Inverness Airport
INVERNESS (Previously known as RAF DALCROSS in WW2)
Apparently still known as DALCROSS after WW2 for a period, possibly until the 1970s?)
Military aerodrome then reverting to regional airport status
Note: This picture is from The John Stroud Collection courtesy of the Aviation Picture Library.
Operated by:
1965: Ministry of Aviation
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 and Miles Martinets)
13 GCF
Post 1945: No 8 (?) AFTS
41 Sqdn (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
Note: All six of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
British airline users:
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
Note: These maps are reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
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
(Note: The same layout was listed in the 1990s)
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 suit & tie wearing “barmy army” to rename INVERNESS as LOCH NESS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT…..did this happen?
Kevan Walker
This comment was written on: 2015-09-01 20:39:50Some information you might find useful. In the 1970s Inverness was served by BEA/ British Airways flights to London Heathrow, Stornoway, Glasgow, Orkney and Shetland using Viscounts (and sometimes Tridents/BAC1-11s on the Heathrow services), Loganair also operated services to Wick and Glasgow. Other civilian operators at Inverness , Dan-Air Scheduled Services based a BAC1-11 at Inverness between March1983 and 1990, and then a Boeing 737-200 from 1990-1992 to operate 3x Daily Inverness to London Heathrow, the route was inherited from BA in 1983, and then BA took over the route in 1992 when they bought Dan-Air. Air UK also operated services for a time to London Stansted and Amsterdam in the late 1990s. Thomson Holidays, the UK's largest Tour Operator began charters flights to Palma, Ibiza and Lanzarote in 2004 , the Palma flights continued until around 2011, the flights were operated by Spanair, Air Europa and latterly by Flybe. Inghams/HotelPlan operate a winter charter from INV to Geneva, and their is a regular charter to Zurich every summer. The main civilian operators currently are EasyJet, Flybe and Loganair with scheduled flights to London (Gatwick and Luton), Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol,Belfast, Amsterdam, Dublin, Stornoway, Benbecula, Orkney and Shetland Islands.
Reply from Dick Flute:
Hi Kevan, Many thanks indeed for the very useful information. As you will see this is now added to the web-site. Regards, Dick
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