Brighton City Airport , also commonly known as Shoreham Airport, is located in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Lancing in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...

, England. It has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Founded in 1910, it is the oldest airport in the UK and the oldest purpose-built commercial airport in the world still in operation.Bloom, Nick. "Sunny Shoreham", ''Pilot'', February 2012, p70 It is now owned by Brighton City Airport Ltd (BCAL). The 1930s

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

terminal building designed by R Stavers Hessell Tiltman is listed grade II*. The airport is west of

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on ...

at Lancing in the Adur district of West Sussex. It is situated immediately to the south of the

A27 road The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish (near Salisbury) in the county of Wiltshire, follows the south coast of Hampshire and West Sussex, and terminates at Pevensey (near Eastbourne and Be ...

, between Brighton and

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and H ...

, and immediately to the north of the West Coastway railway line.

History

Shoreham (Brighton City) Airport (6659107193)

Foundation

The first aviator to fly there was

Harold H. Piffard Harold Hume Piffard (10 August 1867 – 17 January 1939) was a British artist, illustrator, and one of the first British aviators. He studied art at the Royal Academy Schools in London, exhibiting his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1895 ...

in 1910; a memorial garden celebrates his flight. The aerodrome was officially opened on 20 June 1911. The first flying school opened in 1913.

First World War

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

the aerodrome was used by the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

. It was the departure point for some of the earlier flights, using Blériots and BEs, to join the conflict across the Channel.

Inter-war period

The aerodrome became an airport for the adjacent towns of Brighton,

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th ce ...

and Worthing. It was officially opened on 13 June 1936 under the name ''Brighton Hove and Worthing Joint Municipal Airport.'' The new terminal building was built in 1936 and was designed by Stavers Tiltman in the

style. The terminal building is still in use and was designated a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 1984. In 1937 one of the local flying schools received a contract to train pilots for the Royal Air Force and was known as No. 16 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School initially using the de Havilland Tiger Moth which were later supplemented by the use of the

Hawker Hart The Hawker Hart is a British two-seater biplane light bomber aircraft that saw service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed during the 1920s by Sydney Camm and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. The Hart was a prominent British aircra ...

and Hind. With the start of the Second World War imminent, the training school moved away from Shoreham in August 1939.Brooks 1996, pp. 123–130

Second World War

The airfield started the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in civilian hands until a detachment of

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's ...

s of 225 Squadron arrived in July 1940 to undertake coastal patrols. With the nearby

RAF Tangmere RAF Tangmere was a Royal Air Force station located in Tangmere, England, famous for its role in the Battle of Britain, and one of several stations near Chichester, West Sussex. The famous Second World War aces Wing Commander Douglas Bader, a ...

damaged by air raids the Fighter Interception Unit with the

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British Multirole combat aircraft, multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter varian ...

moved to Shoreham although they had problems with the grass runway. In October 1940 422 Flight arrived with the

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness b ...

operating as night-fighters. By October 1941 both units had moved away from Shoreham. The airfield was regularly attacked during July and August 1941 and the next unit to arrive was No 11 Group Target Towing Flight in October 1941. Westland Lysanders were used to tow targets for fighter squadrons to practice air-firing. Lysanders and later the

Supermarine Walrus The Supermarine Walrus (originally designated the Supermarine Seagull V) was a British single-engine amphibious biplane reconnaissance aircraft designed by R. J. Mitchell and manufactured by Supermarine at Woolston, Southampton. The Walrus ...

were also based for search and rescue duties. In December 1941 a detachment of

fighters from 245 Squadron arrived at Shoreham to support the Tangmere-based squadrons. By August 1941 the fighters had moved on and only the 277 Squadron remained in the search and rescue; the Lysanders were replaced by the

Boulton Paul Defiant The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any fixed forward-firing guns ...

s in May 1942. * Air Sea Rescue Flight RAF, Shoreham/Friston/Shoreham (1941) became 'C' Flight,

No. 277 Squadron RAF No. 277 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed as an air-sea rescue unit in World War II. History Formation in World War II The squadron formed at Stapleford Tawney on 22 December 1941 equipped with the Westland Lysander and Supe ...

In February 1943 the Defiants were replaced by

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 ...

s and in April 1943 the airfield became a practice camp for RAF Regiment gunners in the anti-aircraft role. Lysanders appeared again but this time to tow targets for the regiment's gunners. A gunnery training dome built on the northern perimeter of the airfield is still there. In April 1944 No. 345 (Free French) Squadron arrived with Spitfires to support the preparations for the

Normandy invasion Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

; the squadron was active on D-Day over the beaches and escorting glider formations. No 345 Squadron moved out in August 1944 and 277 Squadron in October 1944 and the airfield went into care and maintenance and was little used for the rest of the war. The airfield was bombed several times and a

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

was shot down by ground fire during one such attack, crash-landing near the terminal building. A

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

crash-landed at the airfield after being damaged during a raid on

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. The consequent damage to the old guardhouse on the north side of the airfield can still be seen.

Post-Second World War

The landing area was entirely grass until a tarmac runway was built in 1981. In 1949, F G Miles Engineering Ltd moved to Shoreham from Redhill Aerodrome and soon occupied the repaired Municipal Hangar.

Beagle Aircraft Beagle Aircraft Limited was a British light aircraft manufacturer. The company produced the Airedale, Terrier, Beagle 206, Husky and the Pup. It had factories at Rearsby in Leicestershire and Shoreham in Sussex. The company was dissolve ...

Ltd (British Executive & General Aviation Ltd) was formed at Shoreham on 7 October 1960 and design drawings were begun a few weeks later for a new prototype twin-engine light transport aircraft. Built as the Beagle B.206X at Beagle's Rearsby factory near Leicester, this promising new type was completed at Shoreham and first flown by John Nicolson on 15 August 1961. Beagle Aircraft Ltd was nationalised in late 1966 and taken over by the British Motor Corporation but later entered receivership in late 1969 and soon closed down. In 2006, due to mounting debts the airport was sold by the local authority to a property company on a 150-year lease. It was intended that the airport would provide increasing commercial flight activity for the conurbation on the coast nearby, particularly the city of Brighton & Hove. The pre-war municipal hangar was

listed Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in July 2007.

Present

The airport is used by privately owned light aeroplanes, flying schools, and for light aircraft and helicopter maintenance and sales. A number of operators provide flying lessons, sight-seeing and pleasure flights, including the experience of flying in two

T-6 Harvard The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air ...

World War II

training aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristi ...

. On 2 May 2014, Brighton City Airport Ltd (BCAL) acquired a lease and took ownership of its operations, which at the time was named Shoreham Airport, taking over from Albemarle. Once the takeover was completed, the airport was officially renamed as Brighton City (Shoreham) Airport. In August 2019 Cyrrus acquired a 25 year lease from Brighton & Hove City Council to operate the airport

Wild Life Festival

Annually between 2015 and 2017, Wild Life Festival, a live music event developed by Disclosure and

Rudimental Rudimental are a British drum and bass band, signed to Asylum Records, Atlantic Records and Black Butter Records. The band consists of Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon "Locksmith" Rolle. They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2013, a ...

was held at Brighton City Airport.

RAFA Shoreham Airshow

The airport hosted the

Royal Air Forces Association The Royal Air Forces Association (also called the RAF Association or RAFA) is the largest single service membership organization and the longest standing registered service charity that provides welfare support to the family of RAF members. Th ...

(RAFA) Shoreham Airshow for around 25 years. On 22 August 2015, a

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet propulsion, jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly dev ...

jet fighter taking part in the airshow

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stations, along with some Alternativ ...

onto the

just outside Brighton City Airport, killing 11 people, and the show has not been held since.

Facilities

There is one terminal building at the airport, together with flight indicator boards announcing all arrivals and departures, a live runway camera and a licensed restaurant called ''The Hummingbird Restaurant and Cafe''. The airport houses Northbrook College's engineering department – a

Centre of Vocational Excellence Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

(CoVE) in Aerospace and Aviation. A number of aerospace and aviation and non-aviation commercial businesses have offices and workshops on the airport site and along the perimeter road. The largest operator is Flying Time Aviation, providing integrated commercial pilot training, with a fleet of Diamond Aircraft DA40s and DA42s. The visitor centre features exhibits about the airport's history and area aviation history, a library and archive of related historic materials and guided tours of the airport.

Ground transport

The airport is served by

station on the West Coastway Line, distant. A halt, '' Bungalow Town Halt'', had been opened in 1910, just in front of the main building. In 1935 its name was changed to ''Shoreham Airport''. The station closed in 1940.

Airlines and destinations

Various

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

companies are based at the airport. Brighton City Airways operated out of the airport to Paris Pontoise airport but ceased operations in 2013 after encountering problems setting up a point of entry at the French airport.

Statistics

South East Air Support Unit

The

South East Air Support Unit The South East Air Support Unit was a joint consortium established to provide police aviation for Sussex Police, Surrey Police and Hampshire Constabulary. It was formed in October 2010 and gained a single Police Air Operator's Certificate on 1 ...

formerly operated from Brighton City Airport. Previously Sussex Police Air Operations Unit, the unit moved in summer 2007 to

Dunsfold Park Dunsfold Aerodrome (former ICAO code EGTD) is an unlicensed airfield in Surrey, England, near the village of Cranleigh. It extends across land in the villages of Dunsfold and Alfold. It was built by the Canadian Army and civilian contractors ...

, west of

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after ...

, before moving to its present base at

Redhill Aerodrome Redhill Aerodrome is an operational general aviation aerodrome located south-east of Redhill, Surrey, England, in green belt land. Redhill Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P421) that allows flights for the public transport o ...

in autumn 2013.

Shoreham Airport RFFS

The Shoreham Airport Rescue and Firefighting Service provides a professional fire-fighting capability at the airport during operating hours. Headed by a senior airport fire officer, the service's two watches (Blue Watch and Red Watch) man two fire appliances. The service has operated at the airport continuously for over 90 years. Brighton City Airport's aircraft fuelling service is operated as a department of the Rescue and Firefighting Service. There are three large mobile fuel bowsers for delivering both

avgas Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, w ...

and jet fuel to aircraft, including a service (accompanied by fire appliances) for fast delivery of fuel to police and coastguard emergency helicopters without disengaging their engines. Fuel technicians are attached to the firefighting watches and work the same shift pattern

Film appearances

Due to its listed period facilities and art deco main building, Brighton City Airport has been used by film-makers seeking to portray a small town airport, or also for historical reconstructions of airport scenes from the 1930s onwards. The airport has appeared in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

TV series ''

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differen ...

'' and three episodes of ''

Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Poirot'' (also known as ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'') is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet starred as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional H ...

'' (" The Adventure of the Western Star", " Death in the Clouds" and "

Lord Edgware Dies ''Lord Edgware Dies'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of ''Thirtee ...

"). External shots of the airport were also used in the films ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Langdon ...

'' and ''

Woman in Gold ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (also called ''The Lady in Gold'' or ''The Woman in Gold'') is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, , a Jewish banker and sugar ...

''. The airport was used in the feature-length documentary ''Angel Without Wings'' and '' A Dark Reflection''.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Brighton City Airport (official website)
{{Authority control 1910 establishments in England Adur District Airports established in 1910 Airports in West Sussex Art Deco airports Art Deco architecture in England Grade II* listed buildings in West Sussex Transport in West Sussex