 Gosport
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1914 to present | | Location: | 50 48 N - 1 10 W | | 2nm NW of Gosport, Hampshire | | ICAO: EG | IATA: | Elevation: 16 feet |
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| History of this Base/Heliport: | Help Us | |
Opened in 1914 after runways were laid to the north and west of Fort Grange and Fort Rowner. After brief naval occupancy, it became a Royal Flying Corps base in Jan 1915. It was under RAF control from Apr 1918 when the service formed. Its original (short) runways were laid during the early 1930s for deck landing practice but were extended in 1940.
After WWII, it transferred from RAF 16 Group and commissioned as HMS Siskin on 1 Aug 1945, although an FAA maintenance unit had been based here since May 1940. At this time, the Aircraft Handling, Safety Equipment and Firefighting School was established here. It became famous in May 1947 as the location of the first Royal Navy exclusively helicopter equipped squadron. The airfield closed on 31 May 1956 and by 1985 the runways had been dug over and covered by housing. 
Although the days of Gosport as an active air base were over, HMS Sultan immediately opened on 1 June 1956 to accept the transfer in of the Mechanical Training and Repair Establishment (MT & RE) from nearby Portsmouth Naval Dockyard. In Jan 1959, the Aircraft Handling unit transferred to RNAS Culdrose to become the School of Aircraft Handling, there.
Over the years, HMS Sultan has benefitted from the centralisation of engineering training that has been forced on the Royal Navy by contracting funding levels. As a consequence, the site has grown in the north east corner of the old air base and has gradually acquired a collection of modern buildings and facilites, and engineering instructional airframes as other establishments have closed.
In 1982, Artificer Apprentice training moved in when HMS Caledonia (Rosyth) was closed. In 1987, marine engineers joined the air engineers, when the department at HMS Collingwood (Gosport) moved the short distance. Post-graduate training for air, surface and subsurface engineers arrived in summer 1995, together with their airframes from HMS Thunderer (RNEC Manadon, Plymouth) when it closed its doors for the last time. Then in 1996, the Air Engineering School at HMS Daedalus moved in when RNAS Lee-on-Solent also closed. The Department of Nuclear Science and Technology from the Royal Naval College Greenwich moved in when the Navy closed the College in October 1998. More recently, some parts of the Submarine teaching has transferred in when HMS Dolphin closed.
As well as a centre of excellence for the Royal Navy, HMS Sultan trains other UK military engineers, engineers from overseas armed forces and also earns revenue by providing engineering courses at all levels to industry. |