AP 118 · No. 10 Section I · Museums Brooklands Aerodrome
Airfield heritage · Surrey

Brooklands Aerodrome

Brooklands opened in 1907 as the world's first purpose-built banked motor-racing circuit, near Weybridge. It was also one of Britain's first airfields. Alliott Verdon-Roe made taxiing and towed trials here in 1908. Louis Paulhan made the first official powered flight on 29 October 1909, in front of 20,000 people. In 1910 Hilda Hewlett and Gustave Blondeau opened Britain's first flying school here. Vickers, Bristol and Sopwith schools followed, and Hugh Dowding learned to fly at the Vickers school.

1909–1989
Open
2
Flying units listed
1
Museum on site

Also known as No. 10 Aircraft Acceptance Park

History

The story of Brooklands Aerodrome

The War Office took over in the First World War. Vickers opened a factory in 1915, and an aircraft acceptance park assembled and tested new aeroplanes until 1920. The Hawker Hurricane first flew here on 6 November 1935. In the Second World War the factories built Wellingtons, Warwicks and Hurricanes. On 4 September 1940 the Luftwaffe bombed the Vickers works, causing heavy loss of life.

Vickers-Armstrongs bought the site in 1946. The Viking, Viscount, Vanguard, VC10 and BAC One-Eleven were designed, built and delivered from here. It became British Aircraft Corporation headquarters in 1960. The works passed to British Aerospace and closed on Christmas Day 1989. Brooklands Museum Trust was formed in 1987.

Order of battle

Flying units

UnitYearsAircraft
Vickers Flying School1912–1914
No. 10 Aircraft Acceptance Park1917–1920
Today

What survives

Visit

The museum on the airfield

MuseumAdult entryAirframesHeadline exhibit
Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey £24–£27 32 Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only…
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklands