Langley Airfield, Berks/Bucks

Ian,

Congratulations on the book and website – the website is a superb treasure trove of information for anyone interested in the airline and their aircraft! I haven’t yet got my copy of the book (it’s waiting for me at my parents’ house in Yorkshire), but I am definitely looking forward to reading it!

Ed

Keith, Thanks so much for the kind words. Reading comments like that makes all the effort on the book and website feel worthwhile!
Best wishes,
Ian (BSAA1947)

BSAA47, Just visited your link above, wow ! have been enthralled for the whole time, have a very good idea what i want for christmas now ! the fleet list, video / cine link was directly from my youth at Stansted. Thank you ! Keith Newsome.

N0 125 ATC Gliding School used Langley from 1947 to Sep 1955 using Falcon3 VD205,Cadet Mk 1 ,Mk2 ,T-31,T-21,Prefect and Grunau Baby.

Funny, I always thought Langley was East of Slough. If that is the case I wouldn’t like to trust Janie’s navigation.:D

see #2 😉

Doh! Sorreeee!:D

That’s right, BSAA used Langley as their maintenance base, sharing the facilities with Hawker. The aircraft were indeed lightly loaded when arriving and departing, but as you say, there were still some hair-raising departures when the ground was soft, a couple of which we described in “Fly with the Stars”. In those instances the take-off started from the hard standing!

Wasn’t Langley used afterwards as the site for a Ford truck factory?

see #2 😉

Wasn’t Langley used afterwards as the site for a Ford truck factory? I seem to remember in dark, dim, distant past driving past there on the M4 on the way to London.

Well yes, that’s true Baz, Langley was a grass field, but had two large “runways” marked out on the grass! Certainly large enough to be used by the BSAA (British South American Airways) Lancastrians, Yorks and Tudors.

OK …. more correctly no Paved Runways 😉
Paved surface more useful for jet /all weather ops.
Did BSAA use Langley for servicing only??if so the a/c would be lightly loaded but still be at the mercy of wet weather/grass/mud etc.

Regards Baz

Well yes, that’s true Baz, Langley was a grass field, but had two large “runways” marked out on the grass! Certainly large enough to be used by the BSAA (British South American Airways) Lancastrians, Yorks and Tudors.

I was interested to see the thread on the Flyer forum about Langley as they referred to the film on my website www.flywiththestars.co.uk and used the Langley airfield plan from there too. Strange thing is that none of the contributors to that thread contacted me to ask if I had any more information.

I don’t of course, but …… 🙂

Hi Janie
Just had a look on the flyer site!
Langley was a grass field,no runway!
Hence Hawker moved to Dunsfold for Jet operations(and of course clear of Thiefrow!!)

Cheers baz

…just to add
http://www.answers.com/topic/hawker-tempest-v-jn729-langley-1943-jpg

wieesso: You are a star. You’ve even found the piece about the Factory Defence Hurricane I was hoping to find. Thank you. I’ll direct the man over here.

Sorry about the link not working. I’m not sure what to do about that. If you are interested try forums.flyer.co.uk and look in the GA Discussion forum for the Langley thread.

Can’t open this link 🙁
http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=39101

X2LG Langley, Parlaunt Farm
N 51 29 47, W 00 32 20,
opened 1938,
use on 1st Dec 1944: Hawker production
http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/06airfields/UK/Airfields_2.htm

‘Between 1938-50 Langley was the site of the former Hawker Siddley aircraft factory, Hawker built the famous Hurricane and other fighter aircraft in Sutton Lane. This later became a manufacturing plant for Ford Iveco…
…the Hawker Hurricane which Hawker built at the Langley factory early in 1944, just six miles from what became Heathrow airport.’
http://www.langleyvillage.co.uk/history2.htm

http://www.sloughmuseum.co.uk/hurricanes.htm