The Airmans Rest
Note: This map only gives a very rough idea as to where this hotel was situated.
THE AIRMAN'S REST: Heliport
Note: The third and forth pictures are from my Google Earth © derived database.
Location: Not known exactly? On Ratby Lane, now the B5380, opposite Leicester airport. Which, at that time, was BRAUNSTONE
Period of operation: Unknown?
NOTES: We have Mr Graham Frost, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for pointing out this location. It is listed here for a couple or more reasons, but first it serves to illustrate the start of an entirely new development in British aviation - the helicopter. The first examples, for civilian use, appearing quite soon after the end of WW2.
But, this subject certainly has me quandrified, mixed up and muddled. It appears that the BRAUNSTONE (LEICESTER) airport became operational in March 1935, and closed in March 1946. The advertising above appears to state that it was new - and the hotel opened after WW2. In all probability the new owners had expected the airport to remain open well after 1946. Indeed, I have failed to discover why it closed in 1946? Without any doubt it shows that the people running the hotel were very much up to speed with the latest developments in civil aviation.
Is it possible that this hotel was the first in the UK to boast of having a heliport? Which of course today we would describe as a helipad. Assuming it had just one defined landing area. The question that must be asked, is, was it ever used? This seems quite possible, bearing in mind that the Leicester heliport, much closer to the city centre and operated by BEA, (British European Airways), opened in 1956. That was not a success and it seems, might well have lasted in operation for 1956 only?
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