​

Set high on the Wiltshire Downs between Calne and Avebury, Yatesbury has a rich aviation history stretching back to the earliest days of military flying.
 

Originally established during the First World War as a training airfield for the Royal Flying Corps, Yatesbury later became one of the most important wireless and aircrew training stations in Britain during the Second World War. Thousands of trainee wireless operators, air gunners, radio mechanics and aircrew passed through the station as part of the RAF’s rapidly expanding wartime training programme.
 

During the war years, the skies above Yatesbury were filled with aircraft such as the de Havilland DH.89 Dominie and Percival Proctor, used to teach Morse code, airborne radio operation, direction finding and navigation. Many trainees experienced their very first flight here before eventually joining operational bomber squadrons across Europe and beyond.
 

But RAF Yatesbury was far more than just an airfield. At its wartime peak it was effectively a small town on the Downs, complete with theatres, dance bands, sports events, hospitals, training schools and accommodation huts spread across the landscape. The station hosted visits from senior military figures, politicians and even Queen Mary during the war years.
 

The surrounding countryside became deeply woven into station life. Aircrew travelled into nearby villages and towns, visited local landmarks such as Silbury Hill and Avebury Stone Circle, and formed lasting connections with the local community.

Today, although much of the original station has disappeared, the history of Yatesbury still lives on across the airfield and surrounding landscape. Wiltshire Microlight Centre is proud to continue the site’s long aviation tradition, keeping flying alive at one of Wiltshire’s most historically significant airfields.