London Biggin Hill Airport

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London Biggin Hill Airport
Biggin Hill Airport
IATA: BQH – ICAO: EGKB
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Regional Airports Ltd.
Location London
Elevation AMSL 598 ft / 182 m
Coordinates 51°19′51″N 0°01′57″E / 51.33083, 0.0325
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
03/21 5,912 1,802 Tarmac
11/29 2,598 792 Asphalt

London Biggin Hill Airport (IATA: BQHICAO: EGKB), formerly RAF Biggin Hill, is an airport at Biggin Hill in London Borough of Bromley, England. It is one of London's international airports, along with Heathrow, Gatwick, City, Stansted and Luton among others.

Biggin Hill Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P804) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Regional Airports Limited)[1].

Contents

The airfield opened in 1917 as a communications base for the Royal Flying Corps. During World War II it was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station and one of the commanding bases for the Battle of Britain with both Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane from a variety of squadrons being based there.

After the war, Biggin Hill became the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre for the RAF. Due to the impending closure of the nearby original London Airport at Croydon, from 1956 much of the civilian light aviation from Croydon relocated to Biggin and it became a joint civilian and military airport. Croydon closed completely in 1959, at which time Biggin ceased to be an operational military flying base and became a mainly civilian airport with only occasional military flying taking place.

The Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre moved to RAF Cranwell in 1992, marking the end of active RAF operation. By this time Biggin Hill had become a busy civilian airport, albeit with no scheduled passenger services. There is an ongoing legal dispute about whether such services should be allowed to use the airport.

The airport's main runway is usable by aircraft up to Boeing 737/Airbus A320 size. Runway 21 has an ILS and 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 Biggin itself. Traffic is mainly light aircraft and privately owned business aircraft.

Many RAF buildings still surround the airfield although the original housing complex is in the process of demolition to build denser housing. A small section of the site is still marked as being "RAF Biggin Hill" and the chapel remains in use, and is open to the public. Replicas of the base's gate guardian aircraft, a Hurricane and a Spitfire, are sited at the chapel entrance.

Many flying schools and private light aircraft based on the airport due to its proximity to London. Biggin Hill is also the location of a major annual airshow, usually on the first weekend in June.

Biggin Hill is one of the four "stacks" for aircraft to landing at Heathrow Airport, and is used by aircraft approaching from the south east. It uses a VOR navigational beacon with the codename "BIG".

The airport is the scene of the landing of Sir Leigh Teabing's private jet in the bestselling book, The Da Vinci Code by author Dan Brown. One of the runways also appears on the back cover of Pink Floyd's 1969 album Ummagumma.


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