Spitfire Flights and Experiences from Solent Airport
Spitfires.com has a number of sites around the country from which it operates remotely. Solent Airport is the latest new venue offering unrivalled proximity to the English Channel. With a long hard runway Solent Airport gives the option of year round flights and also provides the perfect location for training new pilots. This is very much in line with it's heritage as a training base that reaches back to before WW1. Its closeness to the Isle of Wight also means that the shortest flight will enable a tour to the white cliffs of the Needles, an area synonymous with the Spitfire and a spectacular sight to behold over the wing of a Spitfire. Most recently Solent Airport was the location for filming of the aerial sequences of the Hollywood blockbuster 'Dunkirk' where it saw three Mk1 Spitfires and a Buchon 109 based for a number of weeks.
HISTORY
Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus) was one of the primary shore airfields of the Fleet Air Arm. First established as a seaplane base in 1917 during the First World War, it later became the main training establishment and administrative centre of the Fleet Air Arm. Situated near Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire it is approximately four miles west of Portsmouth on the coast of the Solent and only three miles north of the Isle of Wight.
On 1 April 1918, the RNAS combined with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to form the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Lee-on-Solent Naval Seaplane Training School became an RAF station.
Spitfires and Seafires flew from the airfield throughout the second world war and squadrons of Spitfires flew from there on D-Day in June 1944, making it the busiest air station on the south cost of England for that famous military operation.
Previouosly known as Lee on Solent Airport the airfield has recently been renamed Solent Airport Daedalus.
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