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Blackbushe Airport is a busy general aviation aerodrome at Yateley in north-east Hampshire, built during the Second World War as RAF Hartford Bridge and later renamed RAF Blackbushe. Today it operates as a private-owned, public-use civil airfield with a single hard runway, supporting flying schools, corporate jets and the Aerobility charity, making it a popular and accessible destination for visiting VFR pilots.
Blackbushe Airport (ICAO: EGLK, IATA: BBS) lies in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of Hampshire, just north of the A30 between Camberley and Hook. It is an operational general aviation airport under private ownership, holding a CAA Ordinary Licence that permits public transport flights and flying instruction, and it is licensed for night use. For the sim pilot it offers a straightforward single-runway circuit, a strong wartime and civil aviation history, and an active mix of flying schools and based aircraft that make it a lively general aviation destination close to London.
Blackbushe sits north of the A30 road between Camberley and Hook, with Yateley and Fleet as the nearest towns. The airfield's hilltop position on the historic Hartford Bridge Flats has long made it useful as a diversion when fog closes lower-lying airfields in the London area. The site is bordered by Yateley Common and the Castle Bottom National Nature Reserve, both popular with walkers who use the airport's perimeter paths.
Blackbushe has a single physical runway, 07/25, aligned east-west. Runway 07 is 3,727 feet long and Runway 25 is 3,764 feet long; both are hard-surfaced and lit. There is no ILS approach available at the airfield.
Blackbushe provides an Aerodrome Flight Information Service, with the airfield's advisory frequency published as 122.3 MHz. Pilots should call Blackbushe Information on this frequency for traffic and airfield information when inbound or operating in the vicinity.
The airfield began life in November 1942 as RAF Hartford Bridge, taking its name from the historic Hartford Bridge Flats on which it was built. Throughout the remainder of the Second World War it was home to RAF squadrons flying Spitfires and Mosquitoes on reconnaissance, defence and strike duties, and it also housed the Free French Air Force's Lorraine Squadron. Notable wartime visitors included King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery. The station was also home to FIDO (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation), with fuel pipes laid alongside the runway that could be ignited to burn off fog and allow flying to continue. On 18 November 1944 the airfield was renamed RAF Blackbushe to avoid confusion with a similarly named site in Norfolk. The RAF departed on 15 November 1946, and the airfield passed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, reopening as Blackbushe Airport in February 1947 with full customs facilities for both airline and private traffic. Through the late 1940s and 1950s it hosted airlines including Britavia, Westminster Airways, Airwork and Silver City, operating Lancastrians, DC-3s and Bristol Freighters, with movements reaching around 11,000 a year and 16,000 passengers by 1950. Air Contractors ran scheduled services to the Channel Islands, Eagle Aviation flew routes to Europe on DC-3s and Vikings, and Britavia and Airwork operated Hermes airliners on long-haul charters to Africa and Australia. Blackbushe also served as a reliable diversion for Heathrow and as a base for aircraft visiting the Farnborough Airshow, and for a period the airfield straddled the A30, with road traffic halted while airliners were towed across. From the early 1950s the United States Navy maintained a facility on the airfield's north-east edge, handling visiting patrol aircraft such as the Lockheed P2V Neptune and Martin P4M Mercator, along with large transports including the Douglas R5D Skymaster and R6D Liftmaster. The airfield's buildings and aircraft of the period also featured in the films No Highway in the Sky (1951) and The Crooked Sky (1956).
Blackbushe remains an active general aviation airport, with only the area north of the A30 still in use; the former southern maintenance site with its wartime hangars is no longer part of live flying operations. Based aircraft today include several corporate jets and three fixed-wing flying schools, together with Aerobility, a flying charity supporting disabled pilots, and a helicopter school running a satellite base at the airfield. The Pathfinder Cafe, opened in 2021, serves breakfast and lunch with outdoor seating overlooking taxiway Hotel, the grass apron and the western end of runway 07/25. The airport is open to the general public, and its perimeter is popular with walkers, with Yateley Common and the Castle Bottom National Nature Reserve adjoining the site.
