page_title: London Biggin Hill Airport
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: London Biggin Hill Airport / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of St George’s Chapel of Remembrance, Biggin Hill. Built in 1951 to replace the original station Chapel destroyed in 1946, it is a memorial to the aircrew who died flying from the Biggin Hill Sector during World War II.
context_page_description: London Biggin Hill Airport is an operational general aviation airport at Biggin Hill in the London Borough of Bromley, located 12 NM south-southeast of Central London. The airport was formerly a Royal Air Force station RAF Biggin Hill, and a small enclave on the airport still retains that designation.
  Biggin Hill is best known for its role during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War, when it served as one of the principal fighter bases protecting London and South East England from attack by German Luftwaffe bombers. Over the course of the war, fighters based at Biggin Hill claimed 1,400 enemy aircraft, at the cost of the lives of 453 Biggin Hill based aircrew.
  The airport has a CAA Ordinary Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee. It specialises in general aviation, handling a spectrum of traffic from private aviation to large business jets. It currently has no scheduled airline service, as flights using the airport are not permitted to carry fare-paying passengers.
context_section_description: The airport is located on a hilltop, just to the east of the Bromley to Westerham road (A233) and about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the town of Biggin Hill in the London Borough of Bromley. It is in a rural area to the south-east of Greater London, outside of the Greater London Built-up Area. The small village of Leaves Green lies adjacent to the north-western perimeter of the airport.
  The airport has one runway aligned roughly north–south. The runway (03/21) is 1,820 metres in length, making it usable by aircraft up to Boeing 737/Airbus A320 size, and it has an Instrument Landing System. Radar air traffic control (ATC) services are provided by Thames Radar at the London Terminal Control Centre, while procedural approach and VFR ATC services are provided by the airport itself.
  Despite the ban on scheduled services, Biggin Hill is used by a large number of business flights by business jets and similar sized aircraft. The airport has a passenger terminal, located on the A233 road just south of Leaves Green, which provides facilities for such flights, including departure lounges, a licensed café bar, and customs and immigration facilities.
  The current RAF Biggin Hill is a small enclave on the western boundary of the airport to the south of the passenger terminal, and contains the headquarters of 2427 Squadron of the Air Training Corps. Next to this is St George's Chapel of Remembrance. This brick built chapel was erected in 1951, to replace an earlier chapel destroyed by fire, and now serves as a memorial to all the aircrew who died flying from the Biggin Hill Sector. It is surrounded by a garden of remembrance and has gate guardians in the form of full-sized replicas of a Hurricane and a Spitfire, representing the aircraft that flew from the former airfield during the Battle of Britain. The replicas replaced genuine aircraft that formerly served as the guardians. Air Marshal Hugh Dowding laid the foundation stone. The chapel was taken out of the RAF's control in 2015, and is now run by Biggin Hill Airport.
  Besides the passenger terminal and RAF enclave, other former RAF buildings still exist in the 'North Camp' to the west of the main runway, including the Sergeant's Mess of 1932, the Airmen's Institute of circa 1926, the former Station Headquarters building of 1931 and several barrack blocks. The buildings, which are Grade II listed, are in a redbrick neo-Georgian style typical of military airfields of the interwar period. They have been vacant since the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre closed in 1992, and were added to English Heritage's list of buildings at risk in 2006.
  The 'South Camp', situated to the south of runway 11/29, was transferred to civil usage in the 1950s and now consists of a utilitarian collection of hangars and sheds, together with a modern office park. It now contains many aviation related businesses, flying clubs and flying schools. Many private light aircraft are based on the airport.
  From 1963, Biggin Hill airport was the venue of the Biggin Hill International Air Fair, an annual airshow that usually took place towards the end of June. On 5 July 2010 Biggin Hill Airport Ltd cancelled the 25-year contract with Air Displays International (the Air Fair organisers) without warning, a few weeks after the 2010 event, during which the Air Fair had attracted record breaking crowds.
  Construction on a new state-of-the-art hangar alongside the Passenger Terminal commenced in October 2010. Excavations of the site uncovered underground war-time fuel tanks and associated pump rooms; these were re-covered during the same building works. Construction was planned to finish late in Spring 2011.
  Biggin Hill is the location of one of the four "stacks" for aircraft landing at Heathrow Airport, and is used by aircraft approaching from the south east. It uses a VOR navigational beacon with the identifier "BIG". Noise from aircraft using this stack is often wrongly attributed to aircraft using Biggin Hill Airport.
  Three model aircraft clubs operate within a three-mile radius of Biggin Hill Airport. One site operat
caption: Interior of St George's Chapel of Remembrance
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