page_title: RAF Calshot
section_title: Post-RAF
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Calshot / Post-RAF
caption_attribution_description: English: The RNLI Tyne class lifeboat Alexander Coutanche at moorings stationed at Calshot, Hampshire, UK, on 22 April 2011. Wikipedia editors are reminded that the copyright remains with the photographer, and that the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence that allow editors to reuse this image apply to Wikipedia editors also, as they do to other reusers of this image. Breaches of the licence terms are not only unlawful, but are also antisocial, in that breaches discourage photographers from making their images freely available to everyone without payment. Non-Wikipedia users are requested to advise Brian Burnell of its use other than on Wikipedia.
context_page_description: Royal Air Force Calshot or more simply RAF Calshot was initially a seaplane and flying boat station, and latterly a Royal Air Force marine craft maintenance and training unit. It was located at the end of Calshot Spit in Southampton Water, Hampshire, England, at grid reference SU487024. It was the main seaplane/flying boat development and training unit in the UK, with the landing area sheltered by the mainland, to the west, north and east, and the Isle of Wight, a few miles away to the south on the other side of the Solent, where seaplanes and flying boats were mass-produced by Saunders-Roe. It closed in 1961. Much of the former base has been preserved, with most of the site now being occupied by the RNLI.
context_section_description: In 1964, Hampshire County Council negotiated a lease with the Crown Estates to use the site as an Activities Centre. The first course - a sailing one for Hampshire children - commenced on 18 May 1964.
  On 25 July 1970 the RNLI sent the Keith Nelson type lifeboat RNLB Ernest William and Elizabeth Ellen Hyde (ON 1017) to Calshot for evaluation, and in 1971 a permanent station was established. As of 2010, an RNLI Tyne-class lifeboat, RNLB Alexander Coutanche (ON 1157), was stationed afloat at moorings. In 2012, RNLB Alexander Coutanche was withdrawn from the station and it became an inshore lifeboat station.
  In 1981, a Short Sandringham flying boat, called the Southern Cross, landed at Calshot after an epic journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This plane is now housed at the Solent Sky aviation museum in Southampton. The last flying Sunderland, Excalibur, came ashore at Calshot in 1984. After an extensive refit, it was flown to Florida in 1994 to join the extensive collection of Kermit Weeks at Fantasy of Flight.
  The site is now used as a base for the RNLI and for HM Coastguard, as well as for the Calshot Activities Centre, which runs courses in a number of water and land-based activities, and uses the original hangars to house indoor climbing walls, artificial ski slopes and a cycle track.
caption: RNLI Tyne class lifeboat at Calshot Spit mooring
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