RAF Hatfield

Hatfield aerodrome in Hertfordshire, a few miles north-east of St Albans, was first and foremost a factory airfield — the home of the de Havilland Aircraft Company from 1930. Before the war its sheds turned out the Moth family of light biplanes, the Dragon and the Dragon Rapide; during it, Hatfield became the design and production heart of one of the most remarkable aircraft of the conflict, the de Havilland Mosquito, the all-wood “Wooden Wonder” of which roughly two-thirds of all examples were built here. Because the factory’s work was so vital, much of the flying training was moved out to nearby Panshanger. The airfield did not escape the enemy’s attention: on 3 October 1940 a lone Junkers Ju 88 bombed the works, killing twenty-one people and injuring many more before being brought down by the station’s anti-aircraft gunners. After the war de Havilland and its successors built the Vampire and Venom jets, the pioneering Comet airliner and finally the BAe 146 here before the airfield closed in 1994. The site is now occupied by the University of Hertfordshire, housing and business parks, though the historic flight-test hangar and control tower survive.