RAF Andover

RAF Andover (IATA: ADV, ICAO: EGWA) is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station located within Hampshire.

The airfield has a notable place in history, being the site of both the first attempt to develop a viable long-range electronic navigation system, during the First World War, and also of the first British military helicopter unit and first European helicopter flying training school, during the Second World War.

RAF Andover was also used before and after the Second World War for a variety of other aeronautical research and flight testing. The RAF Staff College, Andover was founded here in 1922, the first college to train officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of running an air force. The Royal Air Force Association was also founded at RAF Andover

RAF Andover saw action during the Second World War. Corporal Josephine Robins, one of only six members of the WAAF to win the Military Medal during the Second World War, won her award for courage rescuing people during an air-raid on the airfield in the Battle of Britain.

Three squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force were formed at RAF Andover. Before and during the Battle of Normandy, RAF Andover was used by the United States Army Air Forces Ninth Air Force as an operational tactical fighter airfield. It was also known as USAAF Station 406, Pundit Code AV. The code AV was broadcast in morse code by a mobile red light beacon at night, during the latter part of the Second World War. The Pundit Code was also painted on the airfield hangar nearest to the control tower, and remained visible until the hangars were demolished in 2001.

The site was redeveloped, and part of it has since become Army Headquarters.