Manston Airfield
 

Was anyone here at Manston during its time as a civil airport ?
I think there were a couple of airlines that did operate from there.

KLM were flying regularly to and from AMS in the last year or so of it's life as an airport.

GoD!

For a moment I thought the Mods had finally moved the long running and hilarious thread from "Airports" to "History"...............

use to see das cargo African international also mk use to operate from here numerious Russian types an12 il76 and an124 also did see an22 latest news local council ukip in disarray the head has resigned all partys have split up river oak investment want to run airport there was a piece in local news that they have spoken to Ryanair and if airport is open would base 2 planes there similar operation as EU jet did time will tell they do still have a helicopter company base there on tv the other night

LCC EUJet tried and failed operations from MSE, Flybe had a route or two that failed, adhoc charters and freighters, Jet Support maintenance brought in some freighter maintenance work, great for crew training for London based operators, I actually diverted a DUS/SEN F27 freighter in there one sh*t day back in the 80's ... Alas MSE as a commercial airport has never been anything to become excited about.

Should have mentioned Airferry and invicta in the sixties and seventies both boomed from manston when package holidays took off. as mentioned before closure fascination of Russian types seen Gas il76 Lat charter 134 and an Iranian il76 got a picture somewhere

My logbook shows entries into Manston to and from Jersey in various Vickers Viscounts during the summers of 1986 and 1987 when it was joint Civil/military.Summer season weekend only passenger charter routes for my then employer British Air Ferries I seem to remember the loads were always well subscribed and one trip in particular landing when there was some sort of airshow in progress which was stopped for a short interval whilst we arrived.Happy days running round the U.K. feeding the then thriving Channel Islands holiday market.18 Viscounts plus a few Heralds and Shorts 360s were working that market plus adhoc charters both passenger and freight.Regards Stampe

Cosmos also run a number of flights to Majorca belive 94/95 used viva air 737 and eurocypria run a programme to Cyprus must have been 92/93 they also used airbus32o also Newmarket holidays run a programme with small planets 737s this was around the time the airport closed they did try and run this service from lydd but did not last I also remember the BAF viscounts on the jersey run they did also use Gill airs shorts 360

Didn't BA use it for early crew training on the A380?

yes you are right BA did use both the 380 and 787 For flight training also virgin did 340 training but had difficulties with aircraft turning when landing

I lived in Tonbridge during the war and around 1946 our school Army Cadets had a camp at Manston although not on the actual airport which was RAF.
A couple us 14 year olds decided to cross the runways to have a look at Spitfires on the RAF tarmac. As far as I can recall there were no guards to be seen so we simply hopped the fence at the field where we were camped in tents and walked on the aeodrome.

FIDO pipes were crawled over and we started to cross a runway. Next minute we saw a formation of Spitfires apparently going around. Suddenly RAF guards with rifles arrived and with eminent restraint told us to go back from whence we came. We did as we were told and it was then we found the Spits had indeed gone around when ATC had warned the pilots of some kids in Army uniform about to cross the landing runway. The guards would have been entitled to kick our bums but they were gentlemen and let us go with a gentle admonishment.

In the seventies our annual holiday was to ramsgate we had a family caravan at st Lawrence my older brother and myself would go up to manston in the evening to see if any aircraft was up there one year must have been 77/78 we was amazed to see 3 Belfasts these in later life became the heavy lift ones still in RAF colours but with pan African titles the amazing thing was there was no security around we managed to go right up to them we walked down the old terminal road no one there two invicta Britannias also an area dc4 which had belly landed RAF had pulled off with chains on chains we had just left when suddenly there was tremendous roar a buccaneer flew in what a sight

air ferry and invicta airlines both at the start of the package holiday boom in the 1960's flew from here and coaches from victoria or london terminals took the holiday makers to the airport and was included in the package to france austria switzerland italy or the spanish Costas and balearics

Lyons Tours was a big operator for the airlines

sadly an air ferry dc-4 left Manston june 3 1967 on a night flight to PGP for Lyons Tours and crashed on the slopes of Mt Canigou during let down
the next morning an inbound argonaut (canadian built variant of DC-4) from PMI to MAN suffered fuel starvation on final approach went around and then crashed at Stockport trying to return to Ringway

also in 1968 a british eagle Britannia Trojan departed LHR for Oz on an MoD flight and could not raise the main gear
after burning off fuel they crash landed gear down on a foam runway all pax/crew got out OK but the a/c was a w/off

also a Dan Air comet suffered a gear collapse too at Manston

20th April 1967.

http://www.britisheagle.net/pictures...0crash%201.jpg

davereidUK

sad for me as trojan was my first ever flight LAP-BCN summer 1964

My brother has just told me there was unscheduled service operated by Volkswagen they had a big base just up the road at sandwitch they use to fly a islander and also sometimes a hs125 over there also was another small start up airline air Kent with chieftains this was around 78/79 didn't last long

Volkswagen GB had Islander G-AZEH for a year or so in the mid-70s; I remember seeing it "beating up" the Volkswagen Building in Purley sometime in 1975. There were some steep turns around the building and in my mind's eye they were quite low, probably something rather less than 1000'! I seem to recall it was quite a dark colour overall with VW on the fin.

The VW Building now known as Capella Court is just a few yards up the road from where I live now; Freddie Laker ran a business from there some years after Laker Airways collapsed.

The 125s were German registered.

Edit: found some pics of 'ZEH at Biggin, overall dark blue with "Express Parts Service" titles.

Air Gambia used to fly a Boeing 707 from Gatwick to Banjul and back in the 90's. However It also regularly used to fly from Manston to Gatwick and back. Was this to avoid the costs of keeping the plane on the ground at Gatwick?

Until a few years ago Iran Air's Heathrow-Tehran service always used to make a tech stop at Manston.

Why would Iran Air make a tech stop at Manston?

Yes until 2011, Iran Air Heathrow flights stopped at Manston to refuel thereby circumventing US sanctions.

The circumvention continued for several years after that - after the Manston flights ceased in December 2011, the LHR-IKA flight routed via Vienna for a few weeks, then via Ljubljana or Malpensa for while and more recently via Prague.

It's only since January 2016, when US sanctions were lifted, that they have actually been able to fly direct to Tehran from LHR.

I remember this article was on one local news channels it showed an Iran Airbus land at manston then refilled belive it caused a few raised eye brows with the government then suddenly stopped with regards to th air Gambia 707 this was which omega air owned manston had quite a few old 707s turn up around 92/93 they also flew them under flags of convinances I remember seeing one with a Mexican reg there was over 10 parked at manston once mostly scrapped I know one of the omega air aircraft was leased to the United Nations and run over a runway some where there was over 160 troops on board either Indian or Pakistan .I belive omega air moved to Ireland they use to operate from an old shady building across from the terminal this now demolished should have also mentioned air Atlanta operated from manston with Tristars 747 also did see a airbus310 which they operated it was a airport you did not know what was turning up fantastic let's hope it opens again

Am I alone in wishing lotus1 would learn what punctuation marks are?

Sorry chevron and anyone else I was brought up on a rough south London comprehensive school?

So was my missus (Camberwell)

Apologise all round then.

Now that's very interesting and something that I wasn't aware of.

I've always wondered why there are several photos online showing the Air Gambia B707 at Manston and none showing the aircraft at Gatwick on any of the remote stands for it's layover, now I know the reason :-)

Omega.
 

Cheaper to land and park at MSE than LGW.:) Re. the post about the airshow, arrived at Mse in a MK DC8 during the show, and made a low pass before landing to the delight of all.:E Just prior to the Balkans war, we had almost daily services by JAT for Yugotours which stopped immediately the conflict started.:(
AT

We also had, on a Tuesday evening, if I remember correctly, in the summer season a 737-200 of Air Atlantis (Portugese) drop in for motion lotion because it could not make SEN to Faro in one hop.
TTFN
AT

WIth regards to operators from manston what ever happend to Mama airlines they
Did have a operators licence aircraft type to be used was going to be 737 aircraft .This must have been around 2003/2004.

Manston was a major D & D airfield and had a nice 'line" in Foam runways!!

Hence the runway that's almost as wide as it is long. :O

Manston was a MDA (Master Diversion Airfield) of which the RAF had 8, I worked at one of them (Lyneham) so it had nothing to do with runway width although another MDA was St Mawgan which had a 300' wide runway, I( think it was Leeming that also had a foam runway facility.

Only because it was one of the 3 'emergency' runways built during WW2, the others being Woodbridge and Bridlington/Carnaby. Whilst Woodbridge still exists, Carnaby has been almost obliterated by industrial buildings.
They were all 9,000ft long and effectively 3 'normal' width runways side by side.

Manston also had FIDO.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. :\

In the old days, in crosswind conditions, the RAF even allowed Brymon to land their DHC7's across the runway at St. Mawgan

Jan. 21st 1961.
Troop flight to Germany.
Hermes Aircraft, I cannot remember the operator, maybe "Eagle"?

OPF

Yes Dave the width is the thing !! One of the clubs with MS 880 used to take of across the runway ! I had a nose gear stuck in a Cessna 310 going into Biggin Hill. Biggin said you cant land here you''ll block the Runway ! They said we have contacted Manston and they will take you. I called Manston and they said I HAD to have foam !!
They asked what length I required !!! I said what is normal ?? They said will 2,000 feet be OK. So I said yes then orbited while they laid it. It was very quick with 2 tankers but when they finished 2,000 feet of foam on that runway looked very small !!