City Airport Manchester - History

History

• Autumn 1928: Construction of Manchester's new municipal aerodrome at Barton, near Eccles started, to replace the temporary Manchester (Wythenshawe) Aerodrome.
• January 1930: The grass airfield and large hangar were completed. The first passenger charter flight occurred. Barton was managed until 1933 by Northern Air Lines, who based several Avro 504s and other types for training, club and charter flights.
• Summer 1930: Imperial Airways operated a thrice-weekly scheduled service to London's Croydon Airport via Castle Bromwich Aerodrome, Birmingham, subsidised by the councils of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. This service was timed to fly north from Croydon in the evening and to return south next morning, in order to provide connections to and from European airports from Croydon.
• Spring 1933: A control tower and associated wireless station were completed, the first at a municipal airport outside London, and able to communicate with aircraft in flight and give pilots bearings from the airfield. The tower is still operational and is believed to be the oldest in Europe still in use for its original purpose.
• August 1934: Scheduled services resumed. Croydon-based Railway Air Services commenced a Croydon-Barton-Belfast-Glasgow route.
• Spring 1935: Linking services to Liverpool, Blackpool and the Isle of Man were introduced. Other smaller airlines, including Isle of Man Air Services operated services from Barton.
• June 1938: All schedules were transferred to the newly completed larger Ringway Airport (which between 1940 and 1957 also accommodated RAF Ringway).
• World War II: Barton was requisitioned and used for military aircraft repair and overhaul, carried out by civilian firms including Air Taxis Ltd and David Rosenfield Ltd. Aircraft types involved were Avro Ansons, Dominies, Fairey Battles, Fairey Fulmars, Hawker Hurricanes and F4U Corsairs, followed by the scrapping of Fairey Swordfish. Over 700 Percival Proctor training and communications aircraft were assembled and tested at Barton by F. Hills & Sons of Trafford Park. There is a wartime concrete air raid bunker still at the site hidden under overgrown vegetation near the main road (A57).

• 1940-1942: The sole wartime scheduled air service from Eire to the UK used Barton from 1940 to 1942, operated from Dublin by Aer Lingus and West Coast Air Services. The former often used their Douglas DC-3, the heaviest airliner type to serve Barton on a timetabled route. This was the last scheduled service though the airfield.
• 1946: Lancashire Aero Club moved from Woodford Aerodrome to Barton and remain based there until 2007.
• 1946 to 1953: Manchester University Air Squadron (MUAS) was based in one of the wartime-built western hangars. In 1953 the unit moved to RAF Woodvale near Southport, Lancashire. MUAS had flown Tiger Moth and Chipmunk trainers.
• 1 October 1948 to 31 March 1953: No.2 Reserve Flying School, also flying Tiger Moths and Chipmunks, was based at Barton and gave primary flight training to volunteers, who would later serve in the Royal Air Force. The unit used the same facilities as MUAS. On 31 March 1953 the unit closed.
• 21 July 1996 : The last known airworthy de Havilland Mosquito, a Trainer Mk III built by de Havilland at Leavesden in Spring 1945 (serial number RR299), crashed with the loss of both crew after suffering engine power loss when performing a wing-over manoeuvre during the Barton Aerodrome air show.
• 2003: Manchester Ship Canal Developments, (of which Peel Holdings Group is the majority shareholder), bought the land, hangars and other buildings from Manchester City Council.
• 2006: The control tower underwent a major programme of rebuilding and refurbishment.
• 2007: Lancashire Aero Club left the airfield after a dispute with Peel Holdings.
• 2010: City Airport Ltd no longer part of Peel Airports. Airfield Management Company now fully part of Peel Holdings.
• 2010: The Original Hangar (known as The Pemberton Hangar), a Grade II listed building, long used as a warehouse for timber and sheet walling materials, underwent a full refurbishment.
• 2011: Former University of Manchester building converted into a new Helicopter facility, branded as City Heliport. Peel established Cardinal Helicopter Services, a premium Helicopter Charter company operating from the Heliport with a Sikorski S.76C++ Helicopter.
• 2011: The 'Clubhouse' building which houses the Airfield Cafe/Bar is fully refurbished and relaunched as 'The Airfield Lodge' with new management and longer opening hours.

City Airport has changed little since its opening, and is considered a good example of the airfields of the 1930s. There are several historical items of note at Barton; a small museum in the visitor centre displays documents from the history of the original Manchester Airport. The Bomber Command Association also has a display at the Barton Visitor Centre. The control tower is protected by its grade II listed building status, along with the original terminal building and hangar.

The airfield is regularly used as a setting for films and TV programmes, amongst them "Brass" (where Barton masqueraded as Croydon Airport), Mersey Beat, GBH and Island at War. The distinctive control tower often features prominently in the making of such programmes and films.

Use of City Airport by heavier aircraft is hampered by the soft peaty nature of the area, being located at the edge of Chat Moss, and would have needed much heavy work consolidating the ground (compare the struggle building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway across Chat Moss in 1826); also by the low-lying land and areas of nearby standing water encouraging fog. During 2010-11, additional drainage was added to improve surface water draining, due to the original clay pipes deteriorating and no longer functioning.