At Hatfield, the Trident airliner and DH.125 were under development in the early 1960s, with production of the latter taking place at de Havilland's other factory at Hawarden.

This resulted in the 146 programme going ahead, which saved many jobs at Hatfield and secured the site as a centre of design and production of commercial aircraft for the next decade.

The 146 first flew in 1981 and production of some components, final assembly and flight testing of the first two series of the aircraft was based at Hatfield during the early and mid-1980s.

In 1992, due to severe financial problems, British Aerospace announced the cessation of aircraft production at Hatfield from 1993.

[3] The airfield closed but was later used as a film set for Saving Private Ryan and the television series Band of Brothers.

Arlington Securities, then the property division of BAE Systems, began the redevelopment of the main airfield site in the late 1990s.

Today the flight test hangar survives as a leisure centre, whilst the rest of the site is divided between the University of Hertfordshire, housing and a business park.

It forms part of a Heritage Lottery Fund project by the University of Hertfordshire to mark the 80th anniversary of the opening of the airfield.