EGLM White Waltham Airfield

Nestled in the almost perennially green Berkshire countryside, some twenty-five miles West of London, White Waltham is the largest grass airfield in Europe, it boasts the largest flying club in the UK, and is home to over one hundred and fifty general aviation aircraft.

White Waltham is steeped in history and was originally founded by the De Havilland family in 1928 for use as a training field for the famed De Havilland Flying School. During the Second World War, White Waltham was requisitioned by the UK Government and became home to the Air Transport Auxiliary which used the field as a base to ferry new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants and active service squadrons and airfields.

After the war, White Waltham became a testing airfield for Fairey Aviation and later Westland Helicopters. Several famous aircraft designs had their first flight at White Waltham including The Fairey Rotodyne, Westland Wasp and Fairey Gannet.

The airfield has achieved some fame over its almost hundred-year-old lifespan and has appeared numerous times in films and television programmes. The late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was taught to fly in a De Havilland Chipmunk at White Waltham in the 1950s, and this event was dramatised in the hit television show, The Crown.

White Waltham Airfield has been recreated faithfully over many hundreds of hours by Burning Blue Design’s modellers and coders and features:

• Over 80 custom 3D objects have been created exclusively for White Waltham airfield, each with full Physical Based Rendering (PBR) allowing for far more realistic textures.
• There are thousands of carefully placed stock assets, every shed, car, post and tree, along with an assortment of ground workers has been placed in its correct location ensuring the atmosphere of a working airfield.
• High-resolution colour-corrected ground textures taken from Bing maps and manipulated for consistency and realism which far surpasses the quality of the stock Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 ground texture.
• Working custom Windsock and working custom Signal Square.
• Full night lighting placed across the airfield and within and around the hangars and buildings.
• Correct AI pattern procedures and accurate taxiway and runway placement have been incorporated into the release.

Numerous custom aircraft have been added around White Waltham to enhance the realism and better reflect actual aircraft found at the airfield:

• Fairey Gannet
• Hawker Hurricane Mk1
• De Havilland Chipmunk
• Panavia Tornado GR1 in Desert Pink camo
• Challenger Private Jet
• Lockheed C130 Hercules’ cockpit
• Westland Lynx
• Robinson R22
• Eurocopter EC135
• Aérospatiale Alouette II

The surrounding area has been enhanced:

• Key points of interest added to aid VFR navigation including Shottesbrook Church and Littlewick Green Petrol Station.
• The nearby train line has been created with actual tracks and trains.
• Fields and farms have been enhanced with agricultural equipment and hay bales.
• Roads around the airfield have been improved with correct markings and colours.
• Houses and gardens around the airfield to enhance the realism when on short final.