Manston Airport

Manston Airport is an airport, formerly a Royal Air Force aerodrome, in Kent, England.

At the outset of the Great War, the Isle of Thanet was equipped with a small and precarious landing strip for aircraft at Westgate, above the cliffs at the foot of the sea where a seaplane had been based at the end of the promenade.

The landing grounds atop the cliff soon became the scene of several accidents, with at least one plane seen to fail to stop before the end of the cliffs and tumble into the sea, which for the fortunate pilot had been on its inward tide.

In the winter of 1915-1916 these early aircraft first began to use the open farmlands at Manston as their site for emergency landings. Thus was soon established the Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston. It was not long after this that the training school, set up originally to instruct pilots in the use of the new 'Handley' Bombers, was established, and so by the close of 1916 there were already two distinct units stationed at Manston, the Operational War Flight Command and the Handley-Page Training School.

Its location on the Kent coast gave Manston some advantages over the other previously established aerodromes and regular additions in men and machinery were soon made, particularly, in these early days, from Detling. By 1917 the Royal Flying Corps was well established and taking an active part in the defence of England.

At a time when Zeppelin raids were bringing the war directly to the home civilian population, German daylight bombing raids by the 'Gotha' Bomber, a twin engined biplane, would have been considerably more destructive without the RFC's presence and Manston's decisive involvement.

The German air raids had lasted for thirteen weeks, the last being on 22nd august 1917. On this occasion, of the 15 bombers that set out for England five did not even reach the Kent coast, and the 'spirited' intervention from Manston prevented those remaining from getting very far inland at all, three of them being destroyed outright with the remaining seven sent scurrying back to Germany with dead and wounded on board.

Shortly after and as a consequence the Cabinet recommended the creation of a separate Air Ministry. The RAF thereafter being officially formed on 1st of April 1918.

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An item of some interest and great curiosity relating to the slightly later history of Manston and its personnel, stands out for being part of the long list of inspired rescues off the Thanet coast. A link between the airfield and the Goodwin Sands is revealed in the pages of: The History of R.A.F Manston by Flt. Lt. Rocky Stockman RAF, and is told by Wing Commander Bryson who recalled an adventure at sea involving the high speed launches stationed at Ramsgate Harbour in 1936 for duty with the no. 48 (gr) Squadron.

He reports: "we had two of these launches, equipped with old areo engines by a firm in Cowes - they had never run for more than 15 minutes without conking out. One afternoon the Royal Temple Yacht Club had a race from Ramsgate. A squall blew up and the yachts ran aground on the treacherous quicksands. With trepidation I ordered out the two high speed rescue launches, which, miraculously, managed to keep going and rescued the boats? - as if old Culmer White had been watching over them!"

RAF Manston continued these maritime traditions with its Air-Sea Rescue helicopters and teams into our contemporary lives, adding a priceless additional element to the Counties emergency services.

1950-90 In brief.

During the long period of the Cold War the American Strategic Air command chose Manston as a base for its fighter and fighter bomber units. Each unit serving just 90 days on a temporary and rotational basis, and in conjunction with RAF Fighter command.

From July 1950 to June 1958 USAAF fighters, fighter bombers, Thunderstreaks, Sabrejets, T6's T33's all with support aircraft, and air sea rescue Albatross 'amphibians', were operational on a daily basis at Manston, which became a joint civilian and RAF airport from 1960, and thus employed in tourism and trading freight, alongside its continuing role as an RAF base.

From 1989 Manston became known as the Kent International Airport, and was given a new terminal, officially opened that year by the duchess of York.

Manston has also been listed by NASA as an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle program (which is itself has currently been suspended, pending reviews in safety).

Manston has still the longest runway in the south east of England, and it has been said also and best equipped except for Gatwick and Heathrow.

Source: Kent aviation: Roy Humphreys

1990-2005.

Manston is now a commercial airport.