RAF Hunsdon, circa WW2 - Hertfordshire, UK.
For Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Version 1.0
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Ian Pearson, 7th May 2019.

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Situated right in the middle of the swathe of airfields built to house the United States Army Air Corps as they arrived in the United Kingdom, RAF Hunsdon is something of an rarity - it's actually a Royal Air Force station.

There are also a couple of other unusual things about the airfield, which opened in 1941 near the town of Ware; it only has two runways unlike the usual triangular arrangement and soon after opening it became home to the Havoc Night Fighters of 1451 Flight. Not unusual in itself, until you discover that 1451Flt flew "Turbinlite" aircraft, radar and spotlight equipped Havocs which operated in conjunction with 85 Squadron's more standard aircraft in this unusual and ultimately unsuccessful attempt at improving night kill ratios. In essence, the Turbinlite aircraft carried radar, which it used to hunt down enemy aircraft, which it would then illuminate using the Turbinlite mount in the nose and the accompanying night fighters would down the enemy. The theory is good... but as often happens, the operational reality was significantly less effective than the theory would suggest.

Hunsdon has one other primary claim to fame which is steeped in myth and legend when, in February 1944, deHavilland Mosquitos of 140 Airfield Wing, based at Hunsdon from November '43 until April '44, departed and flew to Amiens, led by Group Captain "Pick" Pickard. Their target was the French town's jail, being used by the Gestapo to hold French Resistance and SOE personnel, amongst others. The strike was called Operation Jehrico and, as you can read much more about that elsewhere, including all the claims and counter claims regarding its cause and effect, I won't go any more deeply into it here!

Following the departure of 140 Airfield Wing to Gravesend, night fighter Mosquitos moved in, reverting Hunsdon to its more associated role, before being replaced by long range escort Mustangs and Tempests until the end of hostilities. The final aircraft left and very quickly Hunsdon was placed on the "Care and Maintenance" list. It was pretty normal that being on the list absolutely did not mean that any "care" or "maintenance" was carried out and the airfield soon fell into disrepair.

Officially closed in July 1947, Hunsdon was returned to agriculture, although a small corner in the North of the airfield site is still operational, with the buzz of Rotax engines from microlight aircraft instead of the roar of Merlins. Most of the layout is still clearly visible from the air and many structures still survive to this date, a number of which are now scheduled monuments.


Installation:
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RAF Hunsdon is the first airfield I have created that uses solely my own "IJP" object libraries, so there are no other sets required, other than the base sim's ground and operating surface textures, that is!

While you do not need the Bill Womack and Ted Andrews libraries, there's no harm in having them installed.

1) Download and install the IJP libraries from the "Flight Simulator", "Object Libraries" pages of my website (http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk). To see all structures, vehicles and scatter objects, you will need at least the version dated 20190517, or later.

2) Extract the enclosed directory "IJP_X2HU" into your [FSX folder]\Addon Scenery directory.

3) Launch FS, and through the Scenery Library editor, add the directories "Addon Scenery\IJP_X2HU" and "IJP FSX Library" to your sim.


For SODE users only:
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The SODE files included with this download are designed to work with version 1.5.3 of the module and as such use the most up-to-date installation method. In order to use the configurations, you will need to download my SODE objects and install both those and the xml file to your SODE directory. This is defaulted to C:\ProgramData\12bPilot\SODE.

The IJP_WW2_Simobjects folder, with all subfolders and contents, should be placed inside the "SimObjects" folder (e.g. C:\ProgramData\12bPilot\SODE\SimObjects\IJP_WW2_Simobjects\[etc.])

The IJP_X2HU.xml file from this archive should be placed inside the "xml" folder (e.g. C:\ProgramData\12bPilot\SODE\xml\IJP_X2HU.xml)


Uninstallation:
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Remove the entry from your scenery library, then delete the "IJP_X3HU" folder. If you don't need them for anything else you can also remove "IJP FSX Library"

To remove the SODE entries, simply delete the XML file and, if not used for other sceneries, the IJP_WW2_Simobjects folder.


Finding RAF Hunsdon:
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The easiest way to find RAF Hunsdon is, unfortunately, to visit Stansted Airport. Yes, I know, no-one really ever wants to go to Stansted, but this former-USAAF-field-turned-wannabe-London-airport is only a little over 5NM North East of Hunsdon, so if you go there and turn roughly heading 235 degrees, you'll soon be over Hunsdon.

You'll need to be a little bit careful though, as even though I haven't done RAF Sawbridgeworth (yet...), which slightly alarmingly lies >between< Stansted and Hunsdon, there are more than enough other airfields in the area to get you laughed at if you get the wrong one... Ian Eliott's Matching Green and the default North Weald are well within the error circle, so you might want to look for the ID letters "HD" adjacent to the signal square, before landing. 

56 18m-radius MIL_COMBAT type parking spots are provided, dispersed around the airfield perimeter, some of which are in protective revetments, others in Blister Hangars, the remainder on open dispersals. These will fit a Mosquito sized aircraft without issue, although you may need to be more aware of which one you pick when using a larger aircraft.

The "ICAO" code X2HU comes from John "Bones" Woodside's airfield listings, which can be found at http://woodair.net/UK_Airfield_Catalogue/ukmenu.htm.


Development Tools:
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The objects used in this base are from the default libraries of FSX Deluxe and my own object libraries. It has not been tested with FSX Standard, sorry, and will not work in FS9. It will work quite happily in Lockheed-Martin Prepar3D, with the proviso that the scenery object libraries are not made with PBR materials, so use the default shader for non-PBR materials in P3Dv4.

Other tools used during the development of this scenery were:
Airport Design Editor by Scruffyduck Software.
SBuilderX by Luis S.
Blender
Blender2FSX
Adobe Photoshop
ModelConverterX and LibraryCreatorXML by Arno Gerritsen (fsdeveloper.com)

Information used to build this scenery has come from an ARP (Aerodrome Reference Plan) from the RAF Museum, Hendon, plus Google searches, Google Earth, Virtual Earth, the Airfield Research Group and Ken Delve's "The Military Airfields of Britain" series of books (Crowood Press), specifically the Northern Home Counties book for RAF Hunsdon. These books are available from Amazon and other sources and are highly recommended for those interested in WW2 airfields around the UK.


Legal Bits and bobs...:
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This file is provided "as is" and with no form of warranty whatsoever. In the somewhat unlikely event that it harms your computer, sets fire to your fishbowl or causes you to not do the washing up and get yelled at, I cannot be held responsible in any way. If you don't like this, please don't install it and no I will NOT do your washing up, I have enough to do myself already, thanks!

Have fun!
 
Ian Pearson
ian@ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk
Web: http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk
Facebook: IanPsDarkCorner
Twitter: @ianpsdarkcorner