16 Facts About RAF Northolt

RAF Northolt has been extensively redeveloped since 2006 to accommodate these changes, becoming home to the British Forces Post Office, which moved to a newly constructed headquarters and sorting office on the site.

Units currently based at RAF Northolt are No 32 Squadron, the Queen's Colour Squadron, 600 Squadron, No 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit, the Air Historical Branch and the Central Band of the RAF.

RAF Northolt established to develop the site was listed on the London Stock Exchange but the idea did not progress any further.

RAF Northolt settled on a site near Northolt Junction railway station; in January 1915 the government requisitioned the land.

RAF Northolt became an active base during the Second World War for Royal Air Force and Polish Air Force squadrons in their defence of the United Kingdom.

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Vincent had been concerned that camouflaging the airfield as open land would look too suspicious from the air; RAF Northolt was surrounded by housing and so a large open area would draw attention.

RAF Northolt was a long-serving RAF man who had claimed an aerial victory over the Western Front in the First World War.

RAF Northolt continued as a Sector Fighter Station until February 1944.

RAF Northolt became home to Prime Minister Winston Churchill's personal aircraft, a modified Douglas C-54 Skymaster, in June 1944.

The RAF Northolt maintained a presence throughout its use by civil airlines, making it the longest continuously used airfield in the history of the Royal Air Force.

RAF Northolt's operations became constrained by its proximity to the new much larger civil airport at Heathrow.

On 1 June 1960, an Avro Anson aircraft suffered engine failure soon after take-off from Northolt and crash-landed on top of the nearby Express Dairies plant in South Ruislip.

RAF Northolt was killed in action over Borough Green in Kent on 27 September 1940.

Polish pilot Squadron Leader Franciszek Kornicki, who saw wartime service at RAF Northolt, was reunited with the Supermarine Spitfire he had flown at a special ceremony in September 2010.

RAF Northolt is the only airfield used in the Battle of Britain still operated by the RAF.

The Islanders had operated in electronic intelligence gathering, described by the RAF Northolt as performing "photographic mapping and light communications roles".