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RAF Hooton Park | |||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
Location | Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire | ||||||||||
Built | 1917 | ||||||||||
In use | 40 years Closed 1957 | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 30 ft / 9 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 53°18′11″N 02°56′34″W / 53.30306°N 2.94278°W | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Statistics | |||||||||||
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The airfield is now under civilian ownership. |
Royal Air Force Hooton Park or more simply RAF Hooton Park, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, is a former Royal Air Force station originally built for the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 as a training aerodrome for pilots in the First World War. During the early/mid-1930s, it was one of the two airfields (with Liverpool Speke) handling scheduled services for the Merseyside region. Hooton Park was home to No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron and, post Second World War, to No. 611 (West Lancashire) and No. 663 (AOP) Squadron.[1]
The airfield closed in 1957 after the disbandment of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, but the three pairs of Belfast Truss hangars erected in 1917 survived the closure. The site was bought by Vauxhall Motors, who built their Vauxhall Ellesmere Port plant there, which today produces the Vauxhall Astra. A small remaining section of the airfield site is now owned and managed by The Hooton Park Trust. The hangars are also home to The Griffin Trust and an aircraft preservation society named The Aeroplane Collection. Another part of the old airfield, including a length of the old paved runway, perimeter track and the apron used to park Meteor jet fighters, remains in the ownership of The Naylor Trust. A Second World War B1 hangar is also on this site.[2]