During World War II, several film stars were assigned at one time or another to the base, including Clark Gable, James Stewart and William Holden.

A unique mission undertaken at Bovingdon was the training of United States journalists to cover the air war over Occupied Europe.

[6] The group of journalists flew on a combat mission over Wilhelmshaven, Germany on 26 February 1943 to attack the German Naval submarine pens there.

The mission saw heavy losses for the USAAF, and the aircraft of Andy Rooney of the Stars and Stripes was damaged by flak and Robert Post of the New York Times was killed in action when his B-24 exploded.

Other journalists who underwent this training included Walter Cronkite, James Denton Scott, Homer Bigart, William Wade and Gladwin Hill.

The training was performed on the Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress aircraft, and most combat crews of Eighth Air Force bombing units for the balance of the war received their introduction before moving on to their operational bases.

On 15 September 1949, Bovingdon was the start point for a successful record air speed attempt by a de Havilland Hornet to and from Gibraltar.

British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) used Bovingdon as a maintenance facility and numerous other independent aircraft operators used the former technical site during the postwar years.

The Air Training Corps 617 Gliding School operated from Bovingdon between 1968 and 1970; the last flight by a military aircraft was by Kirby Cadet Mk.3 glider XN246 on 25 Oct 1970.

In 1968, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced that Bovingdon would be closed for budgetary reasons, and in 1972 the airfield was shut down, although from World War II to present day, the runway, 650m long × 49m wide, on Berry Farm has continuously[inconsistent with rest of article] been used for light aircraft activities.

Berry Farm is owned separately by the Webb family and is unconnected to the part of the original airfield where the land has been used for various other uses, including the market.

In 2012 Dacorum Borough Council confirmed that the Berry Farm stretch of runway 08/26 remains a legally active airfield for light aircraft operation.

In the early 1980s, flying returned to the airfield, first with hang-glider tow-launching (using a truck-mounted pay-out winch) and then microlight aircraft, mainly of the 'Trike/hang-glider' type.

At that time the combined control tower and fire-tender garage were in 'reasonable structural condition' but deliberately[citation needed] damaged a few years later by earthmoving equipment, thereafter making restoration highly unlikely.

The airspace above the airfield and nearby Chesham is known as the Bovingdon stack and is a holding area for aircraft approaching Heathrow Airport, 32 kilometres (20 mi) to the south.

[23] An airstrip at the airfield is also reputed to have been used in the opening credits of the 1967 television series The Prisoner, in which Patrick McGoohan is seen driving a Lotus Super Seven car past the camera at speed.

The control tower and airfield was the filming location for the 1981 movie Silver Dream Racer starring David Essex and Beau Bridges.

In the movie, the montage scene before the final race shows Essex and Christina Raines training for the forthcoming grand prix.