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RAF Wheaton Aston – known locally as RAF Little Onn – was one of the West Midlands’ busiest wartime training airfields, and its intensity tells you a great deal about the scale of Britain’s aircrew production effort. Built between 1940 and 1941, the station was originally intended as a relief landing ground for RAF Hixon, but the rapid evolution of training needs meant it became fully active in its own right. It ultimately operated as a satellite under the wider training framework centred on RAF Shawbury, with links to Service Flying Training Schools and Advanced Flying Units.
Unlike operational bomber stations focused on combat sorties, Wheaton Aston’s ‘front line’ was instruction. It became a training base for (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit work and Beam Approach Training (BAT), an early instrument-landing technique using radio beams that helped pilots learn to land safely in poor visibility. In an era when weather, darkness and inexperience caused frequent accidents, instrument and approach training was a life-saving skill that directly improved operational survivability. The airfield’s tempo was remarkable: by 1944 it was averaging over 11,000 flying hours per month, with documented months showing thousands of daylight and night hours – levels of activity that put heavy pressure on airframes, ground crews and local airspace discipline.
The principal aircraft associated with Wheaton Aston’s wartime training was the Airspeed Oxford. The Oxford was a twin-engined trainer ideally suited to multi-crew instruction: pilots could practise advanced handling and navigation, while trainees learned teamwork, radio procedures and the rhythm of operational flying. Under the Empire Air Training Scheme, the station trained not only British personnel but also aircrew from Allied nations, ensuring that the RAF’s global force could be sustained as losses mounted and operations expanded.
Wheaton Aston’s importance is also visible in the network it controlled. As training demand surged, it developed or used several relief landing grounds and satellites of its own, including sites such as RAF Bratton, RAF Peplow, RAF Perton, RAF Seighford and RAF Tatenhill. This web of landing grounds increased runway capacity, reduced congestion and allowed training to continue even when weather or incidents affected the main field. It also reflects how training airfields were often ‘system hubs,’ managing multiple strips and dispersals across a region.
Life at Wheaton Aston could be hazardous. Training units, by their nature, flew with inexperienced crews, sometimes in poor weather and at night. The station’s history includes incidents such as aircraft ending up in the nearby Shropshire Union Canal after undershoots or mechanical problems, and it even suffered at least one enemy bomb drop – though local memory often emphasised that training accidents were as striking as the Luftwaffe’s brief attention. After the war, the station’s flying role wound down and it closed in 1947, but its wartime legacy remains clear: Wheaton Aston was a powerhouse of advanced flying and instrument training, helping turn newly qualified pilots into operational aircrew ready for the demands of wartime service.