RAF Ringway
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Royal Air Force Ringway or more simply RAF Ringway is a former Royal Air Force satellite station in Ringway, Cheshire, England, near Manchester. It was operational from 1939 until 1957. The site of the station is now occupied by Manchester Airport.
Prewar years
Manchester's first municipal airfield was
A new airport site at Ringway, eight miles south of Manchester city centre, was selected from several alternatives, and this was to become the site of the RAF station by early 1940. Construction of the all-grass airfield began in late 1935, and the first (westerly) portion opened in June 1937 for use by
Second World War
Construction of a Royal Air Force station, including two large hangars, workshops, barrack blocks and ancillary accommodation, began in the northeast corner of the airport during spring 1939, with phased completion during early 1940.[2] One of the hangars was intended for use by No. 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron, but this unit had been moved south at the outbreak of war.[citation needed] RAF Ringway was therefore initially used by No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF, RAF Coastal Command.[citation needed]
From June 1940, Ringway became the wartime base for
Comedian Frank Muir, serving in the RAF, spent several years at the school in the photographic section taking slow motion film of jumps on a project intended to decrease the frequency of parachutes failing (sometimes called "Roman Candle"). He recalled the Special Operations Executive training centre, housed in an Edwardian house on the outskirts of the airfield, where he was assigned to take pictures of the agents for identity documents. [4] There was an additional SOE holding centre in a large house in nearby Bowdon.
Over 4,400 warplanes were built at Ringway by Fairey Aviation and
No. 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron had its home base at RAF Ringway during 1939 and again from 1946 to 1957 when it flew Supermarine Spitfires and de Havilland Vampire jet fighters in its fighter role as a unit within the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.[8]
The following units were also here at some point:[9]
- No. 4 Squadron RAF
- No. 5 Service Flying Training School RAF
- No. 6 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit RAF
- No. 7 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit RAF
- No. 8 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit RAF
- No. 50 (Army Co-operation) Wing RAF
- No. 50 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School RAF
- No. 64 Squadron RAF
- No. 78 Squadron RAF
- No. 107 (Transport) OTU RAF
- No. 110 (Anti-Aircraft Co-operation) Wing RAF
- No. 253 Squadron RAF
- No. 264 Squadron RAF
- No. 296 Squadron RAF
- No. 663 Squadron RAF
- No. 1951 Reserve AOP Flight RAF
- Airborne Forces Establishment
- Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment
- Central Landing Establishment RAF
- Central Landing School RAF
- Development Unit (Central Landing Establishment) RAF
- Glider Exercise Squadron RAF
- Glider Exercise Unit RAF
- Glider Flight RAF
- Glider Training Squadron RAF
- Manchester University Air Squadron
- Parachute Exercise Squadron RAF
- Parachute Training Centre RAF
- Parachute Training School RAF
- Parachute Training Squadron RAF
Post war
On the disbandment of 613 Squadron (and all other Royal Auxiliary Air Force Squadrons) in March 1957, RAF Ringway was closed and its hangars and other buildings handed over for civil airline operations including cargo and maintenance.
The two 1939/40-built hangars remained in use until late 1995, when they were demolished to permit construction of the new Terminal 3.[10]
By January 2009, the only surviving building from RAF Ringway was the Officers Mess (Building 217) in Ringway Road and until recently used as the Airport Archive. It was still standing, but disused, in November 2011. It was later demolished to make way for a further extension of car parking facilities.
Memorials and monuments
A garden outside Olympic House (near Terminal 1) houses several carved stone memorials to the wartime units based at Ringway and to 613 Squadron.
There is a monument, formerly in Terminal 1 but now in
Notes
- ^ Falconer 1998, p. 77.
- ^ Scholefield 1998, p. 17
- ^ Scholefield 1998, pp. 19–22
- ^
ISBN 0-552-14137-2
- ^ Scholefield 1998, pp. 22–23
- ^ Scholefield 1998, pp. 35–37
- ^ Holmes 2004, p. 132
- ^ Scholefield 1998, pp. 49–51
- ^ "Ringway (Manchester)". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- ^ Scholefield 1998, p. 132
Bibliography
- Falconer, J (1998). RAF Fighter Airfields of World War 2. UK: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2175-9.
- Holmes, Harry (2004), Avro – the History of an Aircraft Company, Marlborough Wilts: Crowood Press, ISBN 1-86126-651-0
- Scholefield, R.A. (1998), Manchester Airport, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0-7509-1954-X