page_title: RAF Andover
section_title: 1945 to the present day
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Andover / Airfield history / 1945 to the present day
caption_attribution_description: Percival P-66 Pembroke C1 taxing to runway 34 at LOWS (Salzburg)
context_page_description: RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station located 2 miles west of Andover, Hampshire and 15.1 miles north east of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.
  The airfield has a notable place in history, being the site of both the first attempt to develop a viable long-range electronic navigation system, during the First World War, and also of the first British military helicopter unit and first European helicopter flying training school, during the Second World War.
  RAF Andover was also used before and after the Second World War for a variety of other aeronautical research and flight testing. The RAF Staff College, Andover was founded here in 1922, the first college to train officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of running an air force.
  RAF Andover saw action during the Second World War. Corporal Josephine Robins, one of only six members of the WAAF to win the Military Medal during the War, won her award for courage while rescuing people during an air-raid on the airfield in the Battle of Britain.
  Three squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force were formed at RAF Andover.
context_section_description: Post-war, RAF Andover continued to be used for helicopter flying training and operational research, C Flight of 657 Squadron, Army Air Corps, being renamed 1901 Flight in February 1947. The Flight used six Sikorsky R-6A Hoverfly 2 (an improved version of the Hoverfly I) helicopters, and Auster AOP.6 aircraft to train British Army and Royal Air Force pilots and carry out operational trials. The Hoverfly 2s had little effective operational capability, but gave the Army valuable experience in the helicopter's potential use. In addition to artillery direction, the Flight's experimental activities included photography, radar trials, air/ground communications, and fighter evasion. In January 1948, the Flight moved to Middle Wallop. It still exists today as 1 Flight, Army Air Corps.
  On 14 September 1955, RAF Andover was honoured with the freedom of the Borough of Andover. No. 12 Squadron RAF took part in the ceremony with a flypast of its English Electric Canberra B Mk. 6 bombers, to mark the Squadron's pre-war association with RAF Andover.
  Andover continued its association with pioneering the use of helicopters in Britain when the Joint Helicopter Unit, which was a joint Royal Navy, Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force unit exploring operational helicopter roles, was based at the station from 1958 to 1959. The unit used Westland Whirlwind helicopters and was disbanded at the end of 1959 to form No. 225 Squadron RAF.
  The station's association with aviation research continued, as trials of the Hawker P.1127, the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA 1 (both were experimental vertical take-off aircraft), and the Hawker Siddeley Harrier partially took place on the station. The Harrier was the developed form of the P.1127 and Kestrel and was the world's first operational vertical/short take-off and landing aircraft.
  Trials of the Hawker Siddeley Andover (the second RAF aircraft of that name) were also partially carried out at RAF Andover. In commemoration of this, Hawker Siddeley presented the Borough of Andover with a framed photo of the aircraft, and the type was also named after RAF Andover. The Andover's main role in RAF service was tactical transport, for which its unique ability to "kneel" – to allow vehicle entry at a shallow angle via a rear ramp – was an asset. Other roles included aero-medical evacuation, STOL, and parachute and 1 ton container drops. The Andover could also be fitted with long-range ferry tanks, which enabled the short-range Andover to fly surprisingly long distances, such as across the Atlantic Ocean. Andovers were still in RAF service for the photo reconnaissance role under the Open Skies Treaty and for use by the Empire Test Pilots' School until 2012.
  RAF Andover was throughout the post-1945 period the home of a number of communications squadrons, the last one of which was No. 21 Squadron RAF, which used de Havilland Devon and Percival Pembroke aircraft. This was formed on 3 February 1969, when the Western Communication Squadron RAF was re-designated at RAF Andover. It provided transport for senior officers in the western part of the United Kingdom and was disbanded following defence cuts on 31 March 1976.
  The RAF station was closed on 10 June 1977 and the airfield was handed over to the British Army. It is in use by Army Air Corps units based at Middle Wallop, as well as Defence Equipment & Support (formerly the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO)). The last RAF personnel working in these units left in November 2009. However, the airfield still retains an RAF link through the presence of 1213 (Andover) Squadron, Air Training Corps.
  The RAF Museum preserves a number of individual aircraft which were based at RAF Andover during their service lives: a Sikorsky R-4B Hoverfly I; an Avro Anson C. 19; a De Havilland Dove C. 1; a Percival Pembroke C. 2; and, unusually, two Luftwaffe aircraft captured in 1944, a Junkers Ju 87 G-2 dive bomber and a Messerschmitt Bf 110 G-4 night fighter. The National Museum of Flight in Scotland preserves RAF Andover's former gate guardian, a Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk. XVIE.
  The followin
caption: A Percival Pembroke of No. 21 Squadron RAF
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