Airfield

An area or site used for the landing and take-off of aircraft, often including associated buildings, equipment and other installations such as the one at Westcott. Buckinghamshire had quite a few airfields, many of which were established during the Second World War. The earliest, however, was set up at Halton during the First World War. An RAF training centre was also established there and continues in use today. Most of the airfields in Buckinghamshire were for training crews. Buckinghamshire was well placed for this as there were no bombing targets like cities or heavy industry in the county. Some of them were given over to the USA Air-Force when they joined the war. These include Cheddington and Bovingdon. Some of the airfields were for glider training. Gliders were occasionally used to drop bombs and were not easy to detect as they were silent. Haddenham airfield was a glider training unit, and gliders continue to fly from there.