Hounslow Heath Aerodrome


Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was a grass airfield, operational 1914-1920. It was in the London borough of Hounslow, and hosted the British Empire's first scheduled daily international commercial flights, in 1919. The site today includes the main remaining part of Hounslow Heath.

Earlier use of the site

A British army cavalry unit had been based since 1793 at Hounslow Barracks, centred 500 metres north of the site, regularly using most of Hounslow Heath for training exercises. Nine years before for the first precision mapmaking and surveying it saw General Roy's Baseline measured from one end of the heath to the other. The act marked a key stage in the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain and was repeated with greater precision on later occasions.

1910-1920

In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £10,000 for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia.
Takeoff datePlaneCrewEnd dateResult
21 October 1919Sopwith Wallaby Captain George Campbell Matthews AFC as pilot,
Sergeant Thomas D. Kay as mechanic
17 April 1920
12 November 1919Vickers Vimy Captain Ross Macpherson Smith, his brother Lieutenant
Keith Macpherson Smith, two mechanics
10 December 1919
13 November 1919Alliance P.2 Seabird named 'Endeavour'Captain Roger M. Douglas, Lieutenant J.S.L. Ross13 November 1919
21 November 1919Blackburn Kangaroo Lieutenant Valdemar Rendle & Lieutenant D.R. Williams,
plus Captain Hubert Wilkins & Lieutenant G. St. C. Potts
8 December 1919
5 December 1919Martinsyde Type A Mk.I Captain Cedric E. Howell, Lieutenant George Fraser9 December 1919
8 January 1920Airco DH.9 Lieutenant Ray Parer, Lieutenant John C. McIntosh2 August 1920

Decline

Hounslow Heath has largely reverted to an undeveloped public open space and nature reserve.
There are also several memorials to the aerodrome.