MANCHESTER AIRPORT RINGWAY REMEMBERED

The beginnings of Manchester Airport are found in the Alexandra Park Aerodrome which saw its first civil flight in 1919. It survived only until 1924 when the expanding air traffic found temporary residence at Wythenshaw until moving to a permanent site at Barton Moss in 1930. Barton also proved too small for the thriving airfield so the airport moved again in 1938 to its present site at Ringway.

The Second World War, however, brought about the halt of commercial flights as the site was taken up as a military base. It was the location of various airborne operations, becoming the home of the Parachute Training School and also seeing the prototype flights of the Avro Manchester, Lancaster and Lincoln bombers.

Civil flying recommenced in 1946 and it was less then a decade before the airport handled its first transatlantic flight (admittedly a diversion from London). 1953 saw the introduction of scheduled flights to New York and many other international destinations. Air traffic boomed again in the 1970s and the buildings and runways have been regularly expanding since then; the present airport consists of three large terminals, two runways and a railway station as well as the old 'mini-terminals' of the 1960s and the many offices and business on the site.

Manchester Airport Ringway Remembered is illustrated with over 200 photographs depicting both the structural and human faces of the airport's history. It charts not only the various incarnations of the airport but is also a faithful record of the many that have been seen there across the different sites and over the years.