RAF Hendon - Andrew Renwick

If any airfield in the world could claim to be the home of military aviation, RAF Hendon in London might have to be the no.1 contender.In fact, Hendon's aviation heritage covers much more than just military aircraft and actually starts over 150 years ago in August 1862. When one Henry Treacey Coxwell took a party on a balloon flight from the present-day Hendon site. It was not an auspicious start - suffering from light winds they only just reached a field near Mill Hill.Aviation returned to Hendon in 1910 in the form of British aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White, who laid the foundations for the development of the Hendon site that was soon christened "The London Aerodrome". Many famous aviation personalities (not least Geoffrey de Havilland) came to Hendon and the fledgling airfield hosted nine Air Displays in the years leading up to World War I, before being requisitioned for pilot training and the air defence of London. Aircraft were also manufactured here including Morane-Saulnier Type H monoplanes and the Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c.Aircraft production and civilian flying training continued post-war until the airfield became an RAF station in 1927. As World War II unfolded, Hendon was a Fighter Command station: Hurricanes flew from Hendon at the height of the Battle of Britain and later in the war USAF units moved in as Hendon became home to transport and communications squadrons.With the return of peacetime, and despite the steady encroachment of urban London on the already cramped airfield site, flying continued at RAF Hendon, with the last aircraft using the site as late as 1968. Today, Hendon is best known as home of the RAF Museum, housed in part in the historic First World War hangars and widely regarded as one of the world's premier aviation collections.With over 140 historic photographs, many previously unseen, RAF Hendon is a comprehensive history of this historic airfield, the landmark events that occurred here and the remarkable aviation pioneers that secured Hendon's lasting place in aviation history and in the development of military air power.