Langford Lodge airfield - a brief history





Langford Lodge airfield is commonly perceived and remembered as an American base in World
War Two. Initially though, the site was one of about 50 in the United Kingdom which were
developed in 1940/41 by the Ministry of Aircraft Production as Satellite Landing Grounds.
SLGs were small, minimally equipped airfields to which new aircraft produced by the
factories were flown for temporary storage under the auspices of RAF Maintenance Units prior
to their being taken to a particular MU where they were fitted out for use by operational
squadrons. One or more SLGs were allocated to each MU and Langford Lodge was one of five in
Northern Ireland initially allocated to and used by No 23 MU at RAF Aldergrove. Aircraft
storage at Langford Lodge commenced on 9 May 1941 but soft ground conditions quickly caused
problems and it was decided to provide tarmac runways. Construction of the runways was well
advanced by the end of July that year and RAF aircraft were stored at the site until May,
1942.

Meanwhile, although the USA was avowedly at peace prior to 7 December 1941, secret meetings
which took place throughout the preceding year between representatives of that country and
the UK resulted in an agreed strategy for joint engagement of the Axis powers in the event
of the USA joining the war. A decision to construct an aircraft maintenance depot at
Langford Lodge to provide for repair of American aircraft operated by British forces in
addition to American-operated aircraft was one element of this. It was agreed that the
Ministry of Aircraft Production would construct runways, buildings and mains services while
the United States Army Air Force would take responsibility for operating the depot. In the
event, the USAAF decided that to a large extent the operation of the depot would be
subcontracted to the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, in what proved to be a series of
contracts renewable every 6 months. In February 1942, construction of the air depot
commenced, the work being accorded absolute priority over all other construction in Northern
Ireland. Large numbers of local people were employed to assist with its construction and
subsequent administration and to facilitate commuting to and from the site a new rail track
was laid by the Great Northern Railway from Crumlin to a terminus at Gortnagallon, half a
mile from the actual airfield.

The Air Depot at Langford Lodge was officially activated in July 1942, under the command of
Col E W Hill, 8th Air Force Service Command, USAAF. However, it was September before it
began to operate as intended, only partially at first because construction of buildings and
services was far from complete. One of the first aspects of its planned function to be put
into effect was overhaul of Pratt & Whitney, Wright and Allison engines, assembly lines
being established in Hangar 7 (the one next to Hangar 6 where the Society's aircraft are
currently, located). During October/November, 1942, some B-24 Liberator aircraft of the 8th
Air Force's 44th Bomb Group, recently arrived in the UK, were modified at the depot but it
was January 1943 before all the buildings in what eventually proved to be merely a first
phase of construction were sufficiently complete to allow the depot to fully operational.

Essentially. Langford Lodge was one of three primary air depots in the UK which during the
period up to July 1944 when the contractual arrangements with Lockheed were terminated.
provided complete logistical, ie supply and service back-up facilities to the USAAF,
initially the 8th Air Force and then also the 12th, 9th and 15th Air Forces, albeit less
extensively,. The other two, larger, depots were at Burtonwood and Warton in Lancashire but
there were links between all three which were formalised by the setting up of a Base Air
Depot Area organisation (BADA) in September 1943, at which time Langford Lodgewas officially
designated the 3rd Base Air Depot.

As well as overhauling engines, maintaining and repairing aircraft already in service. a
significant function of the BADs was preparing new aircraft for supply to combat arises.
Bomber aircraft were flown directly to the UK from the USA by the north or south Atlantic
ferry routes and normally arrived at Prestwick or Nutts Corner, St Mawgan. St Eval or
Valley. Fighter aircraft were shipped to Liverpool or Belfast. Both types were then taken to
one or other of the BADs for assembly (if required), inspection and modification for use in
the European Theatre of Operations. By 1944 however, Langford Lodge had cone to specialise
in experimental engineering while Burtonwood and Warton concentrated on proven
modifications, a reflection of their much greater size. Them was a little-publicised
instance of this during May 1944 when Lockheed's Chief Test Pilot, the California-based Tony
LeVier was at Langford Lodge assisting the Experimental Engineering Section with tests which
succeeded in producing a 'fix' for the Allison engines which had been the cause of
persistent problems in P-38 Lightnings at high power settings at moderate to high altitudes.
In the process, as LeVier recalled in an article published only months before his death in
February 1998, the depot's instrument specialist effectively designed the world's first Mach
meter, by adopting a dual manifold pressure indicator to warn pilots when the aircraft's
speed was approaching its critical Mach number. The depot also specialised in propeller
overhaul and the manufacture of modification kits.

Termination of the contract with Lockheed reflected no real shortcomings on the company's
part, merely that the combined capacities of Burtonwood and Warton for assembly/modification
work had increased sufficiently to enable them to meet the logistical demand in that aspect.
In fact, during the period that Lockheed had run the depot, through its subsidiary the
Lockheed Overseas Corporation, 3250 aircraft were assembled, 11000 were serviced and 450000
components were overhauled. This was an outstanding achievement, all the more so because the
relationship between LOC and the USAAF had not been an easy one, basically because of a few
significant differences between the civilian and military ways of doing things. Furthermore,
as USAAF Station 597, the depot had been subject to a series of bewildering
administrative/organisational changes, being designated or known as, variously, "Scheme Y"
Northern Ireland, HQ First Service Area; Langford Lodge Air Depot; 2029th Air Depot (Prov);
403rd Air Depot and 3rd Base Air Depot. In its heyday, about 7000 people had been employed
comprising about 1000 military personnel, about 3000 Lockheed staff and about 3000 local
civilians, paid for from Lockheed funds.

From July 1944 until its closure at the end of July 1945, the base functioned as a Storage
and Experimental Station, continuing to do some of die work for which it had previously been
responsible and, as the war moved towards a conclusion salvaging increasing numbers of
war-weary aircraft. For a few months in 1944, Langford Lodge was also the base for Ferrying
Squadrons of the 27*' Air Transport Group. Following its closure in 1945, the airfield was
placed in Care and Maintenance until 1952 when it was refurbished and used briefly to
accommodate the RAF's No 5 Air Navigation School until its disbandment in January, 1953.
Five years later, the airfield and buildings were acquired on behalf of the Martin Baker
Company to facilitate development of the company's aircraft ejection seat enterprise. The
buildings, ie control tower, former parachute store and part of the former Hangar 6,
occupied by the Ulster Aviation Society's heritage collection are presently not required by
the company and are leased to the Society.