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RAF Thruxton USAAF Station AAF-407
Thruxton,Hampshire in England
Thruxton Airfield - May 1945. Already large numbers of combat aircraft being stored at the airfield, parked wingtip to wingtip on the grass areas, prior to their being returned to the United States.
Site information
Type	Royal Air Force station
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces
Controlled by	RAF Fighter Command Ninth Air Force
Location
RAF Thruxton Shown within Hampshire Show map of Hampshire RAF Thruxton RAF Thruxton (the United Kingdom) Show map of the United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°12′29″N001°36′02″W / 51.20806°N 1.60056°W /51.20806; -1.60056
Site history
Built	1941 (1941)
In use	1942 - 1946 (1946)
Battles/wars	European theatre of World War II
Airfield information
Elevation	90 metres (295 ft)AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 02/20 900 metres (2,953 ft) Concrete 08/26 1,360 metres (4,462 ft) Concrete 13/31 1,040 metres (3,412 ft) Concrete

Royal Air Force Thruxton or more simplyRAF Thruxton is a formerRoyal Air Force station located 5 miles (8 km) west ofAndover,Hampshire.

Opened in 1942, it was used by both theRoyal Air Force andUnited States Army Air Forces.

During the war Thruxton was used primarily as a combat fighter airfield.

However, paratroops who participated in the Bruneval raid (Operation Biting) in which German radar technology was captured took off from here inArmstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers on the evening of 27 February 1942. Also, gliders used in theD-day landings operated from here.

After the war it was closed in 1946.

Today the site is occupied by theThruxton Circuit. It remains an active aerodrome at the same time, now namedThruxton Aerodrome.

While underUnited States Army Air Forces (USAAF) control, it was known asUSAAF Station AAF-407 for security reasons, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its station-ID was "TX".

Thruxton was transferred to the USAAF Ninth Air Force on 3 January 1944. On 1 March the366th Fighter Group withRepublic P-47 Thunderbolts were transferred to the airfield fromRAF Membury. Operational squadrons of the group were:

• 389th Fighter Squadron (A6)
• 390th Fighter Squadron (B2)
• 391st Fighter Squadron (A8)

The 366th was a group ofNinth Air Force's71st Fighter Wing,IX Tactical Air Command. The group moved to itsAdvanced Landing Ground (ALG) at St. Pierre du Mont,France (ALG A-1) on 17 June 1944 .

The following squadrons were here at some point:^[1]

The following units were here at some point:^[1]

Upon its release from military use, in 1947 the field was leased by the Wiltshire School of Flying, whose engineering arm designed and built numbers of theThruxton Jackaroo - a four-seat conversion of thede Havilland Tiger Moth. Over the next few years their training fleet was joined at Thruxton by substantial numbers of light aircraft.

Flight training at the airfield is now provided by Western Air (Thruxton) Ltd at what is now known asThruxton Airport. The southwest end of the former 02/20 secondary runway is now used as an aircraft parking ramp with the airport facilities also being built on the former runway. The northeast end of the runway still exists, but is largely abandoned, with parts of it also used for aircraft parking. The airport uses part of the former main 07/25 wartime runway for takeoffs/ landings. A grass runway was built parallel to the 12/30 secondary runway, the wartime concreted runway being in a deteriorating state and unused.

Thruxton airfield is also the operational airfield for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance service.

Motorcycle racing started in 1950 with the famousThruxton 500 motorcycle endurance race, followed bycars in 1952. The runway and perimeter roads formed the original circuit until a new track was laid in 1968 utilizing the former airfield perimeter track At 2.356 miles (3.792 km), the new circuit uses only the perimeter road with the addition of a chicane called Club and a series of three tight corners called Campbell, Cobb and Seagrave. All of the loop and pan dispersal areas have been removed.

There is no flying on race days but the airfield is used for flying during practice and test days on the motor circuit.

• List of former Royal Air Force stations
• Thruxton Circuit

 This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now 1994. After the BattleISBN 0-900913-80-0
• Freeman, Roger A. (1996) The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two. After the BattleISBN 1-85409-272-3
• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History.ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
• Thruxton Airfield at www.controltowers.co.uk
• USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers—1908 to Present

Wikimedia Commons has media related toThruxton Airfield.

• Photographs of RAF Thruxton from the Geograph British Isles project

• Airfields of the IX Fighter Command in the United Kingdom
• Military airbases established in 1942
• Military airbases closed in 1946
• Parachuting in the United Kingdom
• Royal Air Force stations in Hampshire
• Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from November 2017
• Use British English from November 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Articles lacking in-text citations from August 2015
• All articles lacking in-text citations
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
• Commons category link is on Wikidata