Help save our Battle of Britain heritage

[Blacksheep]

Northolt is becoming a MOD London hub.

Northolt has been a London or even UK MOD hub for decades. When I was there we still had the huge NATO force in Europe and the place handled scores of NATO flights every day. The South Side ramp was busier than many civil airports and our hangars were full of transports - four turboprop twins, eight twin jet bizjets, six VIP helos and a dozen twin piston comms aircraft. We worked 16 hour days, seven days a week in those cold draughty hangars, keeping the Cabinet Ministers and Their Airships mobile.

I appreciate the comment about hangars being cold & draughty, but that's a function of being large areas with effing great doors.

At Big Airways over at Thief-Row airport, our big hangar could have swallowed most of RAF Northolt but it was warm and draught free, with sitting rooms and a restaurant that would put the NAAFI and RAF mess halls to shame. Just because its big, with big doors doesn't mean that the workers have to endure pre-war working conditions.

The Concorde maintenance docks were moved to West Pen and the Heathrow Wing Hangar was demolished without a second thought, as soon as the VC10 and B707 fleets were scrapped. The old Wing Hangar was just as much a part of UK heritage as the Northolt sheds, but its just another car park today.

However, as I already said, why spend money on rebuilding Northolt, when there are troops in the field crying out for decent weapons, ammunition and kit?