Castle Kennedy
CASTLE KENNEDY: Civil Landing Ground later Military aerodrome much later civil airfield
(Earlier known as CULTS FARM)
Military user: RAF Flying Training Command 29 Group
3 Air Gunnery School (Avro Ansons, Bristol Blenheims, Boultan-Paul Defiants, Handley-Page Hampdens, Westland Lysanders, Miles Martinets & Vickers Wellingtons)
Location: N of A75, 3nm E of Stranrear
Period of operation: Military 1913 originally? Then 1941 to 1945/6. Civil briefly in 1955 for a few years, and from then on occassionally by light aircraft, (especially in the 1980s?), and as an excercise base for military helicopters until 2004 when it reopened, albiet with minimal facilities. In 2004 plans were afoot to start a parachuting centre, and open another runway, (15/33 700 hard), plus a grass strip
Note: In the 1957 edition of The Aeroplane directory, Stranrear is given as a destination served by Manx Airlines based at RONALDSWAY on the Isle of Man. So this fits in perfectly. I wonder which types of their fleet of Bristol 170 Wayfarers, DH114 Herons and DH89A Dragon Rapides visited?
Runways: WW2: 09/27 1280x46 hard 17/35 1280x46 hard
2004: 08/26 600 hard
NOTES: In August 1913 it seems a Maurice Farman MF7 and five Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s from 2 Sqdn RFC (Royal Flying Corps) based at PANMURE BARRACKS near Montrose, (normally known as MONTROSE), landed here en route to Ireland although the site wasn’t an official aerodrome in those days. The question being of course, did the site they used coincide with the later WW1 aerodrome?
Used by the Sir Alan Cobham tour in 1929? In response to this question, Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide' came up with the answer in April 2021. It appears Sir Alan visited on the 17th July 1929. This was his 37th venue.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The newspaper article was published in The Scotsman on the 18th July 1929.
Note: Sir Alan Cobham had planned to visit 107 venues on his 1929 Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. In the end he managed to visit about 95 - still a magnificent achievement.
The aircraft Sir Alan mostly used throughout this tour was the ten-seater 'airliner' G-AAEV - a de Havilland DH61 'Giant Moth' named "Youth of Britain". He had a couple of crashes along the way and hired in much larger airliners from Imperial Airways to cover the gaps. The DH61 being returned to STAG LANE for repair.
It seems that in 1955 Silver City Airways used it briefly to transport cars to Ireland using Bristol 170 Freighters, and possibly Dakotas too? Presumably the Dakotas handled passengers and/or freight?
NOTE: This scan of a postcard was kindly sent by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection. See, www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
I wonder if anybody can kindly date this?
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