Today it serves as a visual reference point (VRP) for VFR flights,[2][3] in particular NW departures from Bournemouth Airport.

Airspeed Horsa gliders from Tarrant Rushton left for France on the eve of D-Day, to begin Operation Tonga with an action that would later become known as Pegasus Bridge.

The Tarrant Rushton gliders landed in occupied France shortly after midnight.

[5] As part of Operation Tonga, a few Tetrarch tanks of 6th Airborne's Reconnaissance Regiment were also flown from Tarrant Rushton in General Aircraft Hamilcar gliders, towed by Handley Page Halifax bombers, to land on the French coast near the mouth of the Orne river.

The system allowed the test pilot to fly the aircraft from take-off to touch-down using only the push-buttons on a console identical to that of the ground operator of the drone, turning the button pushes into control surface and throttle movements.