| WYTHENSHAWE AERODROME |
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Manchester's first major airfield at Alexandra Park
closed on 24 August 1924 when the landowner refused to sell the site for
permanent use. As the City Council wanted to be the first in Britain to have
its own licensed airfield, a temporary aerodrome on the site of what is now
Wythenshawe’s Rackhouse Estate was used between April 1929 and the opening of
Barton Airport on 1 January 1930.
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COLLECTION OF THE AERODROME LICENCE |
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On 22 April 1929 two aircraft carried a civic party,
led by Manchester’s Lord Mayor Col. George Wescott, from Wythenshawe to Croyden
to collect the temporary licence for the newly opened airfield. Seen here are
Town Clerk F.E. Warbreck Howell (left) and Alderman R.A.W. Carter, the deputy
chairman of the Aerodrome Committee, seated in a De Havilland DH9c G-EBIG of
Northern Air Lines.
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BARTON AIRPORT AERIAL VIEW |
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Opened on 1 January 1930 as what would hopefully
become Manchester’s airport for the future, Barton was to prove a totally
unsuitable location. Built on boggy terrain, the grass airfield was unable to
serve the larger and heavier aircraft coming into service in the 1930’s. KLM’s
rejection of the site in 1934 led the council to cut their losses and after a
close vote plans were drawn up for Ringway. This time great attention was paid
to creating a level and well-drained landing surface.
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KLM FOKKER F.XII |
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Manchester's airport at Barton opened in January 1930
and was keen to enlist KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to provide an air service
linking the city to Amsterdam. However KLM's founder considered the landing
surface inadequate and on 23 January 1934 senior pilot Captain Ivan Smirnoff
flew a Fokker F.XII into Barton to test the facilities. He confirmed that
Barton was totally unsuitable for the larger, heavier aircraft coming into
service and thus KLM would not be choosing Manchester for its prestigious north
of England service, a bad blow to the Council which eventually resulted in the
decision to build Ringway.
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BARTON AIRPORT TOWER |
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A typical late 1930's scene at Manchester's Barton
Airport with G-ACHV, a De Haviland DH84 Dragon parked beside the control tower.
The tower still looks much the same today and Barton’s grass runway is used by
large numbers of private light aircraft.
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RINGWAY AIRPORT 1938 |
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After nearly three years of construction work,
Manchester’s Ringway Airport was officially opened on 25 June 1938. Seen here
outside the smart new terminal is G-AEAJ a DH Dragon Rapide of Isle of Man Air
Services. Early links were to Amsterdam, London and the Isle of Man, initially
as an extra stop on Liverpool’s existing services.
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EARLY RUNWAY LIGHTING |
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On 26 October 1938, Manchester’s all-important KLM
service from Amsterdam was unable to land because of thick cloud and poor
visibility, and had to return to the Netherlands. This incident and other minor
mishaps convinced the Corporation to improve Ringway’s navigational aids, and
in January 1939 the airport installed the first illuminated concrete fog line
outside the U.S.A. This 4,200 ft long 24-inch wide line had intense lights set
at 50 ft intervals and later formed the basis of today’s main Runway
One.
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RINGWAY AIRPORT 1939 PLAN |
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An early plan of the airfield shows the position
before the onset of war transformed the site dramatically. Ringway was to play
a major role in World War Two as a centre of aircraft production and
modification, with Fairey and Avro eventually producing over 4,500 aircraft
here. In addition the site was developed as the main training establishment for
Airborne Forces, with over 60,000 paratroopers trained. As a result the
airfield gained three concrete runways, over a dozen hangars, plus numerous
buildings, taxiways, roads and other infrastructure vital for its wartime use
and future development.
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DOUGLAS DC3 DAKOTA |
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| The Douglas Dakota formed the backbone of civilian
air services from Manchester from the late 1940’s until the early 1960’s. Air
Kruise operated the first officially licensed inclusive tour service (what we
now know as package holidays) on 29 May 1955 to Ostend. Such inclusive tour and
charter traffic was to become an important part of Ringway’s rapid growth in
the following decades.
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MANCHESTER AIRPORT 1964 |
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A very busy scene on 28 May 1964 shows Ringway’s
greatly improved facilities put to full use. A huge step forward came with the
opening of the modern new terminal building (now Terminal One) on 22 October
1962, incorporating many of the latest ideas such as covered piers and a
hydrant fuelling system. By now the airport was handling over a million
passengers per year.
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