Monument record 0847600000 - Marlow Airport/RAF Booker/Wycombe Air Park

Summary

Civil airfield used as a military airfield from 1939, now in use for recreational flying.

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

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Type and Period (3)

  • MILITARY AIRFIELD (Modern - 1939 AD to 1963 AD)
  • AIRFIELD (Modern - 1938 AD? to 1939 AD)
  • AIRFIELD (Modern - 1963 AD to 1999 AD)

Description

Civil airfield requisitioned by Air Ministry in 1939 (B1) or June 1941 (B3). Used as No.21 Elementary Flying School (B2) flying Tiger Moths and Miles Magisters (B3). Also known as Booker airfield.
By 1955 the four wartime grass runways had been joined by a 90 foot wide pierced steel planking hard runway. The RAF continued use until 1963 with Bomber Command Communications Flight based here. Now operated by British Airways under lease from Wycombe District Council (B3) and known as Wycombe Air Park.
Recorded by Paul Francis in 'Airfield Defences - Surviving Structures in England 1996-1998' (B4).
Detailed Air Ministry site record plans (B5-6).
During WWII a technical site was constructed containing 4 Bellman hangars. The Elementary Flying School remained at Booker until it disbanded in February 1950. During the Korean War No.1 Basic Flying Training School was based at the site (B7).

Sources (10)

  • ---SBC22336 Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1947. 1947 RAF Vertical APs.
  • ---SBC22337 Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1946. 1946 RAF Vertical APs.
  • ---SBC22338 Aerial Photograph: Cambridge Committee for Aerial Photography. 1985. Bucks County Survey vertical APs.
  • <1>SBC19271 Bibliographic reference: Robin J Brooks. 2000. Thames Valley Airfields in the Second World War. pp18, 213.
  • <2>SBC19272 Bibliographic reference: Buckinghamshire Record Office. 1995. Wartime Buckinghamshire 1939-1945. p7.
  • <3>SBC22293 Digital archive: Barry Abraham. 2005. 60 flying years at Booker.
  • <4>SBC22299 Digital archive: Council for British Archaeology. 2002. Defence of Britain database. Anti-invasion record ID:S0003894.
  • <5>SBC22473 Graphic material: Air Ministry (RAF). 1945. RAF Booker record site plan. Drawing no. 2560/45.
  • <6>SBC22474 Graphic material: Air Ministry (RAF). 1955?. RAF Booker record site plan. Drawing no. 3391/62B.
  • <7>SBC22311 Bibliographic reference: Bruce Barrymore Halpenny. Action Stations: 8 Military Arfields of Greater London. No.8. p46.

Location

Grid reference Centred SU 82725 90787 (1578m by 1220m) (Exact)
Civil Parish GREAT MARLOW, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

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Record last edited

Apr 26 2018 3:32PM

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