Departure
90%
vs 95% ▼ 5
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Warton Aerodrome sits on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, immediately west of Preston, and has for decades been BAE Systems' principal flight test and production airfield for British military aircraft. It is a private site, home to Typhoon test flying and BAE's corporate air transport operation, with a single long, ILS-equipped runway suited to fast-jet and business-jet operations rather than casual visiting traffic.
Warton Aerodrome is a private airfield on the Fylde in Lancashire, operated by BAE Systems as a major assembly, production and flight-test facility for military aircraft. For a simulator pilot it is of particular interest as the long-standing home of British fast-jet development work, from the Canberra and Lightning through to the Eurofighter Typhoon, combined with a single very long, ILS-served runway more typical of a military or industrial test site than a general aviation field.
The aerodrome lies in Warton village on the Fylde, about 7 miles (11 km) west of Preston, with the eastern end of the site adjoining the village of Freckleton. Given the presence of approach, radar and ATIS services alongside a tower frequency, arriving traffic can expect an active air traffic environment typical of a major test and production airfield rather than an uncontrolled strip.
Warton has a single physical runway, 07/25, aligned north-east to south-west. Runway 07 is 8327 ft long, hard-surfaced and lit; the reciprocal, Runway 25, is 8163 ft long, hard-surfaced, lit, and equipped with an ILS approach. The considerable length of this runway reflects the field's role in testing and producing fast military jets.
Warton provides Approach on 129.525 MHz, Radar on the same frequency of 129.525 MHz, Tower on 130.8 MHz, and an ATIS broadcast on 121.725 MHz. An ILS is available for Runway 25, supporting instrument approaches to the field.
Warton's runways were laid down in 1940 so that the airfield could act as a satellite for the RAF Coastal Command station at Squires Gate in Blackpool. During the Second World War it was operated as an air depot by the United States Army Air Forces, hosting the 402d Air Depot (later the 402d Base Air Depot) from April 1943 to November 1945, as thousands of aircraft passed through en route to Britain, North Africa, the Mediterranean and mainland Europe. On 14 August 1944 Glenn Miller, newly promoted to major, gave a concert to 10,000 servicemen in front of No. 4 Hangar, and on 23 August 1944 the accidental crash of a USAAF B-24 Liberator caused the Freckleton Air Disaster, killing 61 people including 38 children. The airfield later passed to the Royal Air Force before English Electric took over the site in 1947, moving its main design office there in 1948. Subsequent mergers created the British Aircraft Corporation (1960), British Aerospace (1977) and, from 1999, BAE Systems. Across these decades Warton served as the flight test centre for the English Electric Canberra and Lightning, the BAC TSR-2, the Sepecat Jaguar, the Panavia Tornado, the BAE Hawk and, most recently, the Eurofighter Typhoon, for which it hosted all British development and Instrumented Production Aircraft and was home to the RAF's first Typhoon squadrons, Nos. 17 and 29. The last new-build Tornado left Warton in 1998, after which the main assembly hall was converted for Typhoon final assembly.
Warton remains a private BAE Systems site and is not open to the public. It holds a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P748) permitting flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee, BAE Systems (Operations) Limited. The airfield is the base for BAE Systems' Corporate Air Travel department, which runs scheduled employee services to Farnborough and Munich using Embraer 145 aircraft, along with contracted services to Cambridge, RAF Coningsby and RAF Marham, in addition to ad hoc VIP flights.
