h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Old Sarum Airfield - A16509341
Author: BigAl - Still getting accustomed to my new job. - U723247

I fondly remember Old Sarum as an RAF station. I undertook glider pilot training there in the early 1970s and stayed in barracks there over eweekends. One of the best things was the breakfasts served up by RAF chefs, ''Take as much as you like as long as you eat it all!' - fried eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, s

Fascinating entry - thanks for submitting it!

I think you should mention in passing the Old Sarum hill fort / original site of Salisbury, just to link the name. (It deserves it's own entry, of course)

Just a question - why isn't Farnborough seen as the oldest airfield? - as 1) the first flight was made there and 2) it's still operational today.

Icy

'... why isn't Farnborough seen as the oldest airfield? - as 1) the first flight was made there and 2) it's still operational today'.

Hmm, VERY Good point Icy; it may just be one of semantics.
I went back to the 'Netheravon' info and it said 'oldest military airfield'. I guess Farnborough is not strictly 'military'.

I've changed the Old Sarum Entryt o say '2nd oldest military', but I think I may have to research/think about this a little more deeply. (Further thought: Old Sarum isn't military, so I've removed the 'military' again).

Reasons I didn't mention Old Sarum Hill Fort are:

Not really relevant to an Entry about an airfield.
I've mentioned it in my 'Wiltshire' Entry, to which I've linked.
I have it in mind to write an 'Old Sarum' Entry.

The clue might also be in what the Old Sarum Flying Club info says, ''2nd oldest CONTINUOUSLY operated airfield...'

Anyway, I've devised a form of words that may be acceptable, but I'll continue to think on it.

That wording looks like it should cover it. As you said before, it's semantics, but it shouldn't take anything away from Old Sarum, which is historically very significant.

Icy

I've also linked the name 'Old Sarum' to the hill fort in a FN.

Every year from 1959 onwards my parents would drive from our home to around the Poole/Sandbanks area for our summer holidays.

Every time we drove down we would take the back road into Salisbury, passing the red sign saying 'Old Sarum'

As a child I wondered what Old Sarum could be, and invented stories featuring windmills and giants as I sat in the back of an old Zodiac watching the headlights pierce the darkness.

Nice entry Al - took me back to more innocent time of my life. As you'll gather I know nothing about the actual airfield.

Nice Entry Al

Just a minor thing, and I might be wrong, you've linked to the Entry on the Whirlwind aircraft, which is about the twin-engined fighter bomber, whereas I think the Whirlwind you've made reference to in this Entry is in fact the helicopter that shares this name...

Hi there GTW.

Yes, I did realise that that Entry was about the (winged) aircraft and not the helicopter; and wondered whether to link to it or not. At the end of the day I decided to link to it as the main purpose of links is to get p[eople to read Entries they might otherwise not notice. In other words, the connection between the Entry and the link could be quite tenuous indeed. As I say, I did think twice about making this particular link as it might cause confusion but then, on balance, I decided to keep the link. (I must coinfess though, up to this point I;'d never heard of the Whirlwind winged aircraft

Actually, I've just noticed (realised!) that I've also mentioned the Whirlwind amongst a list of winged aircraft, which means that this particular WWis the winged aircraft. I'll transfer the link onto that

Interesting entry, BigAl.
Just a few things that I noticed: you mention hangers (...hangers were built using a construction method known as the 'Belfast Truss' which, although cheap, derives its strength from the criss-cross pattern of the roof supports. The hangers... )- do you mean hangars?
And you name a few planes, maybe there are entries you could link to? I know Matt (U168592)has written a few about war airplanes, might be worth checking them out.

hangers > hangars

I did check for links to the other a/c, but there weren't any Entries.

That's ok, I didn't check, just thought I'd mention it.

WWII or WW2? I'm confused - wasn't there some kind of editorial decision on what to call the Second World War a while ago, and if so what was the result?

wELL i just 'Searched h2g2' and all the Entries in the EG used WWII.

There were no EG Entries using WW2.

"At the outbreak of WW2, Old Sarum was home to No.1 and No.2 Schools of Army Cooperation"

Oops. Corrected.

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Nice one, Al