Saint - Inglevert Airfield Saint - Inglevert Airfield is a general aviation airfield at Saint - Inglevert , Pas - de - Calais , France . In the First World War an airfield was established near Saint - Inglevert by the Royal Flying Corps , later passing to the Royal Air Force on formation and thus becoming RAF Saint Inglevert . In 1920 , a civil airfield was established on a different site which was a designated customs airfield . During the Second World War , Saint - Inglevert was occupied by the Royal Air Force and the " Armée de l ' Air " . The airfield was captured by the Germans towards the end of the Battle of France and occupied by the Luftwaffe . It was abandoned in 1941 , but in 1943 field artillery units were based around the airfield as part of the Atlantic Wall . Although civil flying returned to Saint - Inglevert post - war , the airfield was abandoned in 1957 and returned to agriculture . It was reopened by l ' aéroclub du Boulonnais ( ) in 1986 . Location . Saint - Inglevert airfield is located on a hill to the north west of the village of Saint - Inglevert , and east of Hervelinghen . It lies south west of Calais . History . First World War . There was a Royal Flying Corps airfield at Saint - Inglevert during the First World War , but not on the site of the current airfield . In April 1918 , No . 21 Squadron Royal Air Force ( RAF ) were based at Saint - Inglevert , flying Royal Aircraft Factory R . E . 8 aircraft . From 29 June to 23 October , No . 214 Squadron RAF were based there flying Handley Page O / 400 s , and in November , they were replaced by No . 115 Squadron RAF , who were flying the same type of aircraft . Two more squadrons , No . 97 Squadron RAF and No . 100 Squadron RAF , were based there from 17 November , to be joined by two squadrons of the United States Navy in 1918 , flying Sopwith Camel s . All Royal Air Force squadrons departed from Saint - Inglevert on 4 March 1919 . Between the wars . In 1920 , an airfield was established at Saint - Inglevert on a different site to the former military airfield . Facilities developed over the years to include two hangars , customs facilities and ultra short wave radio . In March 1920 , a Notice to Airmen was issued stating that Saint - Inglevert was open and fuel , oil and water were available , but there were no hangars or repair facilities . A proposal to designate Saint - Inglevert as a customs airfield in order to relieve Le Bourget of some of its workload was made in April 1920 . Facilities then in existence included hangars , repair facilities and a radio station . Later that month , it was notified that an aerial lighthouse had been installed at the airfield , flashing the Morse letter A , and Saint - Inglevert became a customs airport on 20 May . By July , the provision of ground signals at Saint - Inglevert had begun . A arrow was displayed indicating the wind direction . In August , it was reported that Saint - Inglevert was sending weather report by radio seven times a day to Le Bourget . By October , aids available included a windsock and a landing T . Requirements for aircraft to perform clockwise or anticlockwise circuits when landing were indicated by the flying of a red or white flag respectively . The aerial lighthouse was reported to be out of action in November 1920 . It was notified that the road forming the eastern boundary of the airfield was to be marked by a series of posts high , surmounted by vertical white discs in diameter , in January 1921 , and the following month , a Notice to Airmen issued in the United Kingdom stated that radio communication with Saint - Inglevert was to be in French . As part of a series of trials to assess the viability of civil aviation in France , a Farman F . 60 Goliath flew a test flight carrying of cargo on 1 May . Three laps of a circuit Paris - Orléans - Rouen - Saint - Inglevert - Metz - Dijon - Paris were flown . Saint - Inglevert was one of the designated landing places for the 1921 " Coupe Michelin " , an aerial Tour de France with a ₣20 , 000 prize . In November , a Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes aircraft called at Saint - Inglevert to collect a cargo of six 18 - pounder and three 4 . 5 – inch live shells for onward transmission to Croydon Airport in Surrey , United Kingdom . In a paper read to the Royal Aeronautical Society on 17 November , Colonel Frank Searle , managing director of Daimler Airway , criticized the organization of Saint - Inglevert and Le Bourget . In or about March 1922 , the wireless station at Saint - Inglevert was destroyed in a fire . A meeting of airlines and the British Air Ministry in April following the first mid - air collision of airliners on 7 April at Thieuloy - Saint - Antoine , Oise resulted in a number of resolutions being passed with the intention of improving the safety of aviation , one of which was that the Saint - Inglevert wireless station should be replaced . The aerial lighthouse at Saint - Inglevert was in operation again by 11 April , when a test flight was flown at night on the British part of the London - Paris air route . The aircraft flew as far as Saint - Inglevert before turning back and landing at Lympne , Kent . In December , a Notice to Airmen stated that a portable searchlight was in operation at Saint - Inglevert by prior arrangement for aircraft landing at night , and that the " T " was illuminated at night . In April 1923 , a ₣25 , 000 prize ( then worth £360 ) was offered by the daily newspaper " Le Matin " for the first French aviator to fly from Saint - Inglevert to Lympne and back in one day in an aircraft of French design and construction , with an engine capacity of less than . Georges Barbot won the prize when he completed the journey during the evening of 6 May in a Dewoitine aircraft fitted with a Clerget engine . It took him 2 hours and 25 minutes , including a 40 - minute stop at Lympne while one of the struts supporting the undercarriage was repaired . Imperial Airways were operating cross - channel services using Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft in 1924 , with the first stop in France at Saint - Inglevert . When an aircraft departed from Lympne for St Inglevert , the destination airfield was advised , and if arrival was not notified within two hours , the British coastguard was informed . Communication between the airfields used Carmichael Microway UHF transmitters . A new system was introduced for non - radio aircraft crossing the English Channel in August . Aircraft crossing from Lympne to Ostend , Belgium had to make a circuit of the airfield at an altitude of , while two circuits were made if departing for Saint - Inglevert . The destination was then informed by radio of the departure . Arrival was confirmed by the aircraft flying another circuit , and was then reported back to Lympne by radio . If the aircraft had not arrived within an hour of departure , it would be considered as missing . A similar arrangement applied for aircraft flying in the reverse direction . In September , Saint - Inglevert was one of the landing points for an aerial " Tour de France " , in which a specified route had to be flown on a course . Sixteen aircraft competed in four classes . The airfield has been involved in several aviation records . On 18 September 1928 , Juan de la Cierva completed the first cross - Channel flight in an autogyro when he landed there after departing from Lympne in a Cierva C . 8 . Lissant Beardmore completed the first cross - Channel flight in a glider on 19 June 1931 . He took off from Lympne and was towed by an aircraft to an altitude of , landing at Saint - Inglevert after a flight of one and a half hours to the surprise of the airfield manager . The first double crossing of the Channel in a glider was made by Austrian Robert Kronfeld on 20 June . In a glider called " Wien " , he took off from Saint - Inglevert by means of an aero - tow to an altitude of , and landed at the former RAF Swingfield airfield near Dover , Kent . From Swingfield , another aero - tow to an altitude of enabled him to return to Saint - Inglevert . Kronfeld received a £1 , 000 prize from the " Daily Mail " for his flights , which were verified by the British Gliding Association . On 10 September 1929 , Charles Fauvel departed from Saint - Inglevert in a Mauboussin aircraft fitted with an ABC Scorpion engine . The flight to Pau set a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world record for distance flown by a single seat aircraft weighing less than . In November 1932 , it was reported that new radio equipment was to be installed at Lympne and St Inglevert operating on the 15 centimetre waveband at 2 , 000 MHz , which would be used for the announcement of departures of non - radio aircraft across the Channel . Messages sent by radio were also printed out by a teleprinter , providing a record of the communication . The British Air Ministry and the French " Ministère de l ' Air " co - operated in the arrangements for setting up the system , which was scheduled to come into operation in Spring 1933 . It proved its effectiveness on 7 March 1933 , when a non - radio de Havilland DH . 60 Moth of British Air Transport failed to arrive at Lympne . The aircraft had ditched in the Channel and both occupants were rescued by a steamship bound for Amsterdam , the Netherlands . A new short - wave radio system came into operation on 16 January 1934 , using equipment manufactured by " Le Matériel Téléphonique " , Paris . In the mid - 1930s , a number of notable people used Saint - Inglevert Airfield . King Edward VIII made three visits , the first on 4 February 1935 , while still the Prince of Wales , when he arrive from Fort Belvedere , Surrey on the first part of a journey to take a holiday at Kitzbühel , Austria . As king , he departed on 26 July 1936 to RAF Hendon on his return from the ceremony to unveil the Canadian National Vimy Memorial , and flew in from the Great West Aerodrome , Harmondsworth , UK on 8 August , in order to catch the " Orient Express " at Calais , as part of a holiday in Yugoslavia . Henri Mignet flew from Saint - Inglevert to Lympne on 13 August 1935 , in his Flying Flea , then the world ' s smallest aircraft . Second World War . Following the outbreak of the Second World War , Saint - Inglevert was taken over by the " Armée de l ' Air " in December 1939 . " Groupe Aérien d ' Observation 516 " ( GAO 516 ) of the " 16ème Corps d ' Armée " ( ) were based here , operating five Potez 63 - 11 and five Breguet 27 aircraft , and carrying out air reconnaissance over the Nord - Pas de Calais region . " B " Flight , No . 615 Squadron RAF was stationed at Saint - Inglevert in the early months of 1940 , equipped with Gloster Gladiator II aircraft . Following the discovery of a dismantled Morane - Saulnier MS . 138 in one of the hangars , a wager was made between the British and French as to whether or not the aircraft could be returned to the air . With the aid of materials supplied by the French , the aircraft was made flyable , but when 615 Squadron received orders to relocate to Vitry - en - Artois , an attempt to fly the aircraft to the new base was unsuccessful , and a forced landing had to be made in a field . On 10 May 1940 , the airfield was attacked by the Luftwaffe , with over 110 bombs being dropped , resulting in a Breguet being destroyed , another Breguet and a Potez being severely damaged and the radio facilities being temporarily put out of action . During April 1940 , No . 607 Squadron RAF was based at Saint - Inglevert , flying Gloster Gladiator Mk II HR aircraft . The military commander General Maxime Weygand visited the airfield on 21 May , and ordered 516 GAO to prepare to evacuate as the Germans were in the neighbouring Somme " département " . The following day , the order came to evacuate to Boos airfield , Rouen , Haute - Normandie , but only four of the ten aircraft that departed from Saint - Inglevert arrived safely at Boos . All aircraft carried as many passengers as could be accommodated . Two Potez 63 - 11 ' s and a Bloch MB . 152 were abandoned at Saint - Inglevert , and were destroyed to prevent their use by the enemy , as were supplies of fuel . Personnel from 516 GAO were evacuated from Dunquerque on the , although nineteen of them were killed when the ship struck a mine and sank . Saint - Inglevert was captured by the Luftwaffe towards the end of the Battle of France . " 1 Gruppe , Lehrgeschwader 2 " moved in on 20 June , equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft . They departed for Jever , Germany , on 12 July , and were replaced by " 1 Gruppe , Jagdgeschwader 51 " , also equipped with Bf 109s . From August until November Stab JG 51 were in occupation , and " Aufklärungsgruppe 32 ( H ) " aircraft were also based at Saint - Inglevert during this period , with the unit operating Henschel Hs 126 parasol monoplanes . On 30 July 1940 , Saint - Inglevert was bombed by the Royal Air Force , who claimed that hangars and aircraft were damaged , and a subsequent raid on 19 August resulted in a fire , smoke from which could be seen in Kent . From 24 September to 5 November , " 2 Gruppe , Jagdgeschwader 27 " were based there . Facilities at the airfield were improved , by erecting new hangars and constructing a new concrete runway . On 27 December 1940 , Saint - Inglevert was again bombed by the Royal Air Force . The airfield was largely abandoned by 1941 , with occasional use by Junkers 52 s as a refuelling station . In 1943 , the airfield was designated as " Stützpunkt 134 Paderborn " , housing defence units as part of the Atlantic Wall coastal fortifications . The units were equipped with 10 . 5 cm leFH 18 howitzers . During the winter of 1943 - 44 , 10 . 5 cm leFH 324 ( f ) howitzers replaced the leFH 18s . A number of concrete bunkers were constructed to house the guns , which were still standing around the airfield in October 2007 . Following Operation Overlord at the start of the Allied invasion of western Europe , the Germans committed various acts of sabotage on departure from Saint - Inglevert . Post - war . Post - war , the airfield was restored to operational condition and civil flying returned . On 10 April 1957 , a report was published which resulted in the abandonment of Saint - Inglevert in favour of an airport east of Calais . The airfield was returned to agriculture . In 1986 , " l ' aéroclub du Boulonnais " took over Saint - Inglevert following closure of their previous base at Ambleteuse . Since its closure , the runway had been used as a dump for old tyres and scrap vehicles , and it took three years to restore the airfield , which reopened on 30 July 1989 . On the night of 5 – 6 April 2010 , a fire in a hangar at Saint - Inglevert destroyed the hangar and eight aircraft . The destroyed aircraft were replaced by a Robin DR300 , a Robin DR400 , a Piel Emeraude CP3005 and a Jodel D195 . A Piper PA - 28 was also acquired which needed restoration to make it airworthy . The replacement aircraft were housed in a tent hangar erected on the airfield , or temporarily outstationed at Calais or Le Touquet . A new hangar , replacing the one destroyed by the fire , was officially opened on 30 March 2012 , and can accommodate ten aircraft . Following the fire , a NOTAM was issued temporarily restricting the use of the airfield until 15 November 2010 to aircraft based there . On 26 August 2010 , Saint - Inglevert was given the ICAO identifier LFIS , allowing it to be classed as a public airfield instead of a private one . This had taken ten years to achieve .