History
The airport was built and commissioned in 1940 as RAF Grimsetter for the defence of the Scapa Flow naval base. In 1943 the Royal Naval Air Service took over, as RNAS Kirkwall then HMS Robin. Control passed in 1948 to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and in 1986 to Highlands and Islands Airports.
Read more about this topic: Kirkwall Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
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