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RAF Weston-super-Mare
Royal Air Force Weston-super-Mare or more simply RAF Weston-super-Mare is a former Royal Air Force station which was located on a civilian airfield in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England. It was set up as a municipal civilian airport in the 1930s before being taken over by the RAF in the Second World War for training and technical services. It was also the site of an aircraft production facility. In the postwar period it was used by Westland Helicopters. It is now home to the Helicopter Museum and a housing estate. First airport The airport was started by Weston-super-Mare Urban District Council in the 1930s. Sir Alan Cobham had encouraged local authorities to build airfields as part of his 'Municipal Aerodromes Scheme' in the late 1920s. In May 1936, scheduled air services were started by Railway Air Services using the de Havilland Dragon and de Havilland Express to fly from Plymouth to Haldon, then across the Bristol Channel to Cardiff Municipal Airport before recrossing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon, West Wick, Worlebury, Uphill and Worle. Its population at the 2011 census was 76,143. Since 1983, Weston has been twinned with Hildesheim in Germany. The local area has been occupied since the Iron Age. It was still a small village until the 19th century when it developed as a seaside resort. A railway station and two piers were built. In the second half of the 20th century it was connected to the M5 motorway but the number of people holidaying in the town declined and some local industries closed, although the number of day visitors has risen. Attractions include The Helicopter Museum, Weston Museum, and the Grand Pier. Cultural venues include The Playhouse, the Winter Gardens and the Blakehay Theatre. The Bristol Channel has a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport
Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport, also known as Whitchurch Airport, was a municipal airport in Bristol, England, three miles (5 km) south of the city centre, from 1930 to 1957. It was the main airport for Bristol and the surrounding area. During World War II, it was one of the few civil airports in Europe that remained operational, enabling air connections to Lisbon and Shannon and onwards to the United States. The airport closed in 1957, with services transferred to the former RAF Lulsgate Bottom. The former airfield is now occupied by a sports centre, trading estates and retail parks. The South Bristol Community Hospital opened on the site in 2012. Early history In 1929, the Corporation of the City of Bristol bought of farmland to the south of the city, near Whitchurch, for a new municipal airport. On 31 May 1930, the airport was officially opened by Prince George, Duke of Kent. In its first year of operation, the airport handled 915 passengers, and by 1939 it handled 4,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitney Straight
Air Commodore Whitney Willard Straight, (6 November 1912 – 5 April 1979) was a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator, businessman, and a member of the prominent Whitney family of the United States. Early life Born in New York City, Whitney Straight was the son of Major Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918) and heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968). He was almost six years old when his father died in France of influenza during the great epidemic while serving with the United States Army during the First World War. Following his mother's remarriage to British agronomist Leonard K. Elmhirst (1893–1974) in 1925, the family moved to England. They lived at Dartington Hall where he attended the progressive school founded by his parents. His education was completed at Trinity College, Cambridge. Career Motor racing While still an undergraduate at Cambridge, he became a well known Grand Prix motor racing driver and competed at events in the UK and Europe. He comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Straight Corporation
The Straight Corporation Ltd was a significant operator of British airlines, airports and flying clubs from 1935 until the mid 1970s. Its major unit, Western Airways, expanded to become an important parts manufacturer, a maintenance, repair and upgrade organisation, and a builder of transport aircraft. Foundation Whitney Willard Straight was a successful racing driver in the early 1930s, but his American millionaire mother and English step-father, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, were concerned for his safety and sought a less dangerous occupation for him, especially as he was about to marry. At a dinner at their home, Dartington Hall in Devon, they discussed this with William (Bill) Parkhouse, who was the owner of a local auto engineering company, and founder of Haldon Airfield, where Straight had learned to fly a few years earlier. Parkhouse had been concerned that smaller airports, such as Exeter and Torquay, with which he was also involved, and smaller airlines, were too s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester Airport
Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those not serving London. The airport comprises three passenger terminals and a cargo terminal, and is the only airport in the UK other than Heathrow Airport to operate two runways over in length. Manchester Airport covers an area of and has flights to 199 destinations, placing the airport thirteenth globally for total destinations served. Officially opened on 25 June 1938, it was initially known as Ringway Airport, a name still in local use. In World War II, as RAF Ringway, it was a base for the Royal Air Force. The airport is owned and managed by the Manchester Airport Holdings (trading as ''MAG''), a holding company owned by the Australian finance house IFM Investors and the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, with Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Airport
Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, England. Officially opened as ''Elmdon Airport'' on 8 July 1939, the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry during Second World War and used by both the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy as ''RAF Elmdon''. It was largely used for flight training and wartime production purposes. On 8 July 1946, the aerodrome was reopened to civilian operations. Birmingham Airport currently holds a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P451) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Passenger throughput in 2017 was over 12.9 million, making Birmingham the seventh busiest airport in the UK. The airport offers international flights to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, the Ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Havilland Dragonfly
The de Havilland DH.90 Dragonfly is a 1930s British twin-engined luxury touring biplane built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Hatfield Aerodrome. Development The Dragonfly shares a clear family resemblance with the Dragon Rapide, but is smaller and has higher aspect ratio, slightly sweptback wings. The lower wing has a shorter span than the upper, unlike the DH.89, and the top of the engine nacelles protrude much less above its surface because the fuel tank had been moved to the lower centre section. Structurally, too they are different: the Dragonfly had a new preformed plywood monocoque shell and strengthened fuselage. It was designed as a luxury touring aircraft for four passengers and a pilot, with provision for dual controls. The first aircraft, ''G-ADNA'', first flew on 12 August 1935. The Dragonfly achieved maximum performance on low power, by using the new construction methods developed for the de Havilland Comet racer, and therefore was expensive to buy (£2,6 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Havilland Dragon Rapide
The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its relatively primitive plywood construction. Developed during the early 1930s, the Dragon Rapide was essentially a smaller, twin-engined version of the four-engined DH.86 Express, and shared a number of common features, such as its tapered wings, streamlined fairings and Gipsy Six engines. First named the "Dragon Six", the type was marketed as "Dragon Rapide" and later simply known as the "Rapide". Upon its introduction in summer 1934, it proved to be a popular aircraft with airlines and private civil operators alike, attaining considerable foreign sales in addition to its domestic use. Upon the outbreak of the World War II, many of the civil Rapides were impressed into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy. Referred to in mil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Airways
Western Airways was an airline based in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England between 1932 and 1978. Before World War II, for a short period, it was the world's busiest airline. It survived WWII by using its aircraft engineering expertise. History Origins and development On 26 September 1932, Norman Wallace George Edgar started a twice-daily passenger service between Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport and Cardiff (Splott) Airport – a 20-minute trip in the De Havilland Fox Moth of his company, Norman Edgar & Co. At that time a road journey between Bristol and Cardiff meant either crossing the Severn by the Aust Ferry, or a long detour upstream via Gloucester. Business boomed, and Edgar formed a new company, Norman Edgar (Western Airways) Ltd at Whitchurch, with a larger aircraft, a De Havilland Dragon. New routes were added, across the English Channel to Le Touquet and Paris, and also to Cardiff and Bournemouth (Christchurch), as that airport's first airline service. Further Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Wales
South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both south Wales and west Wales. The Brecon Beacons National Park covers about a third of south Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest British mountain south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia. A point of some discussion is whether the first element of the name should be capitalised: 'south Wales' or 'South Wales'. As the name is a geographical expression rather than a specific area with well-defined borders, style guides such as those of the BBC and ''The Guardian'' use the form 'south Wales'. In a more authoritative style guide, the Welsh Government, in their international gateway website, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part of the northern Bristol suburbs. The unitary authority also covers many outlying villages and hamlets. The southern part of its area falls within the Greater Bristol urban area surrounding the city of Bristol. South Gloucestershire was created in 1996 to replace the Northavon district of the abolished county of Avon. It is separate from Gloucestershire County Council, but is part of the ceremonial county and shares Gloucestershire's Lord Lieutenant (the Sovereign's representative to the county). Because of its history as part of the county of Avon, South Gloucestershire works closely with the other unitary authorities that took over when that county was abolished, including shared services such as Avon Fire and Rescue Service and Avo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Severn Tunnel
The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western Railway (GWR) between 1873 and 1886 for the purpose of dramatically shortening the journey times of their trains, passenger and freight alike, between South Wales and Western England. It has often been regarded as the crowning achievement of GWR's chief engineer Sir John Hawkshaw. Prior to the tunnel's construction, lengthy detours were necessary for all traffic between South Wales and Western England, which either used ship or a lengthy diversion upriver via . Recognising the value of such a tunnel, the GWR sought its development, tasking Hawkshaw with its design and later contracting the civil engineer Thomas A. Walker to undertake its construction, which commenced in March 1873. Work proceeded smoothly until October 1879, at which poi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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