TheLocalYokel
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Gliders and Motor Racing
At the end of World War 2 the RAF pulled out and the site was given over to the Bristol Gliding Club. In 1948 and 1949 the Bristol Motorcycle and Light Car Club hosted race meetings, mainly sports car events but Formula III races were also held. The events attracted several thousand spectators and the racing circuit was along the main runway and taxiways.
The first aircraft to land
In September 1940 No 10 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Weston-super-Mare established a Relief Landing Ground at Broadfield Down near the hamlet of Lulsgate Bottom, south of Bristol. Some defensive measures such as pillboxes and anti aircraft assets were put in but little more.
RAF Fighter Command then set up an experimental unit and in June 1941 George Wimpey and Company was contracted to construct the airfield with a main runway length of 1,200 metres (3,900 feet) which was extended to the current length in 1963. Within a month, and six months before the RAF base became operational, the field had received its first visiting aircraft - and what a shock to all involved.
At 6.20 on 24 July 1941 a Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber (its primary function though it was a versatile type) was returning from a raid at Birkenhead with the crew looking forward to breakfast at their base in northern France. Somehow the crew became lost (some reports say they were deliberately misled by British radio signals), assumed the Bristol Channel was the English Channel and swooped down to what they believed was a friendly airfield.
The contractor's workmen (early starts in those wartime days it seems) acted quickly and placed a vehicle across the partly constructed runway to prevent the JU 88 taking off. The aircraft captain drew a revolver and threatened the workmen but quickly thought better of it when he spied a party of soldiers based at the site to guard it approaching him armed with sub-machine guns.
The crew was taken into captivity and the British boffins had a brand new and modified JU 88 to play with. News was not made public until after the war in order not to alert the Germans of the capture of one of their latest aircraft though rumours abounded around the local villages.
Bristol Airport's predilection towards low cloud and thick encourages many people to believe the RAF deliberately chose the site in order that pilots could become thoroughly skilled in flying in such weather. I've never been able to find any confirmation of this and I believe it to be a myth.
Tragedy
On 10 April 1973 a party of 139 travellers, mainly local women, set out from BRS, or Lulsgate Airport as most people thought of it then, on a day trip to Basle in Switzerland.
The aircraft was a Vickers Vanguard of Invicta Airlines with a crew of six. The approach to Basle took place in poor weather and the two pilots misidentified two radio beacons and therefore based their approach on the wrong one with the catastrophic consequence of a collision with a snowy hillside.
108 people were killed and 55 children were left motherless as a result.
Questions were raised as to the competency of one of the pilots who had previously been suspended from the Canadian Air Force for lack of ability, and had failed his UK instrument flying rating eight times. The Swiss enquiry blamed the pilots for the accident though some believe they may have been lured into a false path by ghost beacon transmissions caused by electric power lines.
In several local churches in villages around Bristol Airport rows of graves can be found containing the remains of women with the same date of death. They are poignant reminders of that dreadful day.
Complete closure of the airport
During the winter of 2006/2007 the airport management embarked upon a multi-million pound runway resurfacing programme. The airport remained open during the day and the work was carried out at night.
The Christmas and New year period coincided with high winds and torrential rain. The airport maintained the work was done in accordance with CAA regulations but several landing incidents, including two passenger aircraft skidding off the runway, caused by surface water building up on insufficiently grooved parts of the runway led to some airlines moving operations to other airports, mainly Cardiff, from Friday 5 January 2007. Two days later the management took the decision to close the airport for a day whilst remedial work was carried out to improve aircraft braking action. The closure attracted much national and international coverage.
The subsequent AAIB report highlighted technical faults with the runway surface, and operational problems with the airlines and the airport operator.
At the end of World War 2 the RAF pulled out and the site was given over to the Bristol Gliding Club. In 1948 and 1949 the Bristol Motorcycle and Light Car Club hosted race meetings, mainly sports car events but Formula III races were also held. The events attracted several thousand spectators and the racing circuit was along the main runway and taxiways.
The first aircraft to land
In September 1940 No 10 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Weston-super-Mare established a Relief Landing Ground at Broadfield Down near the hamlet of Lulsgate Bottom, south of Bristol. Some defensive measures such as pillboxes and anti aircraft assets were put in but little more.
RAF Fighter Command then set up an experimental unit and in June 1941 George Wimpey and Company was contracted to construct the airfield with a main runway length of 1,200 metres (3,900 feet) which was extended to the current length in 1963. Within a month, and six months before the RAF base became operational, the field had received its first visiting aircraft - and what a shock to all involved.
At 6.20 on 24 July 1941 a Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber (its primary function though it was a versatile type) was returning from a raid at Birkenhead with the crew looking forward to breakfast at their base in northern France. Somehow the crew became lost (some reports say they were deliberately misled by British radio signals), assumed the Bristol Channel was the English Channel and swooped down to what they believed was a friendly airfield.
The contractor's workmen (early starts in those wartime days it seems) acted quickly and placed a vehicle across the partly constructed runway to prevent the JU 88 taking off. The aircraft captain drew a revolver and threatened the workmen but quickly thought better of it when he spied a party of soldiers based at the site to guard it approaching him armed with sub-machine guns.
The crew was taken into captivity and the British boffins had a brand new and modified JU 88 to play with. News was not made public until after the war in order not to alert the Germans of the capture of one of their latest aircraft though rumours abounded around the local villages.
Bristol Airport's predilection towards low cloud and thick encourages many people to believe the RAF deliberately chose the site in order that pilots could become thoroughly skilled in flying in such weather. I've never been able to find any confirmation of this and I believe it to be a myth.
Tragedy
On 10 April 1973 a party of 139 travellers, mainly local women, set out from BRS, or Lulsgate Airport as most people thought of it then, on a day trip to Basle in Switzerland.
The aircraft was a Vickers Vanguard of Invicta Airlines with a crew of six. The approach to Basle took place in poor weather and the two pilots misidentified two radio beacons and therefore based their approach on the wrong one with the catastrophic consequence of a collision with a snowy hillside.
108 people were killed and 55 children were left motherless as a result.
Questions were raised as to the competency of one of the pilots who had previously been suspended from the Canadian Air Force for lack of ability, and had failed his UK instrument flying rating eight times. The Swiss enquiry blamed the pilots for the accident though some believe they may have been lured into a false path by ghost beacon transmissions caused by electric power lines.
In several local churches in villages around Bristol Airport rows of graves can be found containing the remains of women with the same date of death. They are poignant reminders of that dreadful day.
Complete closure of the airport
During the winter of 2006/2007 the airport management embarked upon a multi-million pound runway resurfacing programme. The airport remained open during the day and the work was carried out at night.
The Christmas and New year period coincided with high winds and torrential rain. The airport maintained the work was done in accordance with CAA regulations but several landing incidents, including two passenger aircraft skidding off the runway, caused by surface water building up on insufficiently grooved parts of the runway led to some airlines moving operations to other airports, mainly Cardiff, from Friday 5 January 2007. Two days later the management took the decision to close the airport for a day whilst remedial work was carried out to improve aircraft braking action. The closure attracted much national and international coverage.
The subsequent AAIB report highlighted technical faults with the runway surface, and operational problems with the airlines and the airport operator.