Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Husbands Bosworth Airfield is a private grass airstrip in south Leicestershire, on the site of the former RAF Husbands Bosworth, home today to a long-established gliding club and a National Police Air Service helicopter. Its wartime triangular runway layout has given way to a simpler grass field to the south of Sibbertoft Road, offering VFR pilots a quiet rural destination amid the patchwork countryside near Market Harborough and Lutterworth.
Husbands Bosworth Airfield lies on the site of the former RAF Husbands Bosworth, a Second World War Bomber Command training station, and today functions as a grass airfield given over principally to gliding. It is operated as a private site by the resident gliding club and also hosts a National Police Air Service helicopter, making it a field of interest to sim pilots for both its wartime heritage and its present character as an active gliding centre set in open Leicestershire farmland.
The airfield sits in south Leicestershire, near the village of Husbands Bosworth and close to Kibworth Harcourt, roughly between Lutterworth and Market Harborough and near Junction 1 of the A14. It lies in uncontrolled airspace typical of this part of the Midlands, with no specific controlled airspace detail published for the site itself.
The airfield has two grass runways. The main runway, 08/26, is 4576 feet long, aligned broadly east-west and following the course of part of the former RAF station's runway system. A shorter secondary grass runway, 15/33, measures 1671 feet. There is no ILS, and the field elevation is 499 feet.
No published radio frequency, callsign, or navaid information for the airfield has been found; there is no ILS or other instrument approach available, consistent with its status as a grass gliding airfield.
As a gliding site, powered traffic should anticipate intensive glider operations, including winch and aerotow launches, rather than a conventional powered circuit pattern. Visiting pilots should exercise particular caution for glider traffic in the vicinity of the field.
The airfield can be identified from the air by its position just south of Sibbertoft Road, which now runs across part of the alignment of the former RAF main east-west runway. Useful wider references include the nearby A14 at Junction 1, the village of Husbands Bosworth itself, and the Grand Union Canal, which passes through the surrounding countryside and was historically used to bring gravel to the site during its construction.
The land around Husbands Bosworth was earmarked for an airfield as early as 1941 on account of its well-drained, level ground. Construction began in August 1942 under contractor George Wimpey & Son, with a planned completion in March 1943, though the work was not finished until October that year; the cost was estimated at £805,000. The station conformed to the standard Air Ministry layout of three converging concrete runways set at 60-degree angles, with 36 dispersal points around the perimeter track, a bomb store on the northern edge, and four main hangars. The first RAF personnel, from No. 14 Operational Training Unit, arrived on 1 August 1943, and operational flying began on 10 August, with night operations starting a week later. The station came under 92 Group RAF and was initially a satellite of RAF Market Harborough. Its aircraft complement in 1943 included 61 Vickers Wellingtons used for training, four Miles Martinets for target towing, and an Avro Anson for communications duties. On 15 June 1944, No. 85 Operational Training Unit was formed at the station from elements of No. 14 OTU, tasked with training crews for night bombing operations, and it was disbanded on 14 June 1945. With the end of the war and the disbandment of No. 85 OTU, activity wound down and the station closed in 1946.
The former RAF station is now known as Husbands Bosworth Airfield and is home to the Husbands Bosworth Gliding Club, previously known as the Coventry Gliding Club between 1953 and 2022. The National Police Air Service also bases a Eurocopter EC135 police helicopter at the airfield, covering the Midlands and East Anglia. The present grass airfield lies south of Sibbertoft Road, which now crosses the line of the old main runway.
