RAF Boscombe Down
| MoD Boscombe Down | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Ministry of Defence | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | QinetiQ | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Amesbury, Wiltshire, England | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 407 ft / 124 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 51°09′27″N 01°44′49″W / 51.15750°N 1.74694°WCoordinates: 51°09′27″N 01°44′49″W / 51.15750°N 1.74694°W | ||||||||||||||
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 EGDM
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Radio: Boscombe Down Talk Down - 130.00 (Mhz), Approach/Zone - 126.70 (Mhz), Tower - 130.75 (Mhz)
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MoD Boscombe Down (ICAO: EGDM) is an aircraft testing site located at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. It is run and managed by QinetiQ, the company created as part of the breakup of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 2001 by the UK Ministry of Defence. It is the home of the Empire Test Pilots' School.
The site was formerly known as RAF Boscombe Down and since 1939 has evaluated aircraft for the British armed forces.
The following squadrons were based here between 1930 and 1939:
Aircraft testing at the airfield started when the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) moved from RAF Martlesham Heath in August 1939, as the Second World War hostilities commenced, when the airfield was known as RAF Boscombe Down.
The site has witnessed many significant developments in the British aviation industry, including trials of many aircraft flown by the British armed forces since the Second World War, such as the first flights of the English Electric P 1, forerunner of the English Electric Lightning, the Folland Gnat and Midge, Hawker P.1067 (the prototype Hunter), Westland Wyvern and the BAC TSR.2. It was also formerly home to the School of Aviation Medicine.
In 1992 the site was renamed the Aircraft and Armament Evaluation Establishment when experimental work moved to the Defence Research Agency. Responsibility for the site passed from the MoD Procurement Executive to the Defence Test and Evaluation Organisation (DTEO) in 1993, and subsequently to the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 1995.
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