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Old Buckenham Airfield lies in south Norfolk, close to the village of Old Buckenham and about 14 miles southwest of Norwich, on the site of the former World War Two bomber base RAF Old Buckenham. Today it is a busy private general aviation aerodrome with a mixed hard and grass runway layout, home to a flying club, a WWII heritage museum and the annual Old Buckenham Airshow. It offers straightforward VFR access for visiting light aircraft, with A/G radio cover from Buckenham Radio.
Old Buckenham Airfield (ICAO: EGSV) is a private general aviation aerodrome in Old Buckenham, Norfolk, occupying the site of the former RAF Old Buckenham. It is operated by Buckenham Aviation Centre Limited and owned by aviation enthusiast Geoffrey Lynch OBE, who acquired the airfield in 2013 and has since expanded its hangarage and facilities. The field holds a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P907) permitting public transport flights and flying instruction, though it is not licensed for night use. It is of particular interest to sim pilots for its strong wartime heritage, its mix of hard and grass runways, and its role as a lively centre for light aviation in East Anglia, complete with an annual airshow and a resident WWII museum.
The airfield sits in Norfolk, England, roughly 14 miles (23 km) southwest of Norwich and about 2 miles southeast of Attleborough. It occupies the site of the former RAF Old Buckenham, a wartime USAAF bomber station, and the surrounding area remains largely agricultural, giving pilots clear countryside for orientation on the approach.
Old Buckenham has three physical runways. The main hard runway, 07/25, is 2785 ft in the 07 direction and 2087 ft in the 25 direction, has a lit surface, and is the primary runway for visiting traffic. Two grass runways complete the layout: 07L/25R, 1321 ft and lit, and 02/20, 1209 ft and lit. There is no ILS at the field, so all approaches are flown visually.
The airfield is served by an Air-to-Ground station, Buckenham Radio, on 124.405 MHz. There are no published instrument approaches or navaids associated with the field, reflecting its status as a visual-only general aviation aerodrome.
The village of Attleborough, roughly 2 miles to the northwest, is a useful landmark for pilots routing towards the airfield, alongside the broader agricultural landscape of south Norfolk that surrounds the site.
The airfield was built in 1942-43 by Taylor-Woodrow Ltd as USAAF Air Station 144, opening in late 1943 as the base for the 453rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), which flew Consolidated B-24 Liberators as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign, entering combat in February 1944 with a raid on an airfield at Tours. The group took part in the assault on the German aircraft industry during "Big Week" in February 1944, supported the Normandy invasion and the breakthrough at Saint-Lo, and flew resupply missions during the Battle of the Bulge and the airborne crossing of the Rhine at Wesel, losing fifty-eight aircraft in action along with twenty-five more from other operational causes. Hollywood actor James "Jimmy" Stewart served as the group's operations officer at Old Buckenham in spring 1944, and fellow actor Walter Matthau was also based at the airfield. The Americans departed in May 1945 and the site passed to Air Ministry control, being used as a maintenance satellite until its closure on 20 June 1960, after which much of the concrete was removed for aggregate and the land returned largely to agriculture. The airfield returned to civilian aviation use in later decades and was sold in 2013 to Geoffrey Lynch OBE, under whose ownership new hangars, office space, and heritage facilities including two Nissen huts housing a museum have been built. A black granite memorial in the form of a B-24 Liberator tailplane, commemorating the 366 USAAF personnel who died flying from the base, stands in a memorial garden at the centre of the airfield, its path laid out in a figure-eight to symbolise the Eighth Air Force.
The airfield today hosts general aviation flying, a flying club, and the 453rd Bomb Group Museum and 8th Air Force heritage displays, alongside the East England Military Museum's collection housed in airfield hangars. It is notable as the first airfield in the UK to install a public electric aircraft charging point, commissioned in July 2021, and is home to the NUNCATS project developing a prototype electric Zenith CH750 aircraft intended for use with solar-charged unmade landing strips in the developing world. The airfield also stages the annual Old Buckenham Airshow, a well-established event featuring historic and display aircraft. The aerodrome holds a CAA Ordinary Licence permitting public transport and instructional flying but is not licensed for night operations.
