World War II

RAF Balado Bridge, Tayside

Tayside

Tayside Region was a local government region of Scotland from 15 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. It was created by the 1973 Act following recommendations made by the 1969 Wheatley Report which attempted to replace the mishmash of counties, cities, burghs and districts, with a uniform two-tier system...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 is located 2 mi (3.2 km) west of Kinross

Kinross

Kinross is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was formerly the county town of Kinross-shire.Kinross is a fairly small town, with some attractive buildings...

, it opened on the 30 March 1942 as an Operational Training Unit & satellite airfield to RAF Grangemouth

RAF Grangemouth

- Pre-war :RAF Grangemouth was a RAF base north east of Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland. It was opened as the Central Scotland Airport in May 1939 and operated as a civilian air navigation school until September 1939.-World War II :...

, it remained open until 1957. The airfield would have been named "RAF Kinross" however it was the custom not to name airfields with names that may be confused with somewhere else. In this case it may have been confused with RAF Kinloss

RAF Kinloss

RAF Kinloss is a Royal Air Force station near Kinloss, on the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland. It opened on 1 April 1939 and served as an RAF training establishment during the Second World War. After the war it was handed over to Coastal Command to watch over Russian ships and submarines in...

, near Forres, which was the home to No. 19 OTU, a Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...

 OTU flying Whitleys

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was one of three British twin-engine, front line medium bomber types in service with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of the Second World War...

.

It had 2 Runways, both made of concrete. The tower was of the Watch Office for Fighter Satellite Station type(it was updated throughout its life).

There were two hangars, the larger of the two is a B1 type, designed by the engineers T Bedford as an aircraft repair shed, mainly for heavy bombers. This type first appeared in 1942 and were larger than the Bellman hangar which was also a temporary and transportable type. The smaller hangar was a Super Robin type.

The Airfield was taken over by the War Department in November 1944.

Post War

After the war it became an aircraft graveyard when McDonnell Aircraft

McDonnell Aircraft

The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 16, 1939 by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom II, and manned spacecraft including the Mercury capsule...

 of nearby Milnathort

Milnathort

Milnathort is a small village in the Perth & Kinross region of central Scotland.The smaller neighbour of nearby Kinross, Milnathort has a small population of roughly 1000 people. It is situated amidst picturesque countryside at the foot of the Ochil Hills, and near the north shore of Loch Leven...

 broke up many hundreds of surplus Fleet Air Arm

Fleet Air Arm

The Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the British Royal Navy responsible for the operation of naval aircraft. The Fleet Air Arm currently operates the AgustaWestland Merlin, Westland Sea King and Westland Lynx helicopters...

 aircraft. The work reached its peak in 1946/7, but even as late as February 1952 their many airframes could still be seen in various stages of dismemberment. The most numerous were Harvards

North American T-6 Texan

The North American Aviation T-6 Texan was a single-engine advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces, United States Navy, Royal Air Force and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1950s...

 but there were also Fulmars

Fairey Fulmar

The Fairey Fulmar was a British carrier-borne fighter aircraft that served with the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. A total of 600 were built by Fairey Aviation at its Stockport factory between January 1940 and December 1942...

, Fireflies

Fairey Firefly

The Fairey Firefly was a British Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm ....

, Martinets

Miles Martinet

|-See also:-Bibliography:* Amos, Peter. and Brown, Don Lambert. Miles Aircraft Since 1925, Volume 1. London: Putnam Aeronautical, 2000. ISBN 0-85177-787-0....

, Barracudas

Fairey Barracuda

The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo- and dive bomber used during the Second World War, the first of its type used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm to be fabricated entirely from metal. It was introduced as a replacement for the Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore biplanes...

, Expeditors and a rare Fairchild Cornell FT673. Three Expeditors were all that remained in 1955.

It was also used from 1946 for light aircraft and gliding until its final closure in 1957.

Present Day

The site is used by an Activity Centre & the Control Tower still stands to this day and was modernised into offices for the Activity Centre in 1997.

There are also buildings for two Poultry Farms built on parts of the old runways.

Since 1997 it has been used as the venue of the annual T in the Park

T in the Park

T in the Park is a major British music festival that has been held annually since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, the brewing company Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire but since 1997 has been held at a disused airfield in Balado, Kinross-shire...

 music festival.

No. 58 Operational Training Unit 03/1942 - 06/1944

This unit was primarily based at RAF Grangemouth

RAF Grangemouth

- Pre-war :RAF Grangemouth was a RAF base north east of Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland. It was opened as the Central Scotland Airport in May 1939 and operated as a civilian air navigation school until September 1939.-World War II :...

, It used RAF Balado as a satellite, to ease the preassure on the airfield at Grangemouth.

External links

• Control Towers Website: RAF Balado Bridge