widely known.

I might have a go in photoshop overlaying a modern map to see if i can get my bearings.  Won't be until the weekend though and I might not be able to do it at all.

[Russ]

You have good points of reference with the Grand Union and the railway. Would be cool if Hurricanes and Typhoons  were still buzzing around these days!

[Chris]

Some of the text on the map is a bit of a struggle to read, but I can make out the Ford Motor Company site which is the other thing Langley was famous for in the pre-M4 days.  Millions of transits were built there, I believe they took on the Hawker buildings when Hawker shut up shop.  And does the map say something about Homewood Park School being allocated to the USAF for storage purposes?  Have to squint a bit to make that out.

[Russ]

Chris,

You can find the original here, which may help.

[Chris]

I see that site also has this, which is titled:

"A simple plan of Langley Aerodrome, produced for a model aircraft display in the late 1940s."

Details

So the site was used for model aircraft displays and the main entrance was more or less where the Royal Mail distribution depot and Bridgstone Tyres stand today.

[Chris]

How about this to bring the topic back within the realms of model flying.  From "Flight" Magazine 4th July 1952, a description of a model flying event at the site of the Hawker factory in Langley, 20,000 - yes, 20,000 modellers in attendance!!    What hallowed ground indeed....

Details Click on image to view full size

Click on image to view full size

Details Click on image and then arrows to view full size

Click on image and then arrows to view full size

[Sheraz]

We are indeed privileged to be flying in sacred territory
We are not Worthy (yet)
great piece of history there!     

Nice one Chris

[Graham]

The factory and airfield were built just before the start of the second WW to produce Hurricane's and a large percentage of Hurricane's were built at Langley, and before I moved like Chris my house was on the old airfield.

In one of the Hurricane books I have which unfortunately I have lent to someone there are pictures of hurricanes under construction at Langley.


Graham

[Chris]

The archives of Flight Magazine at flightglobal.com are a goldmine for researching this stuff and there's a good three page report below (linked one page at a time) on the Hawker factory's activities in 1948 including photos of Sea Fury production lines inside the factory:

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200429.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200430.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200431.html

The real revelation for me though is the extent of aeromodelling activity at Langley which I've been learning about through reading further back-issues of "Flight".  It seems that as early as 1946 the Hawker factory site was given over on a Sunday in June to the annual gala day of the Northern Heights Model Flying club.  The name of Dr A P Thurston comes up over and again as the driving force behind these events, he was the President of the Northern Heights MFC and also happened to be President of the SMAE (precursor to the BMFA). 

Perhaps it's no wonder then that Langley became the "mecca" of aeromodelling in this country (not my words, a direct quote from "Flight") and at the height of the event in 1950, 20,000 people attended and 3,000 models were flown!

Before the war the event was held at the Great West Aerodrome, which became Heathrow Airport.  During the war people had other things on their mind so it wasn't until 1946 that the Gala day resumed and moved to Langley.  It was clearly already a huge event - "Flight" tells us that members of 80 clubs attended with 900 entries being flown.  Then Dr Thurston pulled off his greatest feat in gaining Royal patronage for the event with the inauguration of the Queen's Cup, named after the Queen (who we know as the Queen Mother) who attended the Langley event with Princess Margaret to present the Cup for the first time in 1948.  Thereafter the Cup was awarded in each subsequent year although the Queen apparently deputised this duty.  Perhaps one visit to an airfield with hundreds of unguided free flight models buzzing around was enough for her?

Details The Queen and Princess Margaret at Langley Airfield, accompanied by Dr A P Thurston

The Queen and Princess Margaret at Langley Airfield, accompanied by Dr A P Thurston

The first reference to radio controlled models being flown is the report on the 1951 event which notes: "Several radio-controlled models were being flown at Langley, each one powered by the usual small compression ignition engine and monitored by a little transmitter of attache case size with a whip aerial about nine feet in height.  In the aircraft, which carries a short trailing aerial, is a receiver - usually weighing well under a pound - that, by means of relays that respond to the pulse carrier wave sent out by the receiver, operates the rudder for yaw control and (in some cases) engine speed for pitch control."

That's relays by the way, not servos.  No proportional control in those days, you had a button to click once for full left rudder, twice for full right rudder or three times for centre!

It's mind blowing to me to think of aeromodelling being such a mass participation hobby back then, when you think we consider a few thousand people at the NATS to be a massive event.  More than that though, imagine the scale of the commitment for 3000 models to be brought from all around the country by bus and train (few had private cars in 1950) and launched into free flight maybe never to be seen again.  These models would have taken months to build and great expense by today's standards.

I have to say I'm not normally a history buff, but I've been seized by a certain enthusiasm for this subject.  I made a throwaway comment about the Langley airfield in a thread on this forum a few days ago, aware as I was of the Hawker heritage in the area.  I had no idea whatsoever that model flying was such a major feature in the history of this part of Slough and to find two areas of interest to me (model flying and local history) coming together in this way makes the whole thing so much more intruiging. 

I know that the Hawker factory was closed by the late 1950s and in 1955 the Northern Heights MFC Gala moved to RAF Halton, but what became of the Northern Heights Model Flying Club, and where is the Queen's Cup itself today? 

Details The Queen's Cup, renamed the Queen Elizabeth Cup in 1953 due to the coronation of QE2

The Queen's Cup, renamed the Queen Elizabeth Cup in 1953 due to the coronation of QE2

[Chris]

And just so you heli boys don't feel left out, yes they had model helis back then.  This is the state of the art in 1949 - a model heli with twin jetex motors on the rotors.  Jetex, as you probably know, is a solid fuel expanding gas "rocket" type propulsion motor using a fuel made of guanidine nitrate oxidizer used with nitrated resorcinols.  No, I didn't google that, I had it all in my head already 

Here's that lovely heli:

Details click to enlarge

click to enlarge

[Chris]

After that brief diversion into the history of the Queen's Cup, I want to re-focus on the Langley site and how it's been used through the years.  As far as I can figure it out, here's the potted history:

The earliest reference I can find is in 1881 when this map was drawn up.  Horsemoor Green is what we now call Langley and the distinctive kink of the High St can be seen in the top LHS corner of this map:

Details Langley Marish in 1881, credit: Colin Harris

Langley Marish in 1881, credit: Colin Harris

Further details here: http://www.colin.harris4.btinternet.co.uk/parlaunt.htm

This was mostly still farmland when Hawker bought the site in 1936 and within 2 years their factory had been built.  This swung into production as part of the war effort, churning out 5 hurricanes a day at peak capacity in 1942.  From:  http://www.sloughmuseum.co.uk/hurricanes.htm

In the post war years production turned to Furys, Sea Furys, Tempests and Typhoons but the jet age demanded longer concrete runways (Langley was a grass strip) and in 1950 (to be confirmed) Hawker moved to Dunsfold.  This left a large grass strip airfield and collection of factory buildings.  The airstrip was put to use by British South American Airways as their maintenance facility, well documented by Ian and Susan Ottaway in the book "Fly With The Stars", their excellent website is here: http://www.flywiththestars.co.uk/

While BSAA were using the airstrip and some buildings the rest of the site was occupied at this time by Hawker Siddely Nuclear Engineering Ltd, who were carrying out research work.  A number of patents were filed by the company at the Sutton Lane address in the 1950s. 

At the same time that BSAA operated from the site, the Northern Heights Model Flying Club were holding their annual gala day at the site, with the Queen's Cup being awarded.  This ceased in 1955 with the event moving to RAF Halton in subsequent years.  Was this when BSAA also ceased operations at Langley?  Perhaps this is when Ford Iveco bought the site, as they are the next chapter of the Langley story.

Hundreds of thousands of Ford and Iveco trucks were built at Langley between 1962 and the closure of the Iveco plant in 1997.  Subsequent to this the site was redeveloped to become the home of the current huge Royal Mail distribution depot and various other tenants such as Bridgstone Motorsport tyres.

[slopegirl]

If we are flying on such an important historical sight then is any one flying a typhoon if not i have som fast build plans of them and scale plans to just not the funds to build my 72" 160ic monster allthough the eletric power plant has been scorced along with landing gear need more flying first though

[Chris]

Not on a historic site, but close to a historic site.  The Langley Airfield site is about 2.5miles from Upton Court Park.