page_title: Pendeford
section_title: Pendeford Airfield
hierarchical_section_title: Pendeford / History / Pendeford Airfield
caption_attribution_description: English: Wolverhampton (Pendeford) Airfield in 1950 showing hangars and control tower. Miles M.14A G-AHNV in the foreground.
context_page_description: Pendeford is a suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is situated north-north-west of the city centre, within the Oxley ward of Wolverhampton City Council. At the 2011 Census, the population of Pendeford was 5,826, increasing from 4,356 at the 2001 Census.
context_section_description: In the 1930s, Wolverhampton Council decided to establish an airfield at Pendeford, on 178 acres (0.72 km²) of land at Barnhurst formerly used for sewage disposal. The airfield was officially opened on 27 June 1938, by which time Boulton Paul Aircraft had established a factory there. Boulton Paul had separated from its parent in Norwich to move to an area with a suitable workforce to take advantage of the Government Aircraft Expansion Scheme, starting work on their new factory in October 1935. The first Wolverhampton-built aircraft was a sub-contracted Hawker Demon, making a flight in August 1936. Boulton Paul also built their own designs including the Defiant fighter (which had its first flight at Pendeford in August 1937, almost a year before the airfield was officially opened).
  During the Second World War the airfield was also used for training air force pilots, with over 100 de Havilland Tiger Moths stationed there at one stage. No.28 Elementary Flying Training School commenced operations at Pendeford on 15 September 1941 and was operated for the Royal Air Force by Air Schools Ltd.  It was renamed No.25 Reserve Flying School on 26 June 1947, and ceased to operate on 31 March 1953. 
  Post-war, the airfield was used for private and training aircraft, with limited scheduled services from 1953. In 1950, the airfield hosted the prestigious Kings Cup air race. By the end of the 1960s the airfield was losing money and there were safety concerns over its close proximity to houses, and the airfield was closed on 31 December 1970. Remaining aircraft transferred to Halfpenny Green airport to the southwest of Wolverhampton. A memorial to the airfield can be seen on the walls of an estate within Pendeford. 
  Shortly before the airfield's closure, on 9 April 1970, a de Havilland Dove crashed onto a house in Redhurst Drive, Fordhouses and caught fire. The crew of the aircraft (which was owned by Dowty Group, by then the owner of Boulton Paul) were attempting to land at the airfield in poor weather; the accident investigation determined that the aircraft stalled at a height too low for the crew to regain control. An occupant of the house and the two people on board the aircraft were killed in the accident; two more escaped the burning house by jumping out of an upstairs window and were slightly injured.
caption: Aircraft at Pendeford Airfield in 1950 showing the black Bellman-type wartime hangars and the airfield control tower (right).
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