Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar

With a station motto of ‘The Strongest Link’, Biggin Hill was an important sector or 'controlling airfield' during and after the Battle of Britain. First established during the First World War as a radio and instrument research station and a fighter airfield, the second conflict saw it upgraded to accommodate modern fighter aircraft.

Located at Biggin Hill Airport, south of London, this Heritage hangar now pays homage to the brave RAF staff who lived and worked here - and the planes they flew.

With the Battle of Britain deemed to have started on July 1, 1940 and ending on October 31, 1940, during this period the airfield was to become home to many fighter squadrons and was to receive constant bombing by the Luftwaffe. So intense were the attacks that for a period the operations room was moved to a local shop in order to carry out the important task of directing the squadrons. With the battle over and won thus denying a German landing in Britain, squadrons from the airfield went on the offensive.

The Biggin Hill Wing of Spitfires, as they were known, roamed over enemy territory attacking anything on the ground that moved. By 1944 however, with the battlefield moving onto the Continent, the role of Biggin Hill waned and it became a barrage balloon centre. In peactime, once again it become an important base for Fighter Command housing Meteors and then Hunters until downgraded to the Aircrew Selection Centre pending final closure during the early 1990s.

Now a major civil airport, the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar is a very important part of the airfield history today. Encompassed within is The Spitfire Company (Biggin Hill) Ltd whose collection of Spitfires reflect just what an important role the type of aircraft and the role of the airfield played in our history. Foremost among the collection is a Mark IX called ‘Spirit of Kent’. Although it remains in No. 234 Squadron colours it flies in memory of No. 131 (County of Kent) Fighter Squadron. This was a squadron of 12 Spitfires purchased entirely with money donated by the people of Kent. Kent was the only county to have its own squadron during the war and today, Kent is the only county to have its own Spitfire.

This was the first such aircraft to be acquired and has since been followed by a Mark I X4650, two Mark IXs MK912 and TD312, two Mark XVIs RW382 and TE184, a Hurricane I P3886, a Harvard trainer FE788 and an American Piper Cub. Mark IX TD314 is now flying following restoration by the Spifire Company (Biggin Hill) Ltd, housed within BHHH's hangar. Two further Spitfires are undergoing their own restoration, having been delivered in bare fuselage form from Airframe Assemblies. Progressing rapidly they are now in paint applied by Vintage Fabrics and are having hydraulics and electrical systems installed while elsewhere the wings are progressing.

Each and every aircraft flies in honour of all those young men whom Winston Churchill named ‘the Few’ and Lord Dowding, the C-in-C Fighter Command during 1940, called ‘his Chicks’. We must also never forget the groundcrews who laboured to keep the aircraft serviceable under the most extreme conditions.

Today the hangar is often the scene of reunions and open days for the veterans of the Second World War. Women pilots from the Air Transport Auxiliary whose bravery and determination to get the aircraft from the factory to the squadrons has never really been recognized with the award of their own medal, are frequent visitors. We attempt in every case to sit these brave men and women in the cockpit of one of the Spitfires. The Heritage Hangar is intent on keeping alive these memories in addition to maintaining the aircraft to the highest standard possible.

We dedicate the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar to all those personnel both male and female who lost their lives or were injured whilst serving at RAF Biggin Hill. 

To enquire about a flypast for a wedding, birthday, funeral or any other event, to book a 'Sit in a Spit' or hangar tour, call us.