After 1936 Essex Aero was based on the site, and maintained the airfield's link with racing aeroplanes by preparing the de Havilland DH.88 Comets and Alex Henshaw's Percival Mew Gull that set the record for a flight from England to South Africa.

The Royal Air Force moved into Gravesend in 1937 when a Flying Training School began operating de Havilland Tiger Moths and Hawker Harts at the airfield.

Accommodation was split between Cobham Hall (officers mess), the control tower (some pilots), and the 'Laughing Waters' restaurant (groundcrews), while aircraft were dispersed around the perimeter.

The airfield was extended later in the war to accommodate three squadrons of American fighters, and it was also used as an emergency runway for bomber aircraft returning from sorties over the continent.

All that there is to see now is a plaque in a local sports centre listing the names of fifteen pilots killed in action whilst flying from this small field.

The following squadrons were also here at some point:[10] In 1954, the Air Ministry had to decide whether the civil airport should be retained and substantially enlarged, or the extensions east of Thong Lane be released for residential development.

After the war, the then Gravesend Municipal Council gave planning permission to Essex Aero to take over the airport, but with severe (and unworkable) conditions.

The main conditions were that the RAF extensions must be ripped up, thereby reducing the airport size by 40%; that the two runway lengths cut back to just 3000 ft; and finally, provisions that a school and associated housing should be built on parts of the airfield.

To the west and north, it followed a line almost where the existing boundary of Riverview Park Estate now stands and to the east, it ran almost adjacent to Thong Lane.

"Cascades" Leisure Centre in Thong Lane has a plaque dedicated to the airmen of World War II who served at Gravesend Airport.