apparently , in its final years as an air base it had been used more and more as the unofficial retirement home for senior air force generals , with just the odd mirage 111 , f1 , or c130 hercules popping in to justify its existence , but with the introduction of the f/a-18 into the air forces inventory , the new aircraft proved to be too technically advanced ( and noisy ) to warrant major investment in the airfields infrastructure , so in the early nineties the base was de-commissioned and put up for sale on the open market .