History
The airport opened in 1936 as Scone Aerodrome. A flight training school, training military pilots, was established by Airwork Ltd shortly after the airport was opened. Before the war a number of scheduled airline services operated from Perth to various domestic locations. During the war 309 and 666 Squadrons from the Royal Air Force used the aerodrome. After the war Airwork moved into civilian pilot training.
By 1960 Airwork acquired Air Service Training (AST) an engineering training school, which it relocated from the south of England to the airport. The whole operation took on the AST name. AST gained a world wide reputation for aviation training, being known as Britain's Air University. Students of more than 100 countries have been trained at Perth. Following a worldwide downturn in aviation, AST pulled out of pilot training in 1996. The site was then bought by Morris Leslie Ltd.
Perth Airport remains Scotland's main airport for general aviation and is the base of the Scottish Aero Club which was founded in 1927. The airport is home to flight training organisations providing, private and commercial fixed and rotary winged flight training, as well as micro light and autogyro training. Also on site is an aircraft maintenance company and numerous other non aviation related businesses.
AST, which is now part of Perth College, retains a presence at the airport and continues to offer aeronautical engineering courses. In 2011 AST announced a returned to Airline Pilot training.
Read more about this topic: Perth Airport (Scotland)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)