RAF Abingdon - A Brief History
RAF Abingdon, situated in the heart of Oxfordshire just 5 miles away from Oxford and 1 mile west of Abingdon town, opened under the command of Wing Commander Roberts on 1st September 1932. RAF Abingdon was the take-off point for the first solo East to West crossing of the Atlantic by a woman - Beryl Markham flying a Vega Gull in September 1936. The station's first role was as a training station for Bomber Command and this role continued from those early days right through WWII. Post-war the station became part of Transport Command, and the Hastings and later Beverleys of 24 and 47 Squadrons were a common sight in local skies until the late 1950s.Abingdon was the first station to receive the Andover in 1966, and two years later was host to a magnificent gathering of RAF air power - the occasion being the 50th anniversary of the formation of the RAF. Queen Elizabeth II visited to review the assembled aircraft and numerous flypasts and displays were carried out.
In later years many young pilots got their first taste of flying here, either in the Chipmunks of No.6 Air
Experience Flight or later on the Bulldogs of the London or Oxford University Air Squadrons.
In the 1980s Abingdon became a major maintenance hub, carrying out servicing on Hawk and Jaguar aircraft for
the most part, but with regular work on other types. Ex-civilian VC.10 airliners were flown in and stored prior
to conversion into tankers for RAF use.
RAF Abingdon closed officially on 31st July 1992 under the command of Group Captain Henderson, after which Squadron Leader M Lawrence (who was the Abingdon Jaguar and Hawk Unit test pilot) filled in for the last 6 months in a caretaker role.
A selection of the many distinguished Squadrons and Units that served at Abingdon throughout its years of
active life include:
- 15 Squadron - Hawker Hinds
- 10 OTU (Operational Training Unit) - Avro Ansons, Armstrong Whitleys
- 1 BAT Flight (Blind Approach Training Flight) - Armstrong Whitleys and Airspeed Oxfords
- 91 Group Comms Flight - Tiger Moths, Percival Proctor
- 47 Squadron - Handley Page Hastings, Blackburn Beverly
- 1 Parachute Training School
- Air Movements Development School
- 46 Squadron - Hawker Siddeley Andover
- JATE (Joint Air Transport Establishment)
- 6 AEF (Air Experience Flight) - de Havilland Canada Chipmunks
- ULAS and OUAS (London and Oxford University Air Squadrons) - Scottish Aviation Bulldogs
- 1, 2 and 3 AMS (Air Maintenance Squadrons) - maintained SEPECAT Jaguar, Hawker Hunter, BAe Hawk, Vickers VC-10, Blackburn Buccaneer
- AS&TF (Aircraft Salvage and Transport Flight)
- RSS (Repair and Salvage Squadron)
Abingdon will be remembered for many reasons, not least for its very popular annual Air Days which attracted approximately 70,000 visitors each year. The special 1990 Air Day attracted over 100,000 visitors!
Today, a small RAF presence continues with 612 Volunteer Gliding Squadron who teach Air Cadets the basics of
Flying in Grob Vigilant motor gliders (mainly at weekends), and the airfield is also regularly used for training
by Pumas and Merlins from nearby RAF Benson, Hercules (mostly para dropping) from RAF Lyneham. Army Air Corps
Apaches have been known to pop in from time to time as well, so military flying continues at Abingdon 75 years
after it was originally opened. The station is now known as Dalton Barracks, and is home to the Army's Royal Logistic
Corps these days, hence all the lorries and transporters parked up around the hangars.