Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Misc. Forums > Aviation History and Nostalgia
Reload this Page >

Re First Hard Runway On Airfield / Aerodrome

Aviation History and Nostalgia Whether working in aviation, retired, wannabee or just plain fascinated this forum welcomes all with a love of flight.

Re First Hard Runway On Airfield / Aerodrome

Old 23rd Sep 2002, 20:59
  #1 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Chigwell, Essex
Posts: 116
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Re First Hard Runway On Airfield / Aerodrome

Hi All

Someone on another forum, has asked the question.

When and where, was the first hard runway built, on an Airfield /
Aerodrome,
in the UK .

Same Question but non UK.

This is definitely a question for the Historians.


Regards Martin Burney
Martinburney is offline  
Old 24th Sep 2002, 12:15
  #2 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: By the big Teapot
Posts: 333
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 1 Post
Hi MB.
Believed to be RNAS Hatston, Orkney, (HMS Sparrowhawk). Early in 1939 the Admiralty asked for advice from Capt Fresson of Highland Airways regarding the establishment of an airfield in Orkney. Fresson suggested the site at Hatston but commented that the drainange of the site would require Tarmac runways, as would any other in the islands, to be useable all year round. This was very remarkable thinking at the time and even more surprisingly, the Admiralty accepted it! The airfield opened just before the declaration of WW2 but I don't have an exact date. First operational use was Nov 1939 by 804 squadron.

Spiney
Spiney Norman is offline  
Old 24th Sep 2002, 12:56
  #3 (permalink)  
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 17,230
Received 1,501 Likes on 679 Posts
USA: 1927 - The first paved runway is installed at Ford Airport.
ORAC is online now  
Old 25th Sep 2002, 11:11
  #4 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Planet Claire
Age: 63
Posts: 587
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hatston. In the UK anyway. Its an industrial estate nowadays (in Kirkwall) but you can still see the overall layout. The Orkneys also home to the well preserved Twatt. (Titter, ooooh! don't)
brain fade is offline  
Old 26th Sep 2002, 10:10
  #5 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: southern england
Posts: 1,650
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Post Newark

This question is likely to raise several claims and counter-claims!

I also found the date that ORAC gives, for the first concrete runway to be built at Ford airport in 1927.

Other articles have:

- Newark claiming to have the nation's first paved runway, airport opened Oct 1928
- the Grand Central Airport at Glendale, CA as the first paved runway "West of the Rockies", and work started in 1923, but no end date given
- Le Bourget having one of the first paved runways in the world, but date given as 1920s.

What is a "hard" runway? Is "non-grass" sufficient? Is a cinder runway "hard"?

Not finding the other thread(UK question), would Marham and Waddington be candidates? They were earmarked for "heavy" bombers during the 1930s, so when did they get concrete runways? And what about the de Havilland airfield at Hatfield? When did that get paved?

Still looking!

Last edited by newswatcher; 26th Sep 2002 at 13:42.
newswatcher is offline  
Old 26th Sep 2002, 11:51
  #6 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: By the big Teapot
Posts: 333
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 1 Post
Ooops! Have just realised I didn't say that in my original post I was only answering the 'in the U.K.' bit! Re Grand Central Airport Glendale, I've got a completion date of 1928, no month I'm afraid. What you say regarding what is a hard runway is a good point. I seem to remember that the RAF, for instance, were using oil consolidated sand runways in the Middle east in the mid 1920's. Think this is stretching the point though and we're almost certainly looking at Tarmac/Asphalt/Concrete here.

Spiney
Spiney Norman is offline  
Old 26th Sep 2002, 14:08
  #7 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: USA
Posts: 394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Checked the FAA history web site and found no refs. to first paved runway. Recall seeing pictures of Lindbergh at Le Bourget and it being paved where the aircraft rolled out, at least.

Thought the entry for Lindbergh's flight, reprinted here in it's entirity, would be interesting to readers of this forum.

May 20-21, 1927: Charles A. Lindbergh, a former air mail pilot, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in an airplane, a Ryan monoplane dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis. He flew the 3,610 miles from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, N.Y., to Le Bourget Field, Paris, France, in 33 hours 29 minutes.
Lindbergh's feat provided a strong stimulus to U.S. aviation, and made him a world hero whose fame overshadowed earlier Atlantic crossings by air. The first transatlantic flight had been made in stages on May 16-27, 1919, from Newfoundland to Lisbon, via the Azores, by a U.S. Navy Curtiss NC-4 seaplane, flown by a six-man crew commanded by Albert C. Read. That same year, on Jun 14-15, Royal Air Force pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crossed the Atlantic nonstop from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy. The following month, another Royal Air Force crew, commanded by G. H. Scott, flew the airship R-34 from Scotland to New York (Jul 2-6), then returned to England (Jul 9-13). Between Jul 30 and Aug 31, 1924, two U.S. Army Douglas World Cruiser seaplanes (manned by Lowell H. Smith, Leslie P. Arnold, Erik H. Nelson, and John Harding), flew from England to Labrador during the course of history's first round-the-world flight. Three other aircraft with multiple crew members had also crossed the Atlantic before Lindbergh's "Lone Eagle" flight.
Iron City is offline  

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.