Eccles Road
Note: This map shows the location of the present day Eccles Road railway station.
ECCLES ROAD: 8th Air Force USAAF Air Depot, Station 548
NOTES: I wonder if strictly speaking it can be considered that this was not a flying site?
I suppose this is a good example of how the boundaries can often become blurred when researching this subject. It was built in late 1944 on the north, (or western side), of the old A11 trunk road, adjacent to SNETTERTON airfield and a track or taxiway connected the two.
THE PURPOSE OF THE SITE
Originally intended to service and repair Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft but apparently not used due to the lack of aircraft arriving. It was handed over to the USAAF 9th Air Force to operate as the Troop Carrier Command Service (Rear) to assemble various aircraft for flight and it seems that types such as the Curtiss C-46 Commando, Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Noorduyn C-64 Norseman (Canadian designed and built), Consolidated C-109 Liberator and Cessna UC-78 Bobcats were assembled here.
NIT PICKING
Just to be really nit-picking and nerdy I gained this information from ‘Airfields and Airstrips of Norfolk and Suffolk’ – Part Three from the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, first published in April 1981, revised in January 1986. (An excellent reference source). I’m dredging up old memories here but the authors refer to the C-47 Dakota being assembled here. I seem to recall the name Dakota was a RAF label for this type, and as these aircraft appear only (?) destined for USAAF use the name C-47 Skytrain would have been used?
I only mention this because I am firmly convinced that the DC-3/C-47 type will probably remain THE classic airliner of all time? In the same vein as the Cessna 172 being the TRUE classic light aircraft, being.the most produced!
It appears TROSTON next to HONNINGTON served a similar purpose.
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