RAF Harlaxton

RAF Harlaxton
Harlaxton Manor was requisitioned by the RAF during the Second World War as the station's officers' mess.
IATA: none ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type	Military
Operator	Royal Flying Corps Royal Air Force
Location	Harlaxton, Lincolnshire
Built	1916
In use	41 years
Elevation AMSL	200 ft / 61 m
Coordinates	52°52′46″N 000°39′33″W / 52.87944°N 0.65917°W / 52.87944; -0.65917Coordinates: 52°52′46″N 000°39′33″W / 52.87944°N 0.65917°W / 52.87944; -0.65917
Map
RAF Harlaxton Location in Lincolnshire
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m NNW/SSE 3,900 1,189 Grass WSW/ENE 3,900 1,189 Grass SW/NE 3,900 1,189 Grass
Operated as a satellite unit of RAF Spitalgate and later RAF Cranwell. Decommissioned and closed in 1957 Flying training establishment and later a relief landing ground for RAF Grantham (RAF Spitalgate)

RAF Harlaxton was a Royal Air Force station near the village of Harlaxton, 3 mi (4.8 km) south west of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The airfield was located in a triangle of flat fields midway between Harlaxton Manor (now the University of Evansville's British campus) and the nearby village of Stroxton.

Originally constructed as a Royal Flying Corps aerodrome in November 1916 it closed between the wars, reopening in 1942 as a Royal Air Force flying training establishment until its final closure in 1957.

During the Second World War Harlaxton Manor was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force as the station's officers' mess and later to temporarily house the headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division.

The airfield opened in November 1916 as a Royal Flying Corps training aerodrome with three grassed runways laid out in an equilateral triangle, unusually oriented to the north. The aerodrome remained busy throughout the First World War as a flying training establishment with a large number of aircraft present, flying mostly a motley assortment of de Havilland DH marques and Sopwith Camels.

The Royal Flying Corps' No.98 Squadron formed at Harlaxton from elements drawn from the training squadrons. After training at the station and Old Sarum Airfield the squadron was deployed to France in a day-bombing role flying DH-9s.

The station was mothballed and placed on a care and maintenance basis between the wars. Surveyed in 1937 as a possible fighter airfield for the defence of Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham it was decided that the terrain was unsuitable for tarmac runways. Instead the grass runways were retained and a major building expansion programme was undertaken. In 1942 RAF Harlaxton reopened as a satellite field and relief landing ground for the flying training squadron posted to RAF Spitalgate, Grantham under the command of No. 21 (Training) Group RAF.