Samlesbury Aerodrome
Encyclopedia
Samlesbury Aerodrome is a disused airfield at Balderstone near Samlesbury
Samlesbury
Samlesbury is a small village and civil parish in the South Ribble borough of Lancashire, England. Samlesbury Hall, a historic house, is located in the village as well as Samlesbury Aerodrome...

, in the Ribble Valley
Ribble Valley
Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Clitheroe. Other places include Whalley, Longridge and Ribchester. The area is so called due to the River Ribble which flows in its final stages...

 district of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

. The aerodrome is owned by defence company BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...

 which uses the site for manufacturing of several aircraft types. currently BAE employ 3,000 people at the site but this is set to increase in the next 5 years.

History

The origins of the site, which was once an active aerodrome, date back to 1922 when it was proposed that a municipal airfield be constructed to serve the nearby towns of Blackburn and Preston; however, construction did not commence on the airfield until April 1939 - the construction was accelerated because of the Second World War, when the Air Ministry
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964...

 instructed the English Electric Company (EE) to proceed with the construction of flight shed number 1. The first of the Handley Page Hampden
Handley Page Hampden
The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a British twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force serving in the Second World War. With the Whitley and Wellington, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and the first 1,000-plane...

s built by EE made its maiden flight on 22 February 1940 and by 1942 770 Hampdens had been delivered from Samlesbury. In 1940 a second factory was built and the runway was extended so construction of the Handley Page Halifax
Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...

 began. By 1945 all five main hangars and three runways had been completed. During the war the site was also home to No. 9 Group RAF who flew Hawker Hurricanes and Airspeed Oxford
Airspeed Oxford
The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford was a twin-engine aircraft used for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery during the Second World War.-Design and development:...

s from the site. By the end of the war over 3,000 bombers had been built and flown from Samlesbury.

After the war aircraft such as the Vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 (which was English Electric's first wholly designed and built aircraft) and the Lightning were built on the site. The site has also produced parts for the Anglo-French Concorde and the ill-fated TSR2
BAC TSR-2
The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 was a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation for the Royal Air Force in the late 1950s and early 1960s...

 project. When English Electric merged to become BAC and later British Aerospace it worked closely with the nearby sister plant at BAE Warton and the former BAE factory in Preston on building the Sepecat Jaguar
SEPECAT Jaguar
The SEPECAT Jaguar is an Anglo-French jet ground attack aircraft, originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Armée de l'Air in the close air support and nuclear strike role, and still in service with several export customers, notably the Indian Air Force and the Royal Air Force...

 and Panavia Tornado
Panavia Tornado
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...

 fighter aircraft.

BAE Systems Use

Today the Samlesbury facility is a high-technology BAE Systems manufacturing and aerospace facility. Spirit AeroSystems
Spirit AeroSystems
Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. , based in Wichita, Kansas, is the world's largest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer. The company builds several important pieces of Boeing aircraft, including the fuselage of the 737, portions of the 787 fuselage, and the cockpit of nearly all of its airliners...

 also occupies a small area of Samlesbury after the BAE Systems Aerostructures business was sold to Spirit AeroSystems in 2006. Spirit manufactures parts for the Airbus and other civil platforms at the facility.

The current site, which employs over 3,000 people, builds the fuselage and other parts for the Eurofighter Typhoon
Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of three companies: EADS, Alenia Aeronautica and BAE Systems; working through a holding company, Eurofighter GmbH, which was formed in 1986...

 and other aircraft including the American F-35 Lightning II
F-35 Lightning II
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multirole fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability...

 and the T-45 Goshawk
T-45 Goshawk
|-Avionics:Data from naval-technology.com *Smiths Industries, Ltd. AN/USN-2 Standard Attitude Heading and Reference System . Later replaced by the BAE/Marconi AN/ASN-180 Navigation Guidance System ....

. The site has also seen the construction of a large block to house BAE office staff. The airstrip itself still exists, serving aircraft of the 635 VGS Air Cadets Gliding Squadron using the Grob 109B motor glider, (known by the RAF as the Vigilant T1) although the runway is classed as inactive. During 2006 BAE Systems transferred ownership of the site to its Pension Fund Scheme. There are now ongoing plans to develop a high-tech aerospace business park on the airfield. Phase one of the building works began in November 2007, and will take a year to complete. In 2008 work began on the construction of a new main entrance and visitor's centre at the western boundary of the site.

It currently has a Lightning F.53 (ZF580) as a gate guard. This is painted in its RAF aircraft markings as worn after return from the Royal Saudi Air Force
Royal Saudi Air Force
The Royal Saudi Air Force , is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabian armed forces. The RSAF has developed from a largely defensive military force into one with an advanced offensive capability...

 (RSAF) where it bore serial 53-672. This was returned to the UK around 1986 (with 2,305 flying hours) when British Aerospace
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc was a UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was in the Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire...

 sold Tornado aircraft to the RSAF as part of the Al Yamamah
Al Yamamah
Al Yamamah is the name of a series of a record arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia, which have been paid for by the delivery of up to of crude oil per day to the UK government. The prime contractor has been BAE Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace...

deal. Until November 2009 there was also a Canberra PR.7 (WT537) as a gate guard but this has been removed for restoration and afterwards will spend its remaining life at a museum.

In 2009, 635 Volunteer Gliding School of the Air Training Corps was disbanded, and gliding is no longer operational at Samlesbury due to the airfield closing.
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