The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators , are used by air traffic control and airline operations such as flight planning . ICAO codes are also used to identify other aviation facilities such as weather stations , international flight service stations or area control centers , whether or not they are located at airports. Flight information regions are also identified by a unique ICAO-code.
28-672: Beccles Airfield , also known as Beccles Airport or Beccles Aerodrome ( ICAO : EGSM ), is located in Ellough , 2 NM (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) southeast of Beccles in the English county of Suffolk . Built during the Second World War, it has operated as a heliport servicing the North Sea oil and gas industry and currently operates as a base for private flights, flight training and parachuting. Beccles Aerodrome has
56-445: A CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P837) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (RainAir (Beccles) Limited). The aerodrome is not licensed for night use. The current airstrip consists of around 450 metres (1,480 ft) of the original wartime concrete surface with 150 metres (490 ft) of grass airstrip. Always known locally as Ellough Airfield, Beccles airfield
84-569: A Mosquito on an aircraft carrier, recalls visiting the airfield to demonstrate deck landing skills to RAF personnel there. In the course of his visit, he encountered Barnes Wallis , designer of the bouncing bombs. The wartime control tower was demolished in 2009. The airfield was the most easterly wartime airfield in England. The site was used by different units: After the war the airfield remained dormant until 1965 when it became Beccles Heliport , serving North Sea oil and gas rigs. Operation of
112-700: Is a British printing company founded in London in 1803 by William Clowes . It grew from a small, one press firm to one of the world's largest printing companies in the mid-19th century. The company merged with Caxton Press, operated by William Moore in Beccles , Suffolk in the late 19th century and concentrated its business in the town following World War II . It is one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of directories and reference books and continues to operate out of its large printing factory at Ellough near Beccles as part of
140-480: Is a pseudo-code, used in flight plans for aerodromes with no ICAO code assigned. ICAO codes are sometimes updated. Johannesburg Airport in Johannesburg , South Africa, for instance, was formerly known as Jan Smuts International Airport, with code FAJS. When the airport was renamed O. R. Tambo International Airport, its ICAO code was updated to FAOR. Some airports have two ICAO codes, usually when an airport
168-735: Is based in the United Kingdom . On the other hand, IATA codes do not provide geographic reference. For example, LHR, representing Heathrow, does not enable one to deduce the location of the airport LHV with any greater certainty; it is William T. Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania in the United States . There are a few exceptions to the regional structure of the ICAO code that have been historically for political or administrative reasons. RAF Mount Pleasant air base in
196-486: Is partly delegated to authorities in each country, while IATA codes, which have no geographic structure, must be decided centrally by IATA. The first one or two letters of the ICAO code indicate the country; the remaining letters identify the airport. ICAO codes are used partly for geographical context. For example, the ICAO code for Heathrow International Airport in London, is EGLL, with its first letters reflecting that it
224-700: Is shared by civilian and military users. Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt , Germany, for instance, has been assigned ICAO code EDDF while Rhein-Main Air Base was assigned ICAO code EDAF until its closure. Sion Airport in Switzerland has code LSGS while its military facilities have the ICAO code LSMS. Brussels Airport in Brussels , Belgium, has the ICAO code EBBR for its civilian facilities, and Melsbroek Air Base has been assigned ICAO code EBMB, even though
252-514: Is that in 1943 it was used by de Havilland Mosquitos of 618 Squadron to practise dropping spinning bombs called 'Highball' which were a derivative of the bouncing bombs used by 617 "Dambuster" Squadron to breach dams in Germany in May 1943. The use of 'Highball' is shown in the 1970 film Mosquito Squadron . In an interview late in his life, Captain (N) "Winkle" Brown , the first person to land
280-561: The 3d Air Division , 95th Combat Bombardment Wing . The 95th had two Bombardment Groups, the 489th at RAF Halesworth and the 491st at RAF Metfield . Other combat wings had three Bomber Groups. The airfield was the last to be completed in Suffolk during the war and the USAAF had no use for the airfield so it passed briefly to RAF Bomber Command before being operated by No. 16 Group RAF , RAF Coastal Command from August 1944. The field
308-692: The Falkland Islands , for instance, is assigned the ICAO code EGYP as though it were in the United Kingdom, but nearby civilian Port Stanley Airport is assigned SFAL, consistent with South America . Saint Pierre and Miquelon is controlled by France, and airports there are assigned LFxx as though they were in Europe. Kosovo is assigned the code BKxx grouping it with Greenland and Iceland rather than its geographical neighbors which have Lxxx (described below). Jerusalem International Airport
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#1732787916205336-606: The Jezero Crater on Mars is assigned the special ICAO code JZRO. Codes beginning with I (Ixx and Ixxx) are often used for navigational aids such as radio beacons, while the Q code is reserved for international radiocommunications and non-geographical special use. In Russia , Latin letter X, or its Morse / Baudot Cyrillic equivalent Ь , are used to designate government, military, and experimental aviation airfields in internal airfield codes similar in structure and purpose to ICAO codes but not used internationally. ZZZZ
364-555: The CPI UK group. Clowes established the firm on 21 October 1803 at 2 Villiers Street, London next to the Strand . The company was small in the beginning, having only one printing press and one assistant. Clowes worked for three days and nights to finish his first job, which satisfied the customer. Business soon grew from word of mouth, as customers were impressed with the company's speed and accuracy. The company expanded in 1823 with
392-496: The Caxton Press in Beccles , Suffolk . Although Moore suddenly disappeared, leaving a considerable debt, the firm survived and was re-established as Clowes and Clowes. It grew from operating four presses to 15 in just three years. In 1880, Clowes and Clowes merged with William Clowes & Sons to form William Clowes Ltd. The company continued operating into the 20th century, but suffered a setback during World War II , when
420-567: The IATA code for London 's Heathrow Airport is LHR and its ICAO code is EGLL. IATA codes are commonly seen by passengers and the general public on flight-tracking services such as FlightAware . In general IATA codes are usually derived from the name of the airport or the city it serves, while ICAO codes are distributed by region and country. Far more aerodromes (in the broad sense) have ICAO codes than IATA codes, which are sometimes assigned to railway stations as well. The selection of ICAO codes
448-479: The airfield, Virage Helicopter Academy conduct Helicopter training and Mid Anglia Microlights carry out Microlight flying training in both 3-axis (fixed wing) and weightshift machines. Since early 2016 Skylark Radio Control Flyers have been authorised to fly their models at the airfield operating from the concrete runway 09/27 in close cooperation with Rain Air operations. Most of the runways have been broken up and much of
476-453: The area of the airfield is now used for a variety of industrial uses. Beccles printing company William Clowes Ltd. moved their main factory to the site in 2004. Plastics company Promens operates a warehouse on the park which has the UK's largest solar roof installation with a generating capacity of 1.65MW. Large solar farms are located at the west and south points of the airfield. Other areas of
504-489: The company. In 1851, the company secured a large contract to print half a million catalogues for the Great Exhibition . The project involved the use of 50 tonnes of type, 30,000 reams of paper and three tonnes of ink. In 1873, William Clowes the younger's eldest son, William Archibald Clowes (1843–1904), and his nephew William Charles Knight Clowes (1838–1917) entered a partnership with William Moore, who operated
532-409: The heliport was transferred to Norwich International Airport in the 1990s. The airfield has been home to RainAir since 1997 when Rainer Forster transferred his flight training operations from Swanton Morley . The airfield is the base for No. 28 (Suffolk) Civil Air Patrol Unit, a volunteer organisation which aims to aid the emergency services. UK Parachuting carry out free-fall parachute training from
560-519: The presses though in exchange for a sum paid by the Duke. The exchange proved fruitful for Clowes, as the bankruptcy of Archibald Constable caused a short period of bad business that afflicted the London publishing industry and the Duke's compensation helped offset the large losses Clowes experienced during this time. In 1826, the company purchased and moved to premises on Duke Street that had previously been occupied by Applegath and Cowper. The firm, which
588-529: The purchase of Northumberland Court and the installation of its first steam-powered presses (made by Applegath and Cowper ). However, the new noisy presses disturbed the Duke of Northumberland , whose palace was nearby, and he ordered the company to cease operation. When Clowes refused, the case was tried in court in June 1824, where the printer won with the help of his attorney John Copley . Clowes agreed to move
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#1732787916205616-504: The site are used for agricultural use and as a site for a farmers market . A kart circuit, Ellough Park Raceway , also occupies part of the airfield site. ICAO airport code The recommendations for ICAO airport codes were adopted on 24 March 1959, and came into force on 1 October the same year. ICAO codes are separate and different from IATA codes , the latter of which have three letters and are generally used for airline timetables , reservations, and baggage tags. For example,
644-543: The style LFddnn , where dd indicates the department while nn is a sequential counter. The French Federation of Ultralight Motorized Gliders was formally named the keeper of these codes. Aerodrome de Torreilles in France, for instance, has code LF6651. In Antarctica many aerodromes have pseudo ICAO-codes with AT and two digits, while others have proper codes from countries performing air control such as NZ for New Zealand . William Clowes Ltd. William Clowes Ltd.
672-476: The two airports share runways and ground and air control facilities. In small countries like Belgium or the Netherlands, almost all aerodromes have an ICAO code. For larger countries like the UK or Germany this is not feasible, given the limited number of letter codes. Some countries have addressed this issue by introducing a scheme of sub-ICAO aerodrome codes; France, for example, assigns pseudo ICAO codes in
700-691: Was assigned both LLJR (its Israeli persona) as well as OJJR (its Jordanian persona), but the airport itself fell into disuse. In the contiguous United States and Canada, many airports have ICAO codes that are simply copies of their three-letter IATA codes, with the geographical prefix added on (e.g., YEG and CYEG both refer to Edmonton International Airport , while IAD and KIAD both refer to Washington Dulles International Airport ). This similarity does not extend to Alaska (PAxx), Hawaii (PHxx), or U.S. territories. Kahului Airport on Maui , for instance, has an IATA code of OGG and an ICAO code of PHOG. ICAO airport codes do not begin with I or J or X or Q, though
728-610: Was built under the direction of London construction company Holland, Hannen & Cubitts for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and completed in August 1942. It used the three concrete runway layout typical of many bomber airfields in East Anglia , known as Class A layout, and was built for the 8th Air Force and allocated airfield number 132. It is possible that Ellough was intended to be used by
756-458: Was renamed at William Clowes and Sons in 1839, grew rapidly, and by 1843 was one of the largest printing companies in the world: it operated 24 presses and had its own type and stereotype foundries, 2500 tonnes of stereotyped plates (at the time worth at least 500,000 pounds sterling ), and a collection of 80,000 woodcuts . In 1847, Clowes died, and three of his sons, William Clowes the younger (1807–1883), Winchester, and George, took over running
784-470: Was used as an air-sea rescue post until closure in 1945, and saw operation by various RAF and FAA squadrons operating such diverse types as Vickers Warwick , Fairey Barracuda , Supermarine Walrus , Fairey Swordfish , Supermarine Sea Otter and Fairey Albacore on air-sea rescue and anti-shipping duties. The Fleet Air Arm used temporary lodging facilities at RAF Beccles under the stone frigate name HMS Hornbill II. One of Ellough's few claims to fame
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