One Hundred Years of Aviation at Southampton Airport

2010 is a very special year for Southampton Airport, as it is the year that it celebrates its centenary. This airport is the longest established airport within the BAA group, and one of the oldest airports in the UK.

Between April and June 1910, Edwin Rowland Moon made a pioneering flight from North Stoneham Farm, which is now known as Southampton Airport. The aircraft was built locally in Southampton, and brought to the farm by horse and cart. The first flight took place at a time when aircraft did not exist and this new technology was being developed for the first time, with crowds of spectators gathering to see the man in his flying machine.
Edwin Moon in Moonbeam II, the first plane to take off from Southampton Airport.

Edwin Moon, a member of local air clubs, recommended the site to other early aviators. When Colonel Seely launched his appeal in early 1914 for farmers and landowners to inform the War Office of suitable fields that could be used as aircraft landing sites, it was natural that Eastleigh would come to the War Office’s attention for use as an aerodrome. By the time that war was declared, Eastleigh was earmarked for military use.

During the Great War Edwin Moon was a Flight Commander in the Royal Naval Air Service and was even awarded the DSO and Bar. Sadly Edwin Moon died in a tragic flying boat accident in 1920.

The regions links to aviation remained strong over the decades with Southampton Airport playing a vital role in both world wars, including the development and first flight of the Spitfire aircraft. Indeed, the very word ‘airport’ originates from Southampton, when the flying boats landed and departed from the port of Southampton, and was named ‘air-port’ by the Mayor of Southampton.

The Great War

When America entered the First World War, the United States Navy Air Force’s Northern Bombing Group searched for a base from which to attack the German-occupied Flemish coast. Their initial bases in the Pas de Calais were too vulnerable to German bombers, and so the US Navy approached the British Air Ministry for a suitable site within the UK. Eastleigh’s aerodrome, still under construction, with its newly constructed large hangars and a direct rail link to London, was chosen as the perfect location.

The Americans continued the building programme begun by the Royal Flying Corps and stationed 4,000 men in huts and tents on the site, outnumbering the Royal Air Force personnel who had a base of operations in nearby Leigh Road.

A repair and assembly department was opened on Eastleigh Aerodrome’s site, with aircraft shipped to Eastleigh from within the UK and across the Atlantic, assembled in Eastleigh and flown from there by US Marines to France. Eastleigh Aerodrome was the largest USNAF base in Europe during the Great War and indeed one of the US Navy’s largest projects of the war, and after an official inspection in September 1918, was reported as the most successful US Navy station.

On 1 October 1918 a large Caproni 600 heavy bomber biplane flew from Milan, Italy to Eastleigh. This was the first ever flight from Italy to England.

After Armistice Day most of the buildings and barracks at the aerodrome were auctioned or demolished. Eastleigh Aerodrome, capable of assembling the most advanced aircraft that Britain and America had yet conceived, was returning to obscurity. In January 1919 the American troops still at Eastleigh boarded a train at the railway line next to it taking them to Liverpool, and then a boat back home.

Between The Wars

On 1 May 1919 Civilian Air Transport was officially approved, allowing commercial flights to begin in earnest. A Government report considered Eastleigh’s aerodrome to be known as the major entry to Southampton in a similar way to how Waterloo station is synonymous with London. However Eastleigh aerodrome faced competition from Southampton Water – a perfect area for flying boats to use. Indeed, within twenty miles of Southampton Water, nine different companies were building flying boats, including two on the Isle of Wight.

In 1921 the site was taken over by shipping companies Cunard and White Star Line. They formed the Atlantic Park Hostel Company, and used the site as a transmigrant centre, providing somewhere for those changing ship at Southampton to stay.

In 1928 the Prince of Wales delivered a speech in which he stated that every major town and city should have a municipal airport, naming Southampton as an example of a town without one. In 1929 the Mayor of Southampton negotiated to purchase the site of Eastleigh Aerodrome’s runway, although the preferred option would have been a site next to Southampton Water which could be used for both flying boats as well as conventional aircraft. After considering sites on the Fawley marshes and Calshot, Eastleigh Aerodrome was chosen and the remaining land owned by the Atlantic Park was purchased in 1932. Although the site was now officially renamed the Southampton Municipal Airport, it was more commonly referred to as Eastleigh Aerodrome. Plans to flood the neighbouring water meadows by damming the river Itchen to make a mile-long lake with two runways suitable for flying boats, though proposed, were considered promising but too expensive to put into practice at the time.

Between 1928 and the mid 1930s Eastleigh Aerodrome was proposed as the UK site for a transatlantic airship service to America. The airships R100, R101, Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg were all seen in Southampton’s sky, although the R101 disaster ended all plans for further airship development within the UK.

In 1935 the Air Ministry, fearing the outbreak of war, negotiated with the Southampton Corporation which now owned the aerodrome to establish a new RAF Fleet Air Arm base at the airport, RAF Eastleigh, later renamed in August 1936 to RAF Southampton. Naval Aircraft from aircraft carriers based in Portsmouth were serviced at the site. Two fighter prototypes, the first of which was the Vickers Venom, were developed and tested in Eastleigh. The Venom was to prove inferior to the other prototype developed and never entered production. In 1936 King Edward VIII himself landed at RAF Eastleigh, and was shown the other, secret prototype aircraft at the end of the runway; the very first Spitfire.

The Spitfire

In 1936 Supermarine opened a test flight facility at Eastleigh aerodrome, where work commenced on testing an aircraft built to meet the Air Ministry need for a single seat fighter aircraft with eight guns, an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gearThe aircraft was constructed a few miles south in the area of Southampton known as Woolston. R. J. Mitchell, Supermarine’s chief designer, was determined to design and construct the greatest fighter aircraft in the world, drawing on his impressive Schneider Trophy experience.

R.J. Mitchell’s chief brainwave was in the shape of the elliptical wings. The prototype, numbered K5054, powered by a Rolls Royce Merlin engine and piloted by Captain J. “Mutt” Summers, flew for the first time on 5 March 1936.

The prototype displayed unbelievably superb handling qualities and performance, with a speed of almost 350mph. The Air Ministry, impressed, ordered 310 Mark I Spitfires within 3 months of the historic first flight on the 3 June 1936. These were merely the first of almost 23,000 Spitfires built during the Second World War^.

The Spitfire was so advanced it was used not only by Britain’s Royal Air Force, but also in the air forces of Australia, Egypt, France, Greece, Portugal, Canada, New Zealand, The Soviet Union and America. During the Battle of Britain, when on 1 September 1940 Reichsmarschall Goering asked ace Adolf Galland if there was anything he needed in the Battle of Britain, he famously replied “A squadron of Spitfires”. R. J. Mitchell had achieved his ambition of creating the best fighter aircraft in the world –though he sadly did not live to see it in action, dying on 11 June 1937, two years before the Second World War began. In 1942 a rather fitting film dedicated to his quest and vision was made – “The First Of The Few” (released as “Spitfire” in America) – telling his life story up to that day in Eastleigh when he saw his vision soar.

The War Years

On 3 September 1939, war was declared. In the months preceding the declaration of war a factory on the site believed to be assembling Lockheed 12A aircraft for British Airways was in fact was equipping the planes with spy cameras for the British Secret Service and also the French Deuxieme Bureau for high altitude photography. Aircraft fitted with spy cameras at Eastleigh flew all over Germany, Italy, the Middle East and North Africa in the months leading up to and during the war.

On 1 July 1939 the Fleet Air Arm base at Eastleigh was renamed HMS Raven and, as a Naval station and according to Naval customs, for the remainder of the war the airport was referred to as a ship, even though it was in fact an aerodrome. The fact that HMS Raven was an aerodrome didn’t prevent German propaganda announcing on radio that HMS Raven had been sunk in the English Channel, much to the amusement of those stationed there.

Among the Fleet Air Arm personnel to serve at HMS Raven during the war were Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, both of whom later pursued acting careers.

Also at the Eastleigh Aerodrome site was the factory belonging to Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft, known as COAs, which constructed the bizarre looking ‘Flying Wing’ aircraft as well as work equipping the spy planes. They modified aircraft to be able to use the revolutionary air-sea rescue parachutable lifeboat that was designed by Isle of Wight inventor Uffa Fox and also produced the Naval version of the Spitfire – the Seafire. Over 400 Seafires were constructed at COAs during the war, as well as the production of Blenheim, Halifax, Walrus and Otter aircraft components. Also at Eastleigh was the Air Medical School, which developed suits to prevent pilots forced to land in the Atlantic freezing to death.

During the war, Southampton was the ninth most attacked city in Britain. Eastleigh Aerodrome, just north of the city, was attacked ten times by the Luftwaffe. The first took place on 21 August 1940, when the COA factory was attacked with little damage. The next raid, on 11 September 1940 severely damaged the COA factory and claimed several casualties. Fortunately little damage was done on the attacks of the 8 October, 18 22 and 23 November 1940 or indeed on 17 April or 26 June 1941. On the 22 June 1942 two men were killed and considerable damage was done to the factories on the site; the air raid warnings however had prevented further loss of life. The final attack, from flying bombs in June 1944, fortunately missed the airfield and caused no damage or loss of life.

Post War

Air Services from Southampton Airport, to the Channel Islands, resumed in September 1945. The aerodrome, becoming an airport once more, was officially renamed Southampton Airport on its return to civilian life. In May 1946 the airport was completely de-requisitioned; civilian flying and not just scheduled flights were once again permitted.

The plan to develop the land East of the airport into a flying boat landing lake was again proposed, debated in the House of Commons where it was deferred in favour of developing the airport at Heathrow although it was acknowledged that Southampton Water should be Britain’s premier flying boat port.

Southampton airport retained its grass runways long after its major competitors within the UK had upgraded theirs, and this was a major factor in its relative decline in popularity. In 1961 the airport was privatised, and finally in 1966 a hard concrete runway was constructed. The size of the airport shrunk considerably in 1983 when the M27 Motorway was built. This divided the airport’s south side, separating the former Cunliffe-Owen Factory now owned by Fords from the airport terminal. Much of the former airport land to the south of the central terminal building was developed into a retail park, meaning the airport had shrunk in size as well as importance by the end of the 20th Century.

Saunders-Roe Helicopters At Eastleigh

In 1946 the Cierva Autogiro Company, which had been based in Hamble, Southampton, since 1926, opened a factory in Southampton Airport where they designed and developed the W9 helicopter prototype. In January 1951 the Isle of Wight company Saunders-Roe, who were based in East Cowes, bought the majority stakeholding in Cierva Autogyro with the intention on developing this small company into its helicopter arm. Saunders-Roe were the Isle of Wight aircraft company ahead of their time which was to invent the hovercraft, build the world’s largest flying boat, the first jet-powered flying boat and also rockets capable of launching satellites into space.

Saunders-Roe employed former Polish Air Force officer Tadeus Ciastula as chief designer, expanded the factory and built a rotor testing building on the eastern side of the airfield. They continued to develop Cierva’s W14 helicopter, which was in early stages of production, modifying it to become the Skeeter. This was an advanced, early 2-man helicopter, capable of staying airborne for 3 hours, travelling at 80mph. Eighty-eight were constructed at Eastleigh, 68 were bought by the Army Air Corps, six by the Federal German Army, four by the Federal German Navy, and others were used as air ambulances and training craft.

The next helicopter built at Eastleigh was the Sprite. This small, five man helicopter, came in two variants – for Naval use it was known as the Wasp, where it was the first small-ship aircraft, and the Army variant was the Scout. 283 were produced between 1958 and 1972; 96 Wasps, 148 Scouts and thirty five exported abroad, although sadly only the prototype and initial aircraft were produced at Eastleigh. The maiden flight took place on 20 July 1958.

In 1959 Britain’s aviation industry was radically restructured and absorbed into one company. Saunders-Roe Helicopter Division, as well as the Helicopter divisions of the Bristol Aircraft Company and Fairey Aviation, were merged with Westland Aircraft to form one company, Westland Helicopters. Saunders-Roe’s helicopter division was closed in 1960 and the factory in Eastleigh was run down while design and production transferred to Hayes, Middlesex. Although later helicopters, such as the Whirlwind and Wessex, continued to be constructed by the company up until the late 1990s, the Eastleigh factories were empty. Eastleigh airport, which had given the world the Spitfire, was no longer at the cutting edge of aircraft design.

More on the History of flying in South Hampshire

The Airport Today

Today the airport handles just under 2 million passengers per year and has flights to several destinations both within the UK and abroad. Flights within the UK include to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. European destinations include several airports in Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland. There are more flights to popular tourist destinations in the summer.

One of the most common sights at Southampton Airport is the regular and frequent Aurigny Air Service to the Channel Islands. These use Britten-Norman Trislanders, built at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, between 1971 and 1984. The Trislander is a distinctive three piston-engined aircraft capable of carrying 17 passengers whose innovative and advanced design won it a Queen’s Award to Industry. Over the town centre of Eastleigh it is a charming and noiseless sight, a comforting relief from the noisy jets that other airlines use. ( see comments below)

ON A PERSONAL VIEW

My Grandfather Walter Moldon was a tenant at North Stoneham farm during the Second World War, the farm being bought by The Air Ministry in 1917 and he had to relinquish the farm in 1952 for no compensation, wouldn’t happen today.

My recollections of the Farmhouse are sketchy, I was only a wee chap at the time, but I remember having to go under the railway line and across what is the main runway to reach the Farmhouse. Once a Spitfire or something similar had landed badly and the plane was like a javelin stuck up to the cockpit in earth with the remainder of the fuselage pointing skywards.

North Stoneham farm 1930

General Duflieux, head of a party of 100 French officers who arrived at Southampton on a visit to England, shaking hands at Eastleigh Aerodrome with Miss M. Moldon, first Civil Air Guard girl to qualify there. May 1939.

Both my Father George Moldon and his sister Molly Moldon gained their pilots licence from Eastleigh, my Aunt was the first Civil Air Guard girl to qualify there. My father went on to join the R.A.F. and become an instructor. The Hampshire Aero Club (1926-1966) was a great social gathering place, the only slight memory of the club I have was taking Eddie Barlow ( South African cricketer) there on his stag night, least said the better, he married a cousin of mine and we had a pretty good evening.