RAF Safi Maintenance Base | |
---|---|
Malta Near Ħal Safi | |
Coordinates | 35°50′30″N014°29′30″E / 35.84167°N 14.49167°E Coordinates: 35°50′30″N014°29′30″E / 35.84167°N 14.49167°E |
Type | Diversion airfield then Maintenance Base |
Site information | |
Owner | Now Government of Malta |
Controlled by | Malta Industrial Parks Ltd |
Condition | Extensively developed as a hangar site |
Site history | |
Built | 1941 |
Built by | The Malta Police and Royal Hampshire Regiment |
In use | 1943-1979 |
Royal Air Force Safi was a Royal Air Force maintenance base located on the island of Malta, which started life in 1941 as a diversion airstrip for the main operating bases such as nearby RAF Luqa. Other diversion airstrips similar in function to Safi were located at RAF Krendi and on Malta's second island of Gozo.
RAF Safi was constructed at a time when Malta was under intense aerial bombardment and Malta's Air Command needed to have alternative diversion airstrips on Malta, as the RAF's main operating bases were being bombed. Construction started in 1941 and the strips were ready for use in 1942. [1] [2] [3]
The base was officially inaugurated by AOC Malta Sir Keith Park in May 1943, but had been completed by 1942; it would remain operational throughout the War in the Mediterranean. [4]
After the war, Saifi was reduced in function, becoming a maintenance base. [5] In April 1957 the then Maltese Prime Minister Mr Dom Mintoff requested that the UK Government consider turning over RAF Saifi to his government. [6] By 1961 the RAF maintenance facility at Safi was mostly civilian manned and discussions in London were taking place about it being run down. [7]
The RAF left in 1979 following a British government decision not to renew the lease on RAF Luqa.
Whilst Safi's runway has long gone the hangar and dispersal area have been extensively redeveloped and two large hangars constructed which are associated with the international airport at Luqa, which has absorbed the site. There is also a neighbouring aviation business park development. [8]
Blackbushe Airport is an operational general aviation airport in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire. Built during the Second World War, Blackbushe is north of the A30 road between Camberley and Hook. For a time, it straddled this road with traffic having to wait whilst airliners were towed across. The south side was used for aircraft maintenance, using wartime-built hangars. Today, only the part of the airfield that lay north of the A30 remains in active use. The historical name for the flat piece of land on which it is sited is Hartford Bridge Flats. The nearest towns are Yateley and Fleet.
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Royal Air Force Luqa was a Royal Air Force station located on the island of Malta, now developed into the Malta International Airport.
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The Bellman Hangar was designed in the United Kingdom in 1936 by the Directorate of Works structural engineer, N. S. Bellman, as a temporary hangar capable of being erected or dismantled by unskilled labour with simple equipment and to be easily transportable. Commercial manufacturing rights were acquired by Head Wrightson & Co of Teesdale Iron Works, Thornaby-on-Tees. By November 1938, 10 had even been supplied to Russia.
The RAF Hal Far airfield was the first permanent airfield to be built on Malta. It was opened on 1 April 1929 as HMS Falcon, a Royal Navy stone frigate, and was used by Fleet Air Arm crews. It was transferred to the Maltese Government and redeveloped from January 1979. It is now closed and one of its runways is used by drag racing enthusiasts. The second runway is now a road leading to an industrial estate which was developed recently. The Maltese fire service, the CPD occupy the newer building with the glass control tower on the roof. The old Royal Naval Air Station building is now occupied by the International Safety Training College who utilise part of the runway for firefighting training.
No. 217 Squadron RAF was a squadron of the RAF. It was formed and disbanded four times between 1 April 1918 and 13 November 1959. In World War I it served in a strike role against enemy bases and airfields in Belgium. In World War II as part of RAF Coastal Command it served first in a maritime patrol role along the Western Approaches and later in an anti-shipping role in the English Channel. Ordered to the Far East in 1942, the squadron was retained for two months in Malta in an anti-shipping role, protecting Allied convoys, before moving to Ceylon to defend the approaches to India, serving in an anti-submarine and anti-shipping role. It was equipped and training for a strike role, when the war ended. In the postwar period, it served for five years in a maritime reconnaissance role, and then briefly in a support role for Operation Grapple, the British hydrogen bomb tests on Christmas Island.
Scottish Airlines (Prestwick) Limited was formed in 1946 as a subsidiary of Scottish Aviation Limited. The airline commenced worldwide passenger and cargo charter flights from bases at Prestwick and Stansted. It also participated in the Berlin Airlift, became a trooping carrier for the British Armed Forces, and began contract flights on behalf of Air France, British European Airways (BEA), Compagnie Belge des Transports Aériens, Iceland Airways and KLM.
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Narnaul Airport, also Bachhod Airstrip, is an airstrip adjacent to Bhilwara village 10 km east of Narnaul city in the Indian state of Haryana. The airstrip is used mainly by Rajiv Gandhi National Centre for Aero Sports, which was inaugurated in 2010. The airstrip is owned by the Civil Aviation Department of Haryana government. It does not have any IATA or ICAO code. The code VINL listed in this article does not exist.
Royal Air Force Krendi, also known as RAF Qrendi, was a Royal Air Force base located on the island of Malta, near the town of Qrendi. The station was officially inaugurated in 1941 as a diversion airstrip for the main operating bases such as nearby RAF Luqa. Other diversion airstrips similar in function to Krendi were located at RAF Safi and on Malta's second island of Gozo. Later, in November 1942, the British began basing fighter squadrons at Krendi. These remained until late 1943. After the war, the airfield was used as a tracking station and vehicle park, before falling into disuse.
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