RAF Benson

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RAF Benson

IATA: BEX – ICAO: EGUB
Summary
Airport type		Military
Owner		Ministry of Defence
Operator		Royal Air Force
Location		Benson
Elevation AMSL		226 ft / 69 m
Coordinates		51°36′59″N 001°05′45″W / 51.61639, -1.09583
Website		www.raf.mod.uk/rafbenson
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
01/19	5,981	1,823	Asphalt

BEX redirects here. For the airline that operated under that name from 1984-2000, see Business Express Airlines.

RAF Benson (IATA: BEX, ICAO: EGUB) is a Royal Air Force station near Benson in Oxfordshire, England. It is home to the Royal Air Force's medium transport helicopters, the Aérospatiale Puma and the new EH101 Merlin.

Main runway RAF Benson

Benson is currently home to 28 Squadron and 33 Squadron and also to Oxford University Air Squadron and 6 Air Experience Flight. It has now also formed 78 Squadron as a Merlin Squadron (previously a Sea King/Chinook Squadron based at RAF Mount Pleasant Airfield, Falkland Islands). Previous units once based there include the Queen's Flight.

The Thames Valley Police helicopter (a Eurocopter EC135) and the Chiltern air ambulance helicopter (a Bölkow 105, call sign "Helimed24") are both based at Benson.

The airfield is a well-known frost hollow.

[edit] History

Building work for RAF Benson began in 1937. Its first aircraft were 2 squadrons of Fairey Battle light bombers which arrived on 3 April 1939. The King's Flight moved there from RAF Hendon and would stay (renaiming as the Queen's Flight after the death of King George VI) there after the war until moving to RAF Northolt in 1995.

The Battles, were replaced in December 1940 with Vickers Wellington medium bombers. At the same time the Spitfires of 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit an RAF Costal Command unit arrived.

[edit] References

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