Plans to turn a disused RAF control tower into holiday accommodation are being hailed as the "only hope" of saving the historic building.
The Landmark Trust is seeking consent to transform the nerve centre of the former RAF Ibsley, a New Forest airfield that played a starring role in a classic war film.
Also known as Ibsley's watch office, the control tower was built in 1941-42.
In an update, the Trust said its £3m restoration scheme aimed to rescue the two-storey building from its current state of "near-total dereliction".
It added: "The watch office was once a vital link in Britain’s Second World War air defences, yet now stands decayed, crumbling and inaccessible.
"The Landmark Trust plans to restore this resonant building, honour its remarkable legacy and sensitively enable access through self-catering holidays, information about its history, and public open days."
READ MORE: Plan to turn crumbling control tower at former RAF Ibsley into luxury holiday accommodation
Ibsley, near Ringwood, was used by the RAF and the United States Army Air Force between 1941 and 1944.
The statement says: "Airmen flew out into hostile skies to defend Britain with great courage and at huge personal cost, many never to return. It was here that Leslie Howard and David Niven made the seminal war film The First of the Few."
The statement highlights the building's distinctive design, describing it as the only one of its type still in existence.
But it adds: "The large Crittall windows have long rusted and fallen in and the ceilings are now rapidly collapsing, transforming the site into a patchwork of risks.
"For years, the building has stood locked and unsafe on a private estate, with no public access at all.
"Energetic local efforts to save the building have come to nothing, and the intervention of the Landmark Trust is the watch tower’s only hope of being saved.
"Restoration will see the watch office sensitively adapted for up to eight holidaying guests. The income will pay for its future maintenance, preserving the building, and the memories it holds, for future generations.
"The 1940s layout and wartime decorative schemes will be respected."
Released in 1942, The First of the Few tells how R J Mitchell designed the Spitfire, despite suffering from incurable cancer. Mitchell, who died aged 42 in 1937, lived at Russell Place in Portswood and was based at the Supermarine factory in Woolston.
The Landmark Trust's application to restore and convert the old control tower has been submitted to New Forest District Council.
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