History
The first airports appeared in Islay in the 1930s. However, these were just grass strips. In 1940, during World War II, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill ordered military airports to be constructed in the western islands of Scotland, both to defend against a German assault on the Scottish mainland and also to provide reconnaissance planes a base to fly missions over the Atlantic Ocean. The present Islay airport was constructed in 1940, and received a concrete runway in 1942. During World War II, over 1,500 Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel were stationed at Islay Airport.
On 29 June 1994, The Prince of Wales made headlines when he overshot the runway while landing a BAe 146 of No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron of the RAF on the runway of the airport. No one was injured, however the plane was badly damaged.
Read more about this topic: Islay Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)