Kent International Airport
Overview
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
located at Manston
Manston, Kent
Manston is a village and civil parish in the Thanet district of Kent, England. The village is situated one mile north-west of Ramsgate. The parish includes four hamlets and Kent International Airport.-Etymology:...
in the District of Thanet
Thanet
Thanet is a local government district of Kent, England which was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, and came into being on 1 April 1974...
within Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, 11 NM northeast of Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
. It was formerly called RAF Manston
RAF Manston
RAF Manston was an RAF station in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site is now split between a commercial airport Kent International Airport and a continuing military use by the Defence Fire Training and Development Centre , following on from a long...
(a Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
airfield), and was also known as London Manston Airport. The single runway is located about 1 miles (1.6 km) from the coastline at 178 ft (54 m) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
and is 2752 m (9,029 ft) long.
At the outset of the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Isle of Thanet
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the nearly -wide River Wantsum, it is no longer an island ....
was equipped with a small and precarious landing strip for aircraft at St Mildreds Bay, Westgate
Westgate-on-Sea
Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,600. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate...
, on top of the chalk cliffs, at the foot of which was a promenade which had been used for seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
operations.
The landing grounds atop the cliff soon became the scene of several accidents, with at least one plane seen to fail to stop before the end of the cliffs and tumble into the sea, which, fortunately for the pilot, had been on its inward tide.
In the winter of 1915-1916, these early aircraft began to use the open farmlands at Manston
Manston, Kent
Manston is a village and civil parish in the Thanet district of Kent, England. The village is situated one mile north-west of Ramsgate. The parish includes four hamlets and Kent International Airport.-Etymology:...
as a site for emergency landings.
