BIRMINGHAM ELMDON AIRPORT

 Elmdon Airport in the 50s     by DAVRON

On September 3rd 1909 flying came to the Midlands with the formation of the Midland Aero Club which held its inaugural meeting at Dunstall Park at Wolverhampton and was one of the first flying clubs in England. Flying was still very much in its infancy but by the end of 1910 the club had over 450 members with several building their own aircraft.

Birmingham also had aircraft manufacturers but it is not known if they ever produced a flyable aircraft. There was the Birmingham Aeroplane Company at Moseley Street and the Central Novelty Company also advertised a a biplane glider.

Herbert Austin of the Austin Motor Company was also involved in the early construction of aeroplanes at Longbridge.

Flying in Birmingham seems to have started at Billesley Farm  in Kings Heath but by May 1912 the club in residence had moved to playing fields at Castle Bromwich and had established a landing ground which was to become the first official airfield in Birmingham and in Warwickshire. It was 1100 yards long and 400 yards wide. A shed or hangar was also provided for Ernest Willow, who built airships and had previously been based at Hanwoth.  Around ths time The Midland Aero Club also moved to Castle Bromwich                   

Flying also took place at the Tally Ho grounds in Edgbaston and it is known there was a flying display there.

In August 1914 the War Office requisitioned Castle Bromwich as a military aerodrome and in the following year number 5 Reserve Squadron was formed to train pilots

On the 31st January 2 Zeppelins bombed Castle Bromwich with little effect and no causalities

The Air Ministry formed in 1918 and acquired Castle Bromwich and licensed it for civil flying and by September the British Air Transport Company was using it

Billesey farm did not immeadiately close after the vacation of the aero club and in October 1920 Alan Cobham's fling circus was at Billesley offering 'joy riding.

In 1925 the government started a subsidised flying scheme and the Midland Aero Club took delivery of 2 De Havilland Tiger Moths

In 1927 The Midland Aero Club organised The Birmingham Aerial Pageant in which a 100 aircraft took part.

A BEA Viscount in front of the terminal, note the veranda roof and new control tower on top of the original.

The council had decided as far back as 1928 that as Birmingham was an important industrial city it must have an airport.  Plans however were shelved due to the depression but revived again in 1933 when 400 acres of land were bought at Elmdon. Elmdon however had not been the first choice, a site adjacent to the Stratford Road in Shirley which was used for flying had also been considered. The new airport was known as Elmdon Airport to start with as the traditional way of naming airports was to name them after the nearest village. An interesting local exception to this rule was the former RAF Airfield called Bobbington, near Wolverhampton. During the war so many pilots, mostly American, got mixed up with Bovingdon in Hertfordshire and Bobbington in Worcestershire that the decision was taken to name it after the next village, Halfpenny Green! Today of course it is better known as Wolverhampton!

The contractors for the airport were B. Sunley and Co and work began in 1935. The airport was a unique design having a two vaulted verandah roofs which aircraft could park beneath on each side of the terminal. This roof was based on the design of the much larger verandah roof used at Berlin, Templehof. This feature alone made Birmingham one of the most unique and attractive terminals ever built, Birmingham was also one of the first areas to have a municipal airport although interestingly when built it was outside the Birmingham boundary which then ended at Cranes Park. (It was a long walk to the airport for aircraft spotters!)

The airport was ready for traffic on May 1st 1939 and a two seat Swallow aircraft was flown in from Castle Bromwich with Councillor H.S. Goodby at the controls accompanied by the Lord Mayor, Alderman James Crump.

The airport was officially opened by HRH, the Duke of Kent on July 8th 1939 in the presence of the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, and the Lord Mayor. A flying display also took place. (Flying displays were a regular feature of Elmdon but stopped in the 50s) Chief Castle Bromwich Spitfire test pilot, Alex Henshaw. demonstrated his Percival Mew Gull. A Fairey Battle arrived from the Austin airfield at Longbridge, a Cievra Autogyro came from Cievra and an Imperial Airways Hercules departed. A plaque at the old terminal marks the opening.

The first scheduled service aircraft to arrive at the new airport was a Dragon Rapide, named Volunteer which was owned by Great Western & Southern Airlines . It's route was Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Southampton. Railway Air Services arrived next with their Rapide from Croydon on route to Liverpool Belfast & Glasgow!

Two months later  the airport was closed to all civil aircraft due to the outbreak of war! The Air Ministry requisitioned the airport and built a tarmac runway(24/06) and two hangars. The field was then used for the testing and delivery of Stirling & Lancaster bombers which were made at the Austin car works at Longbridge and assembled at a shadow factory on the site of what is now the Elmdon Trading Estate. The aircraft were then finally brought over a special railway bridge to the airfield for testing and despatch. Elmdon was also used for elementary flight training for the RAF and Fleet Air Arm. There was also a grass relief landing  ground at Hockley Heath when things got too busy at Elmdon!.

Number 2 & 3 hangars (furthest from terminal) were erected to house the military aircraft that were visiting or being tested. (Number 3 hangar was last used as a British Airways cargo centre and was demolished in the 90s as it produced quite a lot of turbulence over the landing threshold of runway 33 when the wind was from the West)

The airport re-opened after the war on the 8th July 1946. The first post war scheduled service was Birmingham to Paris operated jointly by Air France & British European Airways (BEA) which started in April 1949. BEA used Douglas DC 3 aircraft which were the mainstay of BEA services until the turboprop Vickers Viscount was introduced.

On 28th April 1961 the Duchess of Kent opened an extension on the west side of the original terminal, a typical 60s very ugly bland building that was in complete contrast to the original art deco building. Also in 1961 the largest aircraft to use the airport to date arrived, a KLM Super Constellation. The first pure jet also landed in 1961, a RAF Comet, although its weight had to be reduced for the operation as the runway length was not adequate.

In 1967 the Runway 33/15 was extended from 5,000 feet to 7400 feet. The extension opened on 7th April. The runway was extended across Elmdon Lane cutting it off from the Coventry Road at the 33 end.

This extension allowed the inclusive tour operators MATO (Midland Air Tour Operators, owned by ex Aston Villa Chairman, Doug Ellis!) & Horizon Midlands to  operate Jet Charters and was the start of the real expansion at Birmingham. It should be noted that runway 33/15 was never the main into wind runway at Birmingham but it was not possible to extend Runway 24/06 because of the Coventry Road at one end and the London to Birmingham main railway line at the other end.

On the 1st June 1968 BEA started the first scheduled jet operations out of the airport with De Haviland Trident aircraft on the Birmingham to Paris (Le Bourget) service

On the 7th November 1968 British Eagle Airways, who operated 3 services from Birmingham, (Ibiza, Palma and Newquay) ceased trading.

On the 28th April 1970 BOAC operated the first transatlantic service from Birmingham to New York using a VC10 aircraft, it called at Manchester en route

In 1972 British Airways opened a cabin crew base at Birmingham and the next year a BAC 1-11 pilot base with operational support staff.

Also 1972 was the year that British Midland Airways, formerly Derby Airways, started a Brusells - Frankfurt route

On the 23rd October 1973 the airport recorded for the first time a 1,000,000 passengers in one year

In 1974 plans for a new terminal were under discussion again and in 1979 the council received the go ahead

The new terminal was opened in the early 80s and what an initial disaster it was! The airport committee (pause for laughter) had been to every major airport in Europe to view other airports to see how it was done but obviously after a very heavy lunch!. The check in concourse area was much too small and when passengers on busy charter flights tried to check in they tailed back onto the hire car & information desks making it very awkard for all concerned. The  revolutionary Magnatec railway built to transfer passengers to the NEC was another disaster which was eventually closed. In fact no sooner had the terminal opened than it needed extending. Other alterations had to be made to the taxiway and apron to stop blockages It is amazing that the airport escaped without any adverse publicity as a result of  some very poor planning.

It should also be remembered that Elmdon was never really suitable as a large airport site, it is constrained by road and railway on most sides and has limited hangar space. If airports had been owned earlier by private companies it is much more likely that a larger site further away from Birmingham would have been developed which would have given much more opportunity for future development, The former RAF airfields of Licfhield or Honiley would have made much better airfields with  much more room for expansion.

LIGHT AIRCRAFT & FLYING SCHOOLS

One of the oldest flying schools in the country was the Midland Aero Club who had transferred from Castle Bromwich to Birmingham. In the 50s it maintained its elite snooty atmosphere and typically a committee meeting was once called to decide if a motor mechanic could be allowed to learn to fly. Male members were also obliged to wear a tie at the bar!

The other club at the airport was the Birmingham Aero Club which was started by the Birch brothers, Neville being well known as a co- author of the Flight Briefing For Pilots series of flying traing handbooks. The clun was later renamed the Warwickshire Aero Club and in the 60 and 70s owned privately by local insurance millionaire, Arthur Harrison. Both clubs operated mainly De Havilland Tiger Moths for training. The Midland Aero Club eventually ran into financial difficulties and was bought out by one of its members, accountant Henry Ducerman. Henry sold all the aircraft and turned the clubhouse into a nightclub which was situated on part of the truncated Elmdon Lane near the Coventry Road. The Ducerman family ran the club and it was very popular being known as,' The Aero' or 'Henry's'. Unfortunately it attracted a very rough element and when Henry refused admission to one particular chap one night, in the 80s, he was promptly hit in the face and put in hospital! Things were never the same after that and the club eventually mysteriously burnt down in the 80s and the sad final chapter of the Midland Aero Club was over.

The Warwickshire Aero Club was quite a bizzare place and was really just an extension of the very flamboyant Arthur Harrison's ego! A seperate page is dedicated to this school and written by its last Chief Flying Instructor. A CFIs STORY (this link not yet live)

There were several commercial schools at Birmingham. Mid Fly owned by Air Gregory of Denham operated Piper Tri Pacers in the 50s and 60s (Flying training was £5.00 per hour then). Executive Air was another well known operator who towards its demise was owned by Dereck Gaunt who also was a partner in a boat shop called Hollywood Marine. Birmingham Aviation was another school again dealt with on a seperate page by the last CFI of the Warwickshire Aero Club.

All of the clubs dissapeared in the 80s to be replaced by Warwickshire Flight Training started by an ex student of Birmingham Aviation. Warwickshire Flight Training was finally sold to some unsuspecting character who sadly lost a lot of money in the venture and it marked the end of the flying training schools at Birmingham when this establishment finally closed. Today there is very little light aircraft operation at the airfield.

Air Taxi Operators  DON EVERALL & EXECUTIVE AIR TRANSPORT

Ollie Air Services were the first Air Taxi operators at Birmingham and they started in 1939.

Birmingham  had two local airlines in the sixties, one was Don Everall the Wolverhampton coach operator who had a maintenance base at Wolverhampton (Pendeford). They operated a flying school at Wolverhampton and eventually had two DC3s based at Birmingham and a Dragon Rapide. After one of the the DC3's crashed it was replaced by a Vickers Viking and eventually the company merged into Air Safaris. When the Viking also crashed at Crete the company folded. One of Don Everalls DC3s was G-ANEG which went to the newly formed Executive Air Transport in the 60s which was started by a group of Birmingham businessmen.(more soon) This aircraft was overhauled and painted by Derby Airways at Burnaston. Executive Air Transport eventually moved to Coventry and the engineering side of the company continued with aircraft overhaul, quickly becoming the worlds leading specialists with the De Havilland Dove and Heron aircraft.

In the 70s Central Air Services was started by former Derby Airways First Officer, ex-Midland Aero Club CFI & director of Executive Air Transport,  Jack Muldoon, with local businessman Charles Dean. The company operated a King Air for Bristol Street Motors and a Cessna Golden Eagle 421 for Lucas Industries. They also operated two Piper Aztecs engaged on air taxi. In the 80s they operated Cartographical Air Services specially modified Piper Seneca on aerial survey and when Lucas sold their 421 it was bought by Century Oils and operated by CAS for a time. Lucas replaced the 421 with a jet Cessna Citation 1 which continued to be operated by CAS. The company gradually reduced its fleet in the 80s and with the demise of Lucas Industries their jet Citation aircraft was sold to pop singer Chris de Burgh and Central Air Services
closed.

Central's DC3 on lease to Air Ulster, photographed at Glasgow in 1969

The former terminal building is listed and stands gracefully on the other side (Western) from the new airport, unfortunately surrounded by a multitude of very ugly modern buildings which reflect the new role of this side of the airport as a cargo centre. the original terminal still has the hideous 60s extension stuck to its western side which is now occupied by offices. On the eastern side the glass sides and glass frontage has been removed from around the veranda, which provided an extension in the 60s. This has returned this side to its original condition but sadly cannot really be seen to full advantage from any public viewing point.

In the 80s Birmingham got its first real airline when Birmingham Executive Airways started with turboprop Jetstream aircraft on European routes such as Milan. Jetstream aircraft were totally unsuitable for such long journeys and replacement aircraft included a SAAB and then 2 very unusual Gulfsteam executive turboprops. These were finally replaced by ageing BAC 1-11s jets. The company was eventually taken over by Maersk who introduced Boeing 737 aircraft and the company finally closed around 2000.

Company aircraft

In the 60s JCB operated a Dove from Birmingham before moving to East Midlands, which was nearer their factory at Rochester, Staffordshire.

In the 70s and 80s there were two dedicated companies operating their own aircraft at Birmingham. Tube Investment Group Services (TI) and Guest Keen and Nettlefords (GKN). TI had a King Air and GKN seemed to operate their own airline with a Bolkow Helicopter, a HS125 jet and a King Air, all under the auspices of Commander Barratt who from looking at the sign on his door had obviously forgotten he had left the RAF!

Engineering

Eric Bott Aviation Services was Birmingham's only light aircraft engineering service in the 60s and 70s. Eric Bott was a true gentleman and an excellent engineer. Unfortunately this cannot be said of the subsequent owners who never really understood aircraft engineering from the day it was bought till the day it closed. Eric Bott once described one of the owners, John Bassett, as a ' Knucklehead!

Air Traffic Control

ATC at Birmingham was always situated on top of the terminal building first of all in a watch office of style similar to RAF towers and then latterly replaced by a sloping window greenhouse style tower which is still occupied by Birmingham ATC today.

ATC at Birmingham had some characters one of whom decided to visit his wife's lover one night with an axe which he used to put the door in, he was forever known as the 'Axeman' afterwards, he is now a captain with a major airline, so look out!

ATC controller, Bunny Gunson, went onto national fame as an after dinner speaker and his album, 'What goes up might come down', was a best seller' and is still available.

More soon