RAF Abbotsinch

RAF Abbotsinch occupied flat ground between the Black Cart and White Cart Waters near Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Flying began at the site in the early 1930s, and in 1933 No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force moved its Westland Wapiti biplanes there from nearby Renfrew. A formal RAF station headquarters was raised on 1 July 1936 under No. 6 (Auxiliary) Group, then part of Bomber Command. In the immediate pre-war period No. 602 Squadron re-equipped with the Supermarine Spitfire before departing in October 1939.

During the early war years Abbotsinch served Coastal Command purposes, hosting a torpedo-training unit from 1940 that prepared both RAF and naval crews, and the Admiralty established a presence on the airfield the same year. On 11 August 1943 the station passed wholly to the Royal Navy, and was commissioned the following month as HMS Sanderling. As a Fleet Air Arm base it functioned chiefly as an aircraft maintenance yard, reserve aircraft store and salvage centre, and as a deck-landing training establishment, acting as parent to the air stations at Ayr and Machrihanish.

The Navy retained Abbotsinch into the post-war era, basing Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve squadrons there with types such as the Fairey Firefly and Grumman Avenger before they disbanded in the late 1950s. The Royal Navy finally left at the end of October 1963, and the site was handed over for civil use. It reopened on 2 May 1966 as Glasgow Airport, which continues to operate today.