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Exeter Airport
Airport Directory » United Kingdom » Exeter » Exeter AirportExeter International Airport (IATA: EXT, ICAO: EGTE) is an airport turn up at Clyst Honiton in the District of East Devon close to the town of Exeter and within the county of Devon, England.
The airport dealt 1,024,730 riders in 2007, the 1st clip over 1 million riders had used the airport in a individual yr, even so in 2008 this had cut down to 956,251, a 6.7% diminution. The airport offers both scheduled and vacation charter voyages within the United Kingdom, Europe and Canada.
On five January 2007 a bulk part of the airport was sold by Devon County Council to Regional and City Airports Ltd; a syndicate consisting building company Balfour Beatty.
Exeter has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P759) that lets voyages for the public transport of riders or for winging direction.
History
The field had spring up as a grass field for baseball club winging before being build in 1937 and once opened on 30 July 1938 as Exeter Airport at a cost of approximately £20,000.
Wartime use
With the start out of World War II in 1939 the territory area was increased to around 3,000 foot northward to southward and 4,500 foot east to due west in the early calendar month of the conflict. An asphalt circumference landing track and several hardstands for aircraft parkland come after and in 1941 hard-surfaced landing track were set down. These were 4,350 foot adjusted 13-31, 4,070 foot adjusted 08-26 and 2,700 foot at 02-20.
In 1942, the 08-26 landing track was continued in length to 6,000 foot in a general upgrading. In the early yr, the field had derived 19 little, fighter-type cooking pan hardstandings and 14 duplicate pens. Nine concrete loops were added on the northern side of the air-field early in 1944. Hangars, pulled together over the yr, were 1 Hinaida, 6 Over Blisters and 4 Extra Over Blisters.
During World War II RAF Exeter was eminent RAF Fighter Command field during the Battle of Britain, with some 2 twelve different RAF scrapper squadrons being posted there for changing time period through 1944, and merely approximately all the operational scrapper types of those yr had been present.
RAF Exeter was also used by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Ninth Air Force as a D-Day troop carrier ground with Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports dropping paratroops near Carentan to bring down on the Normandy Beachhead. It was also known as USAAF Station 463.
Battle of Britain
RAF Exeter was place to the coming after Squadrons of No ten Group during the Battle of Britain:
- No 213 Squadron from 18 June 1940
- No 87 Squadron from five July 1940
- No 601 Squadron from seven September 1940
Despite extensive attempts at camouflage, including painting the landing track, Exeter draw the Luftwaffe on a figure of junctures during the early yr of the battle and a few of the administrative and proficient constructions were destruct.
USAAF use
Exeter run across the demand of ground USAAF troop transport grouping close to where units of the 101st Airborne Division were turn up and within sensible bush of the anticipated area of functioning.
440th troop transport group
The 440th Troop Carrier Group come on 15 April 1944 with over 70 C-47/C-53 Skytrain aircraft. There was deficient hardstandings to adapt all the aircraft so many had to be parked on the sod, some area being back up by macadamise.
The 440th was a group of Ninth Air Force's 50th Troop Carrier Wing, IX Troop Carrier Command.
The group dropped paratroops near Carentan in the early 60 minutes of six June and the coming after solar day presented parapacks incorporating fuel and ammo to the same area . Accurate blast accounted for 3 C-47s on D-Day and a further 3 were lost on the resupply missionary post, 1 of the latter in a monster accident when struck by bombs circumstantially let go from a P-47 Thunderbolt.
As before long as satisfactory districting dry land were available in the Normandy beachhead, the 440th shuttled C-47s to and from France, oftentimes evacuating lesion.
As with the other grouping of the 50th Troop Carrier Wing, the 440th directed 3 squadrons, the 95th, 96th, and 97th TCSs. to Italy on 17/18 July, where they functioned from Ombronc field dragging furnishes to Rome before taking division in the airborne invasion of southern France, Operation "Dragoon", on 18 August. The 98th TCS returned to Exeter on 23 August 1944 and the coming after solar day the other squadrons returned from the Mediterranean.
The 98th TCS stay at Exeter until seven August when it set about functioning from RAF Ramsbury. Three solar days afterwards it dropped parapacks to a US foot battalion that had get circled at Marlain when the German Army tried to establish a counter-offensive.
On 11 September the homes office of the 440th TCG was constituted at the group's new ground al Reims, France (ALG A-62D), and the last of the air echelon go forth Exeter 2 solar days after. Nevertheless. the field was still used by the USAAF Ninth Air Force for the air emptying of lesion and a station complement squadron stay until November.
Postwar use
Walruses of an RAF air-sea deliver voyage were the next renters and these were get together by a sailplane grooming unit early in 1945.
Post-war, Exeter was repossessed by Fighter Command and a French Supermarine Spitfire squadron, No. 329, which come up and remained until November 1945. Meteors and Mosquitos do a legal brief visual aspect the coming after springtime.
No. 691 Squadron's target-towing Vultee A-31 Vengeances, which had been present for more than a yr, turn up to be the last RAF winging unit of the Second World War period of time ground at Exeter.
When No. 691 Squadron go away in the summertime of 1946, the station was do available for polite use, being officially reassigned to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on one January 1947 although there was still some reserve RAF action until the 1950s.
Scheduled services to the Channel Islands set about in 1952 and charter voyages to various places come after. A new depot construction was opened in the early 1980s and various other improvements, including a landing track extension, were carry out over coming after yr to constitute Exeter as an eminent airport in the West Country.
Original article.