Coastguard/SEEDA Ownership
During its Royal Navy ownership, the airfield had been used for a variety of groups, including the Portsmouth Naval Gliding Club (PNGC), the Lee Bees Model Flying Club, The Tigers Children’s Motorcycle Display Team and two flying schools, and a number of privately owned aircraft were based at the airfield. When the RN moved out in 1996, operational management of the airfield was taken over by Hampshire Police Air Support Unit (HPASU).
In March 2006 the site was split, with ownership of the central area including the runways transferred to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The outlying areas, including the former accommodation and technical area and surrounding land, hangars, and dispersals, were transferred to the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). HPASU continued to manage the site, as tenants of the MCA, and Hampshire Constabulary’s fixed wing aircraft also continued to use the airfield.
In April 2006, Gosport and Fareham Borough Councils issued a Joint Planning Statement for Daedalus stating that “There should be provision of leisure and community facilities which could complement existing facilities to the benefit of local residents” and “Future development should seek to maximise the benefit of the existing runways for general and private aviation use.”.
During the same year, several aviation-related businesses, including an aircraft maintenance organisation, a microlight aircraft manufacturer, and a flying school, became tenants of SEEDA, as did the owners of around 50 aircraft based on the site. The aerodrome was strategically important, as the growth of commercial air transport at Southampton Airport some years ago left it with no capacity for general aviation (GA) aircraft. This left Lee-on-Solent as the only airfield in southern Hampshire with a hard runway available for general aviation; the nearest alternative in Hampshire being Farnborough Airfield.
Did you know?
In April/May 2006, whilst conducting repairs to the runway, building crews discovered an unexploded pipe bomb, of over 60 feet long, placed underneath the runway by the military, designed to cripple the airfield’s operational capabilities in the event of a German invasion. The bomb (along with 19 others subsequently discovered) was scheduled to be removed in September 2006, and work was completed on 24 October 2006.
In October 2010 Hampshire Police Air Support Unit was closed and its tasks taken over by the newly formed South East Air Support Unit covering Hampshire, Sussex, and Surrey, from bases at RAF Odiham and Shoreham Airport. On acquiring their land SEEDA stated:
“The lack of availability of serviced employment land and new business space has been identified as an important requirement in South Hampshire.
Our intention is that development of the site will focus on new aviation and marine related businesses, exploiting access to the existing runways and the Solent. Plans are to create a quality business location that will attract inward investment and provide accommodation for start-up, growing and established businesses”
Britten Norman
From 1 April 2011, British aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman leased the site under its airfield operations subsidiary, Fly BN. Britten-Norman established corporate offices at the Daedalus Airfield site, as well as a manufacturing base for its subsidiary Britten-Norman Aircraft, and MRO facilities for two other subsidiaries: BN Defence and BN Aviation. Now managed by Fly BN