Royal Air Force Booker or more simply RAF Booker was a
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
station located south west of
High Wycombe
High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...
,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...
and north east of
Henley-on-Thames,
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
Booker was opened as a flying training school in 1941 on the site of a civilian flying school requisitioned and closed on the outbreak of war in 1939.
In 1965 the site was taken over by Airways Aero Associations (now the
Airways Flying Club), who have operated the airfield as an increasingly commercial training and recreational field, now called
Wycombe Air Park. Booker featured in many of the airfield scenes in the 1965 feature film ''
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines''.
History
RAF Booker was opened as the home of
No. 21 Elementary Flying Training School RAF in 1941. The flying school operated 72
de Havilland Tiger Moths and
Miles Magisters. No. 21 EFTS trained 120 pupils on a seven-week course - later to become 11 weeks.
In May 1942, training was also started on the airfield for the
Glider Pilot Regiment.
In 1950, the
University of London Air Squadron (ULAS) resumed flying out of Booker, and it also temporarily hosted the Manchester and Liverpool University Squadrons.
In 1955, a hard runway (made of 90 feet wide pierced steel planking) was added to the four wartime grass runways.
From 1956, part of the facilities, including a hangar, were used for accommodation and annual training of Air Training Corps staff of Warrant Officer rank. This week of training was an intense course in gaining a deeper understanding of duties and of the modern requirements of an ever-improving service.
During the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
the
Director UKWMO was located at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Command (UK RAOC) at RAF Booker tasked with instigating the national
four-minute air raid warnings.
The RAF continued to base its Bomber Command Communications Flight RAF at RAF Booker until 1963.
The following units were also here at some point:
* No. 1 (Basic) Flying Training School RAF (1950-53) using Chipmunk T.10s
*
No. 5 Maintenance Unit RAF
*
No. 126 Gliding School RAF
* Air Crew Allocation Unit
* Home Command Modified Officer Cadet Training Unit
* Joint Services Staff College Flight
Current use
In 1965, the airfield became privately run, and is now
Wycombe Air Park.
See also
*
List of former Royal Air Force stations
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booker
Airports in England
Royal Air Force stations in Buckinghamshire
History of Buckinghamshire
Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom