Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent, former Royal Naval Air Station near Lee-on-Solent in Hampshire, England, United Kingdom; now a civilian airport
Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent was a naval air base near Fareham and Gosport on the coast of the Solent. The site contained concrete runways, hangars, maintenance buildings, and dispersed aircraft storage facilities spread across the airfield.
The station opened in 1917 as a seaplane training school and reached peak activity during World War II with hundreds of fighter aircraft operating from it during D-Day in 1944. After the war it continued as a training and testing facility until closure as a naval base in 1996.
The site is accessible by road from surrounding towns including Gosport, Southampton and Fareham. Today visitors can view preserved control tower structures, hangars and old runways that mark the airfield's former use.
The airfield was among the first in Britain to have concrete runways and uniquely could operate seaplanes, helicopters and flying boats from the same site through its versatile infrastructure. This made it a special testing ground for naval aviation innovations during its active years.
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