25/05/2015
100th Anniversary dogfight over RFC Beaulieu ( East Boldre ) - after an anxious wait by hundreds of on-lookers, former Royal Flying Corps airfield Beaulieu, based at East Boldre, Hampshire, came back to life a century after the RFC brought it's training school there. Originally built as a private venture by V McCardle of Bournemouth and J Armstrong Drexel, an American citizen (pictured), it opened on 1st May 1910 and used two Bleriot monoplanes and set a new height record in June 1910 of 1070 feet. the RFC took over the airstrip in November 1915 to train pilots to fly over the Western front and to intercept rogue German fighter entering UK airspace. The air field soon grow with armament buildings, hangers, mess hall, theatre, accommodation blocks, all of which were soon demolished after the now renamed Royal Airforce left in 1919. Reverted fully to Heathland, except for one building and the chalked-in name of BEAULIEU still present in the heathland, most people drive by without knowing the important history to this now barren landscape. On Monday 25th May, 2015, one hundred years after the RFC started to train British pilots to help win WW1, 8 replica WW1 fighters once again ( and probably for the final time ) brought the heath to life. German and British contingents criss-crossed the sky above the airfield in a mock battle to entertain and enthral the crowds, the likes of which have never been seen at East Boldre. After 15 action-packed minutes the planes made a final salute fly past, then turned west and headed away into the distance, to leave East Boldre silent again for ever more.