| RNAS Pulham | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Looking North east at the R-33 at its mooring mast at RNAS Pulham circa 1921. Shed 2 is on the left and shed 1 is on the right. The hydrogen storage tanks can be seen behind. | |||
| IATA: none – ICAO: none | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Military: Airship station | ||
| Operator | Royal Navy, RAF | ||
| Location | Pulham St Mary | ||
| In use | 1915 - 1948 | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 138 ft / 42 m | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Map | |||
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RNAS Pulham
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RNAS Pulham (later RAF Pulham) was an Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) airship station, 18 mi (29 km) south of Norwich, UK. Though land was purchased by the Navy in 1912 the site was not operational until 1915. From 1918 to 1958, the unit was an RAF establishment.
Pulham was one of the main UK airship stations, with more than 3,000 men on the base, until the demise of the R101 in 1930 when the station was moved on to a care and maintenance basis only.[1]
In its heyday Pulham had its own hydrogen plant, one small and two large airship sheds (one was moved to Cardington in 1930, the other scrapped in 1948) and a permanent mooring mast.[2]
The R34 landed at RNAS Pulham to complete the first two-way flown crossing of the Atlantic in July 1919.
During World War II, Pulham Air Station was used as an aircraft salvage yard for the East of England, with several huge dumps of scrapped aircraft. The resultant contamination of the land is visible even today. The RAF used Pulham for storage and Maintenance Unit work until closure in 1958.
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