Some of the development of the ill-fated TSR-2 was also done here although assembly and flight testing was carried out at Warton in Lancashire , as well as the production of Jet Provost wings; other components were manufactured here for Concorde, the Panavia Tornado and Shorts Skyvan.
The closure of the British Aerospace site in ended Bournemouth's role as a significant player in the aircraft manufacturing industry. Students from home and abroad were trained in all aspects of air traffic control operations and went on to work throughout the world. Electronic computer-based ATC simulators were widely employed.
Usefully situated at an operational airfield, for a considerable period training in Approach Radar Control was facilitated by the airport ATC unit. Students were able to practise live radar control exercises using temporarily detached Civil Aviation Flying Unit de Havilland Dove aircraft as live targets. The building was also the home to the Air Traffic Control Evaluation Unit, responsible for developing technology used within the service.
The Hurn facility was purchased by a free school, Parkfield School, serving Bournemouth and the local area. In the airport was purchased jointly by its local authorities and renamed "Bournemouth Airport" later to become Bournemouth International Airport. The new owners decided to redevelop the facility as a commercial airport and, by , the airport became used by charter airlines, when European Aviation began services.
In , the airport received its first regular passenger flights when Palmair wet leased its first aircraft and European Aviation Air Charter EAC started operations. In , the airport was sold to National Express Group and then, in March , was acquired by the Manchester Airports Group, which was at that time the second-largest owner of UK airports.
In , an extension to the main runway was officially opened by the arrival of Concorde. Travel agency Bath Travel chartered Concorde for supersonic champagne lunches across the Bay of Biscay. Ryanair also began services from Bournemouth to Dublin with a Boeing Bath Travel's Palmair remained the prime user of the airport, with a permanently based there.
By the end of July, all the Typhoons had left, needing sand-filters for the conditions in Normandy and Squadron of the ADGB was the last to leave on They had come down to learn from Sqdn, the fine points of using the SCR radar in conjunction with Ground Controlled Interception units.
They encountered no success whilst in Hurn and returned to Scorton on the 10th of July. Rubbing salt into the wound, Wg. Maxwell, leader of Squadron bagged a Ju 88 that very night bringing his squadron's total to Kills. Four days later would move to Wiltshire and then become the first Mosquito unit in France. But Hurn once again was about to change it's role and five days after the Typhoons left, so did the Mosquito's leaving the field free for new occupants and the locals to complain about more "bloody Yanks".
Coiner, flying B Marauders. The "Baltimore Whore" flew from Hurn for 25 days, mounted twenty two missions and the group passed it's hundred mark raiding targets in St.
Malo, Brest, Rouen and on the 13th destroying a rail marshalling yard at Corbeil in spectacular fashion. But by August 30th, it was all over bar the shouting. When the last B left, Hurn had one more wartime transition to make, but it did it with style. In January of , BOAC had started a development flight at Hurn testing military aircraft for conversion to passenger carrying civilian aircraft.
The aircraft they were most keen on was the redoubtable Lancaster. Tested over long distance with great success, the program resulted in the A Lancastrian civil passenger and freight carrier. This was the start of Hurn's passenger aircraft services, launching the first passenger flight to Egypt of a Lancastrian, the first passenger service to Australia 53 hours! Pan-American flew it's first passenger transatlantic flight into Hurn on the Lockheed Constellation on January 1st, and Hurn remained it's base until May of that year.
Hurn looked to have at last found it's place and until May remained the centre of Britain's post-war airline industry until someone opened up an airfield called Heath Row to major commercial development and Hurn lost out once again. But you can't keep a place like that down and it is still there, only now officially known as Bournemouth International Airport. All the aircraft were painted in the typical yellow and black stripes of target tugs.
Vickers Armstrong moved in to do all the flight-testing for the Vickers Valiant and possibly the most beautiful of all prop-liners; the Vickers Viscount, which was also built there. Repair facilities based at the airport have done work on all manner of work on aircraft from Hercules to Tornadoes. The runway was recently extended again and has succesfully hosted Concorde although most residents are hoping it doesn't come back regularly.
It's all very civilian when you look at the place now until you actually go there and then you notice some oddities. Firstly, Heathrow may have stolen Hurn's thunder, but it still needs Bournemouth International Airport very much. The extended runway means that when Heathrow is closed through too bad weather, Bournemouth gives the passengers a welcome.
Back to albums list. In the period to Hurn was the main terminal for international flights into the UK, but in Heathrow opened and the airline operators moved there.
BOAC who had maintenance facilities at Hurn also departed at this time. As part of its wartime duties, Hurn was one of the airfields established by the RAF to counter the Luftwaffe presence across the Channel in northern France.
RAF Hurn would go on to serve as a base for the development of radar in aircraft and for bombers and fighter-bombers supporting the D-Day invasion of France. It was home to a range of aircraft including Spitfires, Wellingtons and Typhoons and towards the end of , became the base for a number of US squadrons, passing into the hands of the USAAF.
Thousands of pigeons were enlisted into the RAF and were vital contributors to military operations. Paddy was released at 8.
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