Established in the 1920s as a private flying field, it developed into an airport with scheduled airline service, and was used by the Navy during World War II.

There are not many flat areas in the region, and despite the rough ground and the altitude of the field leading to regular high winds and low cloud, he established an airfield.

The land was rolled as flat as possible with a concrete roller pulled by an ancient tractor, and boundaries were marked with some white-painted rocks.

[4] A small corrugated iron hangar was built, capable of holding two light aircraft, and a fuel tank and pump installed.

[4] Parkhouse's ground engineer around 1929 was Howard Pixton[3] who had been A V Roe's first test pilot before winning the 1914 Schneider Trophy races at Monaco.

[6] The official opening of the airport took place on 21 September 1929, which Sir Sefton Brancker, the Director of Civil Aviation attended, arriving in his Moth appropriately registered G-EDCA.

The South Devon Flying Club was formed here in 1933,[7] One of its first students was Ruth Fontés who gained her 'A' certificate in a Gipsy Moth on 26 July.

[8] The airfield became popular with horse jockeys and trainers visiting local racecourses at Exeter, Newton Abbot and Totnes.

It used Westland Wessex airliners leased from Imperial Airways, and a suitably timed bus service connected their passengers with Teignmouth and Torquay.

Provincial Airways ran a West Country Air Service between Croydon Airport and Plymouth, with intermediate stops at Southampton and Haldon, which they called Torquay.

[2] After the gathering on the opening day in 1929, annual events were organised at the airport, named the Haldon Air Rallye [sic].

A formation of three Royal Air Force Saunders-Roe London flying boats and another of three Gloster Gauntlets [5] did low flypasts at all three airports.

The tour visited 110 venues between May and October 1929 using a ten-passenger de Havilland DH.61 Giant Moth G-AAEV named Youth of Britain.

The airfield lay unused for a while, before being requisitioned by the Air Ministry and occasionally used by communications aircraft during armament testing at a nearby range.

A few hardstandings were also built, with some Sommerfeld steel tracking laid and land drainage work undertaken, enabling larger aircraft such as Boulton Paul Defiants and Miles Martinets to use the airfield.

[17] In January 1943 HMS Heron II moved to RNAS Charlton Horethorne which had opened 10 July 1942, and by May 1943 the admiralty had grown tired of the high winds and low cloud that so often hampered operations, and the airfield was reduced to a Care and Maintenance status.