Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton

Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton stands in the flat Somerset Levels a few miles north of Yeovil. The airfield covers more than four square kilometres of grass and tarmac, with hangars, workshops and the Fleet Air Arm Museum grouped around the longest runway. It is one of only two active Fleet Air Arm bases in Britain, the other being RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall. Helicopters from the Commando Helicopter Force and the Wildcat HMA2 fleet fly from Yeovilton every day. The station also hosts Army Air Corps Wildcat AH1s and Merlin HCi3/4/4A helicopters of the Royal Navy. The base has been a centre of naval flying since the Second World War. In 1939 the Admiralty took over 169 hectares to build three runways and a repair yard for Westland Aircraft. Squadrons trained here for carrier landings and aerial gunnery, and the first British unit to receive the Fairey Barracuda torpedo bomber was 827 Naval Air Squadron in 1943. After the war the airfield became a major demobilisation point and later the headquarters of Flag Officer Flying Training. Today the station is home to NATO’s Joint Electronic Warfare Core Staff and the Fleet Air Arm’s Memorial Church, St Bartholomew’s in Yeovilton. Visitors find the Fleet Air Arm Museum inside the station, with hangars full of historic aircraft and flight simulators. Outside, the runways and taxiways are still used by Merlin and Wildcat helicopters. The surrounding Levels offer flat cycling routes and views across the Somerset countryside. The airfield’s wartime control tower and radar centre at Speckington Manor remain part of the site. Squadrons such as 845 and 846 continue to operate from the base, keeping its traditions alive.