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Solent Airport, also known as Solent Airport Daedalus, is a general aviation aerodrome at Lee-on-Solent on the Hampshire coast, occupying the site of the former Royal Naval Air Station HMS Daedalus. It offers the only hard-surfaced runway available to general aviation in southern Hampshire, and today hosts everything from HM Coastguard search-and-rescue helicopters to historic warbirds.
Solent Airport, branded Solent Airport Daedalus, is a general aviation aerodrome at Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, owned by Fareham Borough Council and operated by EGHF Ltd. It occupies the site of the former Royal Naval Air Station RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus), which trained Fleet Air Arm crews and engineers from 1917 until the Royal Navy left in 1996. For a simulator pilot it is an interesting mix of naval aviation heritage and modern GA activity, being consistently ranked among the busiest centres of general aviation in the UK and the only airfield in southern Hampshire with a hard runway suitable for general aviation, the nearest alternative being Farnborough.
The airfield lies at Lee-on-the-Solent on the Hampshire coast, on the shore of the Solent, roughly four miles north-west of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, with the town of Gosport about two and a half miles to the east and Southampton some eight miles to the north-west. Lee-on-the-Solent itself adjoins the airfield along its south-eastern boundary.
There is a single physical runway, 05/23, of hard surface construction and lit. The 05 threshold gives a landing distance of 3,791 ft, while the 23 threshold gives 4,280 ft. Field elevation is 30 ft.
The airfield provides an Aerodrome Flight Information Service. The published frequency is 118.93 MHz, with the callsign "Lee Information". There is no ILS at the field.
Naval aviation began at Lee-on-Solent on 30 July 1917 when the Royal Naval Air Service opened the Naval Seaplane Training School there as an extension of the seaplane station at Calshot. The site went on to become RNAS Lee-on-Solent, known as HMS Daedalus from 1939 to 1959 and again from 1965 to 1996, and briefly as HMS Ariel between 1959 and 1965, training aircrew and engineers for the Fleet Air Arm and earlier for the Royal Air Force and Royal Flying Corps. During the Second World War the station hosted torpedo, spotter and reconnaissance squadrons, including units that passed through en route to catapult training aboard the seaplane carrier HMS Pegasus. In the 1940s a giant land mine, over 60 feet long, was placed beneath the runway as a wartime precaution against German invasion; it was one of twenty such devices discovered during runway repairs in 2006 and removed by October that year. The Royal Navy withdrew in 1996, after which the Hampshire Police Air Support Unit managed the airfield until 2010, when its role passed to the newly formed South East Air Support Unit based at RAF Odiham and Shoreham. Ownership and management of the site changed hands several times, passing through the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the South East England Development Agency, the Homes and Communities Agency, and the aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman, which leased and operated the airfield from 2011 under its Fly BN subsidiary and also based manufacturing and maintenance operations for its group companies there. In 2015 Fareham Borough Council acquired the runways and surrounding land and renamed the site Solent Airport at Daedalus.
Solent Airport is a CAA-licensed aerodrome providing an Aerodrome Flight Information Service together with Rescue and Fire Fighting cover to Category A2. It operates seven days a week and offers pilots slot-free access, ground handling, maintenance and refuelling services, crew facilities, and managed hangarage and aircraft parking. The site continues to support a wide range of flying activity, from HM Coastguard search-and-rescue helicopter operations to historic warbird flying, and remains one of the busiest general aviation centres in the UK.
