Inverness flying sites
Note: This map simply shows the location of the town of Inverness within the UK.
INVERNESS: Provisional regional airport
NOTES: In 1931 at least Capt E E Fresson trading as Brit Avia was offering a kind of airline service between KIRKWALL, THURSO and INVERNESS using the DH.60 Moth G-AAWO. It might seem ludicrous that an airline offering just one passenger a seat could be a viable proposition today, but think about it?
Only the very rich could afford such a service in those days and in such a remote part of the UK demand must have been pretty limited at best. I suppose today we’d refer to this as an air taxi operation. Today I’d feel fairly confident that the location this operation in Inverness was LONGMANS FIELD?
INVERNESS: Military seaplane base
Operated by: RNAS
Period of operation: 1917/18 only?
NOTES: I suppose this could have been CROMARTY? It has been a constant source of frustration for me, in this research, that the locations of many sites are so often described in the vaguest of terms.
INVERNESS see also LONGMAN AERODROME
INVERNESS see also SEAFIELD
INVERNESS see also RAIGMORE HOSPITAL
INVERNESS: Military aerodrome then reverting to regional airport status
(Previously known as RAF DALCROSS in WW2 and after for a period, until the 1970s?)
Operated by: 1975: Department of Trade & Industry
1980s to 2000: Highlands & Islands Airports Ltd
Military users: WW2: RAF Flying Training Command 29 Group
2 AGS (Avro Ansons & Miles Martinets)
13 GCF
Post 1945: No 8 (?) AFTS
41 Sqdn (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
For a period renamed No.41 Instrument Flying Rating Squadron (Airspeed Oxfords and North American Harvards), then back to fighter duties with DH.103 Hornets and later Gloster Meteors and Hawker Hunters at BIGGIN HILL
British airline users: Pre 1940: Highland Airways, North Eastern Airways, Scottish Airways
Post 1945: BEA, Business Air, Brymon Airways, Eastern Airways, Flybe, Thomson fly
Foreign airlines: Post 1945: Ryanair
Flying club/schools: Post 1945: 1980s: Highland Flying Club
2000s: Highland Flying School
Helicopter ops: 1980s: Bond Helicopters, PLM Helicopters
Location: Between the A96 and B9039, about 7nm NE of Inverness
Period of operation: 1930s to present day
Runways: Initially ‘all over’ grass field (?)
WW2: 06/24 1676x46 hard 12/30 1249x46 hard
02/20 1188x46 hard
1959: 06/24 1669x46 hard 12/30 1219x46 hard
02/20 1195x46 hard
2000: 06/24 1887x46 hard 12/30 700x18 hard
The obvious question is why the slight variation between the runway lengths ‘officially’ listed between 1944 in WW2 and 1959? This small discrepancy crops up regularly so I generally ignore it. But, does anybody know exactly why this occurred?
NOTES: It appears this aerodrome was planned pre-WW2 as a permanent RAF Station? Local historians say that Capt ‘Ted’ Freeson of Highland Airways first landed here on the 22nd June 1937 in the Gipsy Moth G-AAWO when instructing a student. I suspect he had an eye to the future? When WW2 broke out he advised the Air Ministry of the suitability of the site stating that he had used it since 1937 flying in with both G-AAWO and the DH Dragon G-ACIT.
In WW2 it was being used as an advanced flying training and gunnery school. After WW2 it became the civil airport for Inverness, replacing LONGMAN FIELD aerodrome. Between WW2 and 1959 at least (?) this aerodrome/airport seemed to alternate between being operated by a civilian authority and the Air Ministry? In 1959 it would seem the only civil airline operator was BEA offering services linking it from Glasgow (RENFREW) to Wick, Orkney (KIRKWALL) and the Shetland Isles (SUMBURGH)
Inverness (DALCROSS) became a military aerodrome in 1941. From 1951 to perhaps 1954 the RAF Advanced Flying Training School operated Airspeed Oxfords here.
In 2005 there was a move by the “barmy army” to rename INVERNESS as LOCH NESS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - but did this happen?
Gary Brindle
This comment was written on: 2016-11-09 16:41:20Longman airfield was indeed the main one for the town /city and is now the location for the industrial estate and A9 highway. It hosted DH Dragon, Monospar, Dragon Rapide as well as Moths.
Reply from Dick Flute:
Hi Gary, Many thanks for this and all the other info. Regards Dick
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