Located in the northern suburbs of London, north of Watford, the site of Leavesden, bounded now between the M1 and M25 motorways, has been a home to many heavier-than-air companies, but it’s also connected with lighter-than-air craft.
Leavesden Aerodrome was established shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1940. It’s runway being suitable for heavy bombers and aircraft hangars available.
Goodyear – 1973
The site was used by the local De Havilland company from nearby Hatfield. After the war, this was later used as their gas turbine production plant, and through a series of acquisitions within the British aircraft industry, the site came under the control of Rolls-Royce.
In 1973, it became the temporary home to the Goodyear “Europa”. The Goodyear airship had been constructed in Akron, Ohio, but flown to the UK, and assembled and inflated at Cardington.
Having spent a year at Cardington, in 1973 it was decided that a base closer to London was required for promotional flights and also coverage of sporting events and races.
Leaveden Areodrome was chosen due to its proximity to London, and also availability as an airfield. During June 1973, a series of promotional flights were made as part of its European tour.
Being able to carry six passengers, the ship could often be seen over major sporting events, as she provided a stable camera platform for filming. Europa was also equipped with over 7,500 coloured light bulbs for night-time advertising and displaying messages.
The time at Leaveden was short, as there was no real infrastructure for airships to be permanently based there; however, the ship used the Leaveden base for its London tours.
There are many memories of the Goodyear Europa flying over the suburbs of north London. Do you remember seeing the ship?
Airship Industries – 1986
Airship Industries had always looked to use skyships as a multi-role aircraft, and that included its evaluation as passenger transport, and was able to obtain a Civil Aviation Authority approval for licensing the Skyship 500, and later the Skyship 600 model airship, not only as flying billboards, but to offer passenger flights.
This would be a very lucrative revenue stream for the company, along with further confidence from the general public as to the safe return of airships for passenger-carrying trips.
Cardington had been Airship Industries’ base since the late 1970s and had been used extensively as the home of the airship for flight testing and development. Promotional and advertising flights had been operated out of the Cardington base for a number of years, but now with passenger certification of the Skyship 500, a trial base nearer to London was required for sightseeing.
Leavesdon had been pointed out as a potential base by Operations Manager, Martin Hull, who had known that Goodyear had used the airfield site in the early 1970s for its Europa flights over London.
A trial operation was carried out in early 1986 with the use of a Skyship 500 SK 500-02 (G-B1HN), which operated a series of short flights from Leavseden. The Skyship 500 was now the only airship in the world which was legally permitted to carry fare-paying passengers.
The Skyship was flown down to Leaveden from Cardington, where a temporary portacabin reception area had been erected on the side of the airfield. A mobile mast had also been driven down to the airfield for mooring the ship.
The planned schedule was for four 1 1/2 flights over London, on six days a week and tickets costing £100 per passenger.
A programme of flights over London’s scenic landmarks took place, scheduled from 23rd April to 28th June 1986.
Under the initial sponsorship of British Caledonian, which had recently launched a business class chauffeur service “door to door”, the company’s logo was emblazoned on the Skyship.
One of the prestigious passengers was the then current aviation minister, Michael Spicer, and he was joined by the then managing director Alan Birchmore, and techincal director of Airship Industries and founder Roger Munk, along with Sir Peter Masefield, the chairmand of the British Airports Authority 1965-1971, and later became president of the Airship Heritage Trust.
Despite the press coverage, flight attendants dressed in British Caledonian uniforms, and British Caledonian Airways sending their fifteen-piece bagpiper band, the first flight didn’t reach central London due to adverse weather conditions of low cloud and winds gusting at 20 knots. The flight was cut short and returned 45 minutes later; it was nevertheless enjoyed by all on board, and a good view of central London could be seen.
During the trial flight period, the ship was aiming to make 4 scheduled flights a day, with over 1,000 people on the waiting list. Passengers paid £100 per ticket (about £220 in 2022), and an added attraction was the opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the BBC EastEnders set at nearby Elstree Studios.
Despite the publicity and support, there were a few unhappy local residents, and Watford Borough Council received forty-five complaints about noise and invasion of privacy due to the low-flying altitude of the flights.
However, the local complaints didn’t dampen the popularity of the Skyship flights
.Flights routed down the Lea Valley to Tower Bridge the up and down the Thames, giving passengers a grandstand view of the major landmarks over the City of London and beyond.
The popularity of the trial meant that all flights were booked and the scheduled services ran till 28th June, flying some 760 passengers, after which the airship was then contracted for a tour of the UK for Fuji Film.
SK 500-2 was then flown back to Cardington for its new banner and livery to be attached in Fuji Film colour, and could be seen over cities across the country.
The trial season was only agreed with the local council as a 10-week period from Leaveden, which gave the company a great experience in running a scheduled service, and the logistical requirements needed. It had shown that the confidence in the return of a passenger-carrying airship for sightseeing popularity had grown, and Airship Industries ended the short season with a waiting list of passengers of some 3,500.
With this demand for flights, and with the concept of expansion, ease of public access, and less disruption to local residents from noise, Airship Industries decided to look for a more suitable base of operations, and aiming to get a larger ship, which was capable of taking more passengers, for the 1987 season, moved their operations to Radlett Areodrome.
Did you fly from Leavesden in an airship? What was it like?
The Skycruise flights and operations were very popular, and many flights were taken over London. Do you have memories or photos you would like to share and add to this page? Please contact us with details.