Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus) was one of the primary shore airfields of the Fleet Air Arm. First established as a seaplane base in 1917 during the First World War, it later became the main training establishment and administrative centre of the Fleet Air Arm.
Naval aviation began at Lee-on-Solent on 30 July 1917 when the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) opened the Naval Seaplane Training School as an extension to the seaplane training station at nearby Calshot. The school's first commander was Squadron Commander Douglas Evill, who went on to become Vice Chief of the Air Staff.
Initially, aircraft had to be transported from their temporary hangars to the top of the nearby cliff, then lowered by crane onto a trolley which ran on rails into the sea. Permanent hangars, workshops, accommodation and a new double slipway were soon constructed though.
On 1 April 1918, the RNAS combined with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to form the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Lee-on-Solent Naval Seaplane Training School became an RAF station. Naval aviation training continued throughout the 1920s under the RAF with both Calshot and Lee-on-Solent providing training in operating seaplanes - initially using the wartime Short Type 184s and, from late 1921, the new Fairey IIID.
On 1 April 1924, the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force was formed, encompassing those RAF units that normally embarked on aircraft carriers and fighting ships (including those at shore bases such as Lee-on-Solent).
In 1931 the first grass airstrip, at Lee was constructed to the west of Lee-on-Solent, became HQ RAF Coastal Area, and a major rebuilding programme ensued. On 14 July 1936, an expanded RAF Coastal Area became RAF Coastal Command, with the HQ remaining at Lee-on-Solent.
With the expansion of the RAF during the 1930s, however, Parliament decided that the Fleet Air Arm should transfer to the Admiralty. As a consequence, on 24 May 1939, HQ RAF Coastal Command moved to Northwood and Lee-on-Solent was commissioned as HMS Daedalus, becoming Headquarters of Flag Officer Air (Home).
Post war she continued to play a significant role, being renamed HMS Ariel on 31 October 1959 to reflect her electrical, radar and ground training emphasis, and in 1962 the joint Service Hovercraft Unit was formed with the aim of testing hovercraft in an operational military environment, and soon after the Air Station reverted to the name HMS Daedalus on 5 October 1965.
In 1970, the Air Mechanical Engineering School moved to Daedalus from HMS Condor, Arbroath. Thus the establishment played a major part in the technical support, development and training of the Fleet Air Arm and its engineering personnel.
Gradually the Air Station lost its status as commitments were transferred to RNAS Yeovilton. However, the Air Station continued to play an aviation role with its brightly coloured Chipmunk T.10 trainer aircraft buzzing over the airfield, the Solent and Lee-on-Solent, throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Daedalus's resident 781 squadron was still being used for VIP and SAR work, with its Wessex HU.5s only finally being disbanded on 31 March 1981 after 41 years residing at Lee-on-Solent.
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With the shrinking Navy, further rationalisation became necessary at Lee. Training was moved to the Marine and Air Engineering School at HMS Sultan in Gosport and other units were transferred to appropriate establishments. Routine naval flying operations ceased in 1993 apart from occasional activation for exercises, 814 Sea King squadron was perhaps one of the last front-line squadrons to visit in April 1993. Air Engineering training continued until Christmas 1995 when the school transferred to HMS Sultan,
HMS Daedalus was finally paid off and formally closed as a Naval Establishment on 29th March 1996, ending 79 years of continual naval aviation presence.
In March 2006 the site was split, with ownership of the central area including the runways transferred to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) who have continued to use it as a base for their air sea rescue helicopters. Hampshire Constabulary's fixed wing aircraft also continued to use the airfield.
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. The work was completed on 24 October 2006.
Today, the MCA remains and part of site will be home to a new £12m Centre of Excellence for Engineering, Manufacturing and Advanced Skills Technology.
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