IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Gibson Drive, WEST MALLING, ME19 4LJ

At junction of Gibson Drive, Forest Way, and Kings Hill Avenue.

An arresting sculpture just outside the entrance to Tonbridge & Malling County Council buildings in Kingshill, sited in the centre of a roundabout. It consists of a spectacularly reflecting sphere being "held up" by 3 people.

Originally used as a landing area during the first World War, the site opened as a private landing ground and in 1930, then known as Kingshill, home to the Maidstone School of Flying, before being renamed West Malling Airfield, and, in 1932, Maidstone Airport. As war approached, the airfield was taken over by the military, to become RAF West Malling in 1940, serving in the front line against the Luftwaffe. The station saw further service after the war, first with some of the RAFs first jet squadrons, and later as US Naval Air Station. After closure as an operational air station in 1969, West Malling acquired a more civilian guise, hosting several major Great Warbirds Air Displays during the 70s and 80s, until eventually closing completely as an airfield. The site is now developing into a new village community of mixed residential, commercial, and civic amenities, but still retains several features of its military aviation heritage. (from http://military-genealogy.forcesreunited.org.uk/3035/RN_Air_Station_West_Malling ) The control tower now lays abandoned and waiting restoration and eventual new use.

Kings Hill was developed from 1969 on the site of the former RAF West Malling. RAF West Malling had a long and distinguished history from the First World War, through the air shows of the 1930s and the Second World War when it was a front line airfield against the Luftwaffe. After the War, West Malling was in use throughout the 1950s and early 1960s as Britain's premier night fighter station before closure as an operational air station in 1969. A fuller history of West Malling Airfield can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_West_Malling This statue at the end of Gibson Drive (doubtless named after Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC of Dambusters fame) is titled 'The Airman'. The inscription beneath says "THIS UNNAMED AIRMAN, A MEMBER OF AIRCREW DRESSED IN 1940S STYLE FLYING ATTIRE PORTRAYS A MEMBER OF EITHER ONE OF THE SHORT STAY SQUADRONS OR ONE OF THE MAIN STAY SQUADRONS, NAMELY Nos. 25, 29 AND 85 DURING THE WAR AND 500 SQUADRON WHICH WAS BASED HERE FROM 1946 - 1957."