Rochester Council established an airport at the site in 1933. Short Brothers began flying at the site soon after and in 1934-5 took over the airfield. In the early years they used the site for test flying but began civilian flights in 1934 flying to Southend. In 1938 a flying school was established, also run by Shorts. The airfield was heavily bombed on 15th August 1940 hitting the factory, where Stirlings were being built, the runway and other buildings. Shorts left the airfield in 1946 but the airfield continued to be used for training and small scale flying