Hangar 79

The evocative Hangar 79, along with Hangar 137 of the Bicester Aerodrome Company, was the RAF’s first permanent end-opening hangars of the interwar period.

Categorised as Type A Hangars, they were built to house as many as 12 De Haviland DH9A bombers and designed in 1924.

Finished by 1926, it is one of only 34 made – though six were initially planned for RAF Bicester. By the mid-1930s, the Type C hangars like Hangar 113 by the airfield had arrived and rendered the As redundant.

Hangar 79 measures just under 250 feet in length and 122.5ft across, and was originally known simply as No.1 Hangar. It was listed as Grade II in 2005.

During the Royal visit in 1965, when HRH Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip toured Bicester, it was the first stop after lunch and featured a display of ‘Mechanical Transport’. 

Among the exhibits included recovery vehicles and site transport leading to retired aircraft that had flown from RAF Bicester.

A Bristol Boxkite, an example of the first plane ever to land on the runway, stood beside a Gloster Gladiator and Spitfire, while across the hangar a Westland Lysander was flanked by a Sopwith Camel and Hawker Hunter.