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81-734: Royal Air Force Northolt or more simply RAF Northolt ( IATA : NHT , ICAO : EGWU ) is a Royal Air Force station in South Ruislip , 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) from Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon , western Greater London , England, approximately 6 mi (10 km) north of Heathrow Airport . As London VIP Airport , the station handles many private civil flights (private planes of up to 29 passengers) in addition to Air Force flights. Northolt has one runway in operation, spanning 1,687 m × 46 m (5,535 ft × 151 ft), with

162-505: A mountain wave generated by Snowdon . As a result, the plane crashed into a peat bog near Llyn Gwynant in Snowdonia , killing all 20 passengers and three crew in the company's first fatal accident. Civil flights ceased when the central area at Heathrow opened in 1954 with Northolt reverting to sole military use in May that year. Northolt's operations became constrained by its proximity to

243-740: A Hawker Hurricane flown by Flying Officer Ludwik Witold Paszkiewicz, the first pilot in No. 303 Squadron to shoot down an enemy aircraft, were donated to the station in June 2008. During the Battle of Britain, Paszkiewicz became a flying ace and received the Distinguished Flying Cross after shooting down six aircraft. He was killed in action over Borough Green in Kent on 27 September 1940. No. 303 Squadron recorded its 100th kill less than

324-456: A Ministry of Defence spokesman described that as unlikely. Four Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft arrived at the station from RAF Coningsby on 2 May 2012 to take part in a security exercise as part of preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympics . During the Games, the aircraft were deployed to the station to provide air superiority protection for London, in conjunction with other security measures by

405-494: A converted Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber named "Marco Polo" made the first non-stop intercontinental flight, flying from London to Washington, DC, then returning to Northolt from La Guardia Airport within 18 hours. In November of the same year, an Avro York flew non-stop from Northolt to Cairo in 10 hours and 25 minutes. A new runway, 31/13, was surveyed the following month and built in March 1946. Starting in 1946

486-400: A future air attack. By May 1910, Claude Grahame-White and other aviation pioneers were flying from the flat areas around Ruislip , although they soon sought an aerodrome for London, which was eventually built at Hendon . A proposal was made in 1912 for the area around where RAF Northolt now stands to be developed as "Harrow Aerodrome". The company established to develop the site was listed on

567-611: A grooved asphalt surface. This airport is used for government and VIP transport to and from London. Northolt predates the establishment of the Royal Air Force by almost three years, having opened in May 1915, making it the oldest RAF base. Originally established for the Royal Flying Corps , it has the longest history of continuous use of any RAF airfield. Before the outbreak of the Second World War ,

648-430: A heavy snowstorm, a Douglas Dakota 3 operated by Railway Air Services , flying from Northolt to Glasgow , crashed onto the roof of a house in South Ruislip . All the crew and passengers escaped unharmed by climbing through the loft of the house and leaving via the front door. No residents were injured, even though the owner of the house next door was standing at her front gate when the aircraft came down. The owners of

729-641: A maximum of 7,000 a year. This limit remained in force in 2008. Northolt received its first gate guardian , a Spitfire F. Mk 22, in September 1963. Purchased from the RAF in 1969 for use in the film Battle of Britain , it was replaced by a Spitfire Mk XVI on 2 June 1970. This aircraft remained at the station until its removal on 8 September 1989 for restoration to full flying condition. The Kermit Weeks ' Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City , Florida, purchased

810-525: A month after commencing operations. Polish pilot Squadron Leader Franciszek Kornicki, who saw wartime service at RAF Northolt, was reunited with the Supermarine Spitfire he had flown at a special ceremony in September 2010. An additional memorial to British, Polish, Australian and New Zealand aircrew killed during the Battle of Britain was unveiled in September 2010. In October that year, the hangar which had housed Churchill's personal aircraft,

891-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

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972-536: A record of air activity during the First World War, was also relocated to RAF Northolt from RAF Bentley Priory in 2008 as part of this project. As a result, the station has been extensively redeveloped with new facilities to support these operations. The statue, Letter from Home, of a First World War soldier reading a letter was moved from outside Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill to RAF Northolt in June 2007. It

1053-480: A time when personnel became involved in operations during the Gulf War . No. 38 Group RAF assumed control of RAF Northolt on 2 November 1992 following a wider restructuring of the RAF. On 16 December 1994, the new southside Operations Building opened, replacing the old Northolt Airport Terminal building. With the reorganisation of RAF Strike Command on 1 April 2000, No. 38 Group was disbanded and Northolt came under

1134-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

1215-575: Is a replica of the statue at Paddington Station and was first unveiled in 1982. Following the relocation of the British Forces Post Office and Defence Courier Service from Mill Hill, a new headquarters and main sorting facility were built for their use which opened in November 2007. New hangar facilities for the use of No. 32 Squadron were also constructed, along with new personnel accommodation. The original 1920s Officers' Mess

1296-617: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1377-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1458-671: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

1539-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1620-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1701-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

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1782-564: The Battle of Britain , No. 1 Squadron RCAF , No. 229 Squadron , No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron , No. 504 Squadron , and part of No. 264 Squadron were based at the station, all under the control of No. 11 Group RAF , headquartered at RAF Uxbridge . All flew Hawker Hurricanes except No. 264 Squadron's contingent, which operated the Boulton Paul Defiant . During the Battle of Britain, Polish 303 Squadron

1863-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1944-847: The London Stock Exchange but the idea did not progress any further. The outbreak of the First World War necessitated a new aerodrome for the Royal Flying Corps. The Corps had received the Royal Warrant on 13 April 1912, whereupon Major Sefton Brancker of the War Office conducted aerial surveys in 1914 of Glebe Farm in Ickenham , and Hundred Acres Farm and Down Barnes Farm in Ruislip, looking for

2025-654: The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel is three minutes shorter than from Denham, which also provides savings for the Air Ambulance charity. In April 2013 the Ministry of Defence announced a proposal to increase the number of private flights from 7,000 to 12,000 per year as part of plans to increase the income generated by the airfield. The number of flights would be limited to 40 per day, and

2106-538: The global positioning system (GPS) were available, the letters NO (for Northolt) and LH (for Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers on the approach to each airfield, one at Southall for the approach to Heathrow's diagonal runway (coded 23L) and one at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt's runway (then coded 26), in an effort to prevent a recurrence of such errors. By the 1980s movements of privately owned aircraft, mainly corporate jets, outnumbered military aircraft. Civil flights were limited to 28 per day, with

2187-751: The British Armed Forces. The presence of the aircraft during the Olympics became the first time fighter aircraft had been stationed at RAF Northolt since the Second World War. The Typhoons left Northolt on 16 August following the conclusion of the Olympics. The overnight base of the London Air Ambulance moved to RAF Northolt from Denham Aerodrome in February 2013. The flying time from the station to its daytime base at

2268-519: The Command. Northolt continued as a Sector Fighter Station until February 1944. As a result of this and the new larger runway, the smaller 02/20 runway closed in April 1944. RAF Northolt became home to Prime Minister Winston Churchill 's personal aircraft, a modified Douglas C-54 Skymaster , in June 1944. The aircraft was used to fly him to meetings with other Allied leaders. Between 20 and 21 July 1944,

2349-645: The No. 1 Polish Fighter Wing. Polish Fighter Squadrons based at Northolt in 1942 took part in Operation Jubilee (the raid on Dieppe) on 19 August alongside Nos. 302 and 308 from nearby RAF Heston . Reconnaissance squadrons No. 16 Squadron and No. 140 Squadron operating Supermarine Spitfires and de Havilland Mosquitos moved to Northolt in 1944. No. 69 Squadron with their Vickers Wellingtons modified for photographic reconnaissance arrived later. All three reconnaissance squadrons were combined to form No. 34 (PR) Wing. In 1943,

2430-543: The Queen. The station received the Freedom of Entry to the London Borough of Hillingdon on 11 May 2000. This allowed military personnel to march through the borough in full uniform, an honour granted by the council in light of 2000 being the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the 85th anniversary of the opening of RAF Northolt. The neighbouring RAF Uxbridge station had received the same honour in 1960. The remains of

2511-573: The RAF Northolt station commander and the RAF chaplain-in-chief. Attention was high again in 2001 when Ronnie Biggs , the seriously ill, fugitive Great Train Robber , was flown from Brazil to the airfield to be arrested by waiting police officers. Biggs had escaped from custody in 1965; upon his return he was taken to Belmarsh Prison to complete the remainder of his sentence. Since 1 June 1998, station commanders have served as aides-de-camp to

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2592-503: The Second World War, stands near the southeastern corner of the airfield. Its name is also commemorated at the adjacent eponymous junction on Western Avenue . Squadrons based at RAF Northolt during the battle shot down a total of 148 Luftwaffe aircraft and damaged 52. A further 25 were claimed by pilots and recorded as "probables". Group Captain Vincent became one of the few RAF airmen to shoot down an enemy aircraft in both World Wars. He

2673-480: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Farnborough Airfield Too Many Requests If you report this error to

2754-832: The United Kingdom. It was the first RAF station to operate the Hawker Hurricane, with No. 111 Squadron receiving the first four aircraft in December 1937, and reaching its full complement by February 1938. In the lead-up to war, the RAF implemented a policy of adding concrete runways to important airfields; by 1939 Northolt had a new 800-by-50-yard (732 by 46 m) concrete runway. Later in 1939 RAF Hendon became one of its satellite airfields. Polish pilots were taught English at RAF Uxbridge, where they also practised formation flying using tricycles with radios, compasses and speed indicators. On 15 September 1940 during

2835-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

2916-574: The aerodrome. Flights later resumed from the Great West Aerodrome owned by Fairey in Harmondsworth , which was eventually developed as Heathrow Airport. No. 43 Squadron went on to fly sorties over France from 17 January 1917, taking part in the Battle of Vimy Ridge between 4 and 8 April 1917. No. 600 Squadron and No. 601 Squadron of the fledgling Royal Auxiliary Air Force were formed at Northolt in 1925 under

2997-589: The aircraft whereupon the station received a fibreglass replica of a Spitfire Mk IX as a replacement. Servicing of No. 32 Squadron passed from the RAF to the private company Fields Aviation Services in April 1985, then to Lovaux Aircraft Servicing in 1990. In 1991, the Station Flight was established, taking delivery of two Britten-Norman Islanders in December which entered service in January 1992. No. 32 Squadron celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 1991, at

3078-503: The airfield became "Northolt" despite being in neighbouring South Ruislip. In the same year the airfield was extended westwards, and aircraft began flying sorties in defence of London against Zeppelin raids. No. 18 Squadron was formed in the same month as Northolt and equipped with Bleriot Experimental biplanes, whose slow speed led to heavy losses in combat with the German Fliegertruppe . In 1916, No. 43 Squadron

3159-513: The airfield over a fifteen-month period, although only two were recorded as hitting the airfield itself. Under the leadership of the station commander, Group Captain Stanley Vincent , the airfield was camouflaged to resemble civil housing. Vincent had been concerned that camouflaging the airfield as open land would look too suspicious from the air; Northolt was surrounded by housing and so a large open area would draw attention. A fake stream

3240-488: The airfield the busiest in Europe. By then the only scheduled airlines were BEA and Aer Lingus. The RAF maintained a presence throughout its use by civil airlines, making it the longest continuously used airfield in the history of the Royal Air Force. En route from Northolt to Dublin , on 10 January 1952, a civil Douglas C-47 Skytrain operated by Aer Lingus and named "St. Kevin" flew into an area of extreme turbulence caused by

3321-432: The airfield was used by civil aviation during the construction of nearby Heathrow Airport. During this period, Northolt became a major base for British European Airways (BEA), which used the nearby Bourne School as its headquarters. Other airlines including Aer Lingus , Alitalia , Scandinavian Airlines System and Swissair used the airfield for scheduled services across Europe. In December 1946, after taking off during

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3402-479: The airfield when the body of Diana, Princess of Wales , arrived there from Villacoublay airfield, in Paris, France, after her death in a car crash in the city on 31 August 1997. The Queen's Colour Squadron , then based at neighbouring RAF Uxbridge, acted as the bearer party, while the flight was met by the prime minister , the lord chamberlain , Lord Lieutenant of Greater London , secretary of state for defence ,

3483-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

3564-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

3645-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

3726-616: The coffin from the aircraft to the hearse. The Ministry of Defence launched Project MoDEL (Ministry of Defence Estates London) in 2006 to consolidate many of its London-based operations at RAF Northolt. Under the project, RAF Bentley Priory , RAF Uxbridge, RAF West Ruislip, RAF Eastcote and the Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill were all closed between 2006 and 2010 with any remaining units transferring to Northolt. The Air Historical Branch, originally established in 1919 to provide

3807-502: The command of Squadron Leader Lord Edward Grosvenor . Both squadrons were deployed to RAF Hendon in 1927, although 600 Squadron returned in 1939. The Prince of Wales , later King Edward VIII and subsequently the Duke of Windsor , made his first flight in a Bristol F.2 Fighter from Northolt on 27 April 1929. Northolt became an active base during the Second World War for Royal Air Force and Polish Air Force squadrons in their defence of

3888-668: The control of No. 2 Group RAF . In August 1996, a Spanish Learjet operated by Mar Aviation overshot runway 25 and collided with a van heading eastward on the A40 Western Avenue; the aircraft was carrying an actress bound for Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire . The two pilots, the actress and van driver all suffered minor injuries. The ensuing investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority 's Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that both

3969-479: The crew's lack of understanding English and military air traffic control procedures had contributed significantly to the crash. Subsequently, after some thirty years of protracted consideration, an ILS was eventually fitted to Northolt's redefined Runway 25. In addition, aggregate -filled safety pits were installed at each end of the runway by 21 January 1998 to protect road users in the event of another business jet or military transport failing to stop or ascend before

4050-468: The end of the runway. The House of Commons Transport Select Committee considered the conversion of RAF Northolt to a possible offshoot of Heathrow Airport in the 1990s. While the existing runways would cause aircraft to cross the flight paths of those using Heathrow, new parallel runways were suggested. These suggestions were opposed by then MP for Ruislip-Northwood , John Wilkinson , and eventually progressed no further. Much media attention focused on

4131-934: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

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4212-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

4293-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

4374-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

4455-434: The former No. 11 Group RAF commander who had also served as station commander at Northolt between 1931 and 1932. RAF Northolt is the only airfield used in the Battle of Britain still operated by the RAF. In January 2012 it was reported that the future of the station was under review by the Ministry of Defence as part of efforts to reduce defence spending. A proposed use has been as a satellite of Heathrow Airport, although

4536-580: The former Squadron Watch office, and the Operations Block were given Grade II listed building status. The Operations Block was a prototype of the " Dowding system ", which facilitated the chain of command's issuance of orders for the interception of enemy aircraft and a scheme used for the first time during the Battle of Britain. Prior to the listing, the block was renamed the Sir Keith Park Building on 20 September in honour of

4617-458: The house had not moved in at the time of the crash as they were due to be married a few days later. The house was later named "Dakota Rest", and still stands today. In June 1951, BEA introduced helicopter services to Hay Mills Rotor Station in Birmingham and to London Heathrow, operated by a pair of Westland-Sikorsky S51s . During 1952 a total of 50,000 air movements were recorded, making

4698-548: The increase would be phased in over three years to 2016. On 13 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II 's coffin arrived at Northolt from Edinburgh Airport , after which it was taken by road to Buckingham Palace . The flight was welcomed by a party including the Prime Minister Liz Truss and the Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace . An RAF bearer party formed by The Queen's Colour Squadron transferred

4779-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

4860-505: The main contractor, and Mott MacDonald in a support role. The runway closed and work began on 15 April 2019. No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron fixed wing flight relocated to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, whilst civilian aircraft used alternative civilian airports. Helicopters continued to operate from Northolt during the construction work. The first landing on the resurfaced runway was on 9 October 2019. The runway underwent testing as part of

4941-399: The most effective operating base for new squadrons. He settled on a site near Northolt Junction railway station; in January 1915 the government requisitioned the land. It is rumoured that the government official tasked with acquiring the land arrived at the site with his map upside down, leading to the government requisitioning and developing land on the wrong side of the railway line, including

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5022-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

5103-535: The nearby Express Dairies plant in South Ruislip. There were no fatalities. Later that year, on 25 October, a Pan Am Boeing 707 , heading for Heathrow, mistakenly landed at Northolt with forty-one passengers on board. A Lufthansa Boeing 707 also attempted to land at the station on 28 April 1964 but was dissuaded by a red signal flare fired by personnel from Air Traffic Control. In the days before navigational aids such as instrument landing systems (ILS) and

5184-567: The new much larger civil airport at Heathrow. No. 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit (AIDU) moved to the station in 1956 from the neighbouring RAF West Ruislip station. The unit had been established in 1953 to provide information on airfields, communications and navigational aids for the benefit of aircraft safety. AIDU was originally under the command of RAF Transport Command but this was moved to Home Command in March 1957. On 1 June 1960, an Avro Anson aircraft suffered engine failure soon after take-off from Northolt and crash-landed on top of

5265-425: The old Hill Farm. Construction of the new aerodrome, to be named "RFC Military School, Ruislip", began in January 1915. It opened on 3 May 1915, becoming known as Northolt and home to No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron which relocated from Farnborough . Most early RAF airfields were named after the nearest railway station, in this case Northolt Junction, later named Northolt Halt and now South Ruislip station ; so

5346-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

5427-417: The recommissioning process before officially reopening on 1 November 2019 with commercial operations scheduled to resume on 11 November 2019. The following flying and notable non-flying units based at RAF Northolt: No. 1 Group (Air Combat) No. 2 Group (Air Combat Support) Other Royal Logistic Corps Defence Intelligence IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

5508-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

5589-722: The site. Units currently based at RAF Northolt are No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron , the King's Colour Squadron , 600 (City of London) Squadron , No 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit, the Air Historical Branch and the Central Band of the RAF . Following Louis Blériot 's first flight across the English Channel in 1909, the British Army considered the necessity of defending the United Kingdom from

5670-411: The station became the first to fly sorties using Supermarine Spitfires (Mk IXs) in German airspace in support of bomber operations. On 25 March, RAF Ferry Command became RAF Transport Command and thereafter used Northolt as a London base for the transfer of new aircraft from factories to airfields. Runway 26/08 was extended in February that year to accommodate the larger transport aircraft required by

5751-452: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

5832-558: The station was the first to take delivery of the Hawker Hurricane . The station played a key role during the Battle of Britain , when fighters from several of its units, including No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron , engaged enemy aircraft as part of the defence of London. It became the first base to have squadrons operating Supermarine Spitfire aircraft within German airspace. During the construction of Heathrow Airport, Northolt

5913-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

5994-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

6075-672: Was a long-serving RAF man who had claimed an aerial victory over the Western Front in the First World War. By the time of the Battle of Britain he was too old for operational flying. Nevertheless, he took to the skies during one raid and brought down a German aircraft. After the Battle of Britain, the station remained a base for daytime fighter operations, with No. 302 Polish Fighter Squadron , No. 229 Squadron and No. 615 Squadron all arriving before 3 November 1940. No. 308 Polish Fighter Squadron and No. 306 Polish Fighter Squadron later joined No. 303 during 1941 to form

6156-611: Was agreed that the South Hillingdon branch of the St. John Ambulance service would move from its existing base in RAF Uxbridge to new premises at Northolt. The station's new police dog section, featuring kennels and a quarantine building, opened in February 2012, marking the completion of building work. In October 2018, a £23 million contract to resurface Northolt's runway was awarded to Lagan Aviation & Infrastructure as

6237-629: Was formed under the command of Major Sholto Douglas . Aircraft equipping the squadron included the Sopwith 1½ Strutter , built by the Fairey Aviation company, then in Hayes . The Strutter made its first test flight from Northolt in 1916 with Harry Hawker at the controls. Fairey conducted test flights at Northolt from 1917 until 1928 when the Air Ministry gave the company notice to vacate

6318-512: Was painted across the main runway while the hangars were decorated to look like houses and gardens. The result was so effective that pilots flying to Northolt from other airfields often struggled to find it. Thirty Allied airmen including servicemen from Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Poland and the United Kingdom were killed flying from RAF Northolt during the Battle of Britain, of whom ten were Polish. The Polish War Memorial dedicated to all Polish airmen who lost their lives during

6399-555: Was refurbished as part of the work, which also saw the relocation of the replica Supermarine Spitfire gate guardian to the passenger terminal, and the unveiling of a new replica Hawker Hurricane gate guardian near the eastern station entrance in September 2010, commemorating the aircrew based at Northolt who had fought in the Battle of Britain. Upon the closure of RAF Uxbridge, control of the Battle of Britain Bunker passed to RAF Northolt to allow continued public visits. In December 2010 it

6480-675: Was the highest scoring Hurricane Sqd in Fighter Command, with its Czech pilot Sergeant Josef František becoming the fourth highest scoring RAF "ace" during the battle. The Luftwaffe bombed the airfield in August 1940 as well as other sector airfields in the area, including Biggin Hill , Hornchurch and North Weald , as part of a concentrated effort against the airfields and sector stations of No. 11 Group RAF. A total of 4,000 bombs were recorded as falling within two miles (3 km) of

6561-497: Was used for commercial civil flights, becoming the busiest airport in Europe for a time and a major base for British European Airways . More recently the station has become the hub of British military flying operations in the London area. Northolt has been extensively redeveloped since 2006 to accommodate these changes, becoming home to the British Forces Post Office , which moved to a newly constructed headquarters and sorting office on

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