Royal Air Force use RAF Chilbolton was opened in September 1940 as a satellite of
RAF Middle Wallop and was used as a relief landing ground. • No. 1 Fighter Command Servicing Unit • Satellite of No. 2 School of Army Co-operation (April - May 1941) • Sub site for
No. 3 Maintenance Unit RAF (October 1945 - June 1948) •
No. 122 Airfield Headquarters RAF (February - March 1943) •
No. 124 (Rocket Projectile) Wing RAF (April 1946) •
No. 129 (RAF) Wing RAF (November - December 1945) •
No. 202 Maintenance Unit RAF (April 1950 - June 1954) •
No. 2719 Squadron RAF Regiment •
No. 2723 Squadron RAF Regiment •
No. 2766 Squadron RAF Regiment • Aircraft for
Southern Sector HQ RAF (January - May 1946)
Post-war With the facility released from military control in 1946,
Vickers Supermarine selected the airfield as a location for conducting flight development programmes of their jet prototypes and development aircraft, remaining for the best part of ten years.
Supermarine Attacker,
Supermarine Swift and
Supermarine Scimitar were developed there as well as many early experimental swept-wing jet fighters. The airfield was also used for some location filming of David Lean's classic film
The Sound Barrier in the early 1950s. The Spitfire T Mk IX, a 2-seat trainer and the last Spitfire variant to be built, was also developed and test-flown at Chilbolton for export to India and Eire (Southern Ireland).
Folland Aircraft also occupied another part of the airfield to conduct similar work on their products, chiefly the
Midge and
Gnat, but were gone by the end of 1961. With their departure, the wartime airfield began to be dismantled, with large sections of runway, perimeter track and loop hardstands being removed for hardcore. The next organisation to take an active interest in the site was the Space Research Council which, in 1963, set about building a large observatory with what was to become a prominent local landmark - a radio telescope, known as the
Chilbolton Observatory, which was built almost in the centre of the airfield, on the wartime main runway. When constructed, the north end of the runway was removed, with a two lane access road replacing the runway and connecting to the local road network. The radio telescope is still in use today. Various other enterprises flourished or faded in the buildings on the periphery of the airfield. Flying continued on the old airfield during the 1980s when helicopters and light aircraft serving a field-spraying organisation were in residence, using a grass strip built parallel to the main north–south 12/30 runway. ==Current use==