Close to but completely separate from RAF Headcorn, Lashenden was built for the RAF during 1942-43 as an Advanced Landing Ground (ALG), initially as a light bomber base and then as a training base for mobile fighter squadrons. Enlarged and improved for the Ninth Air Force during 1943-44, the station eventually had two BRC runways, 80 Sommerfeld Track hardstandings, and a Butler combat hangar plus supplementary blister hangars. Taken over by the 100th Fighter Wing in April 1944, the station was occupied by the 354th Fighter Group, equipped with P-51s, for only two months from April to June 1944. The airfield was then unused from July 1944 and closed in September 1944. Dismantling of the runways and buildings began in October 1944, and the site officially returned to agriculture from January 1945. However, during the 1960s part of the site was used again for private flying, and has since been developed into the multi-role Lashenden (Headcorn) Aerodrome. This is confusingly sometimes called simply Headcorn Aerodrome, although completely separate from the wartime ALG at Headcorn. The current Aerodrome has been home since 1970 to the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum.