RAF Ayr

RAF Ayr, more formally known as RAF Heathfield, lay on the South Ayrshire coast of Scotland a short distance from Prestwick. It opened on 7 April 1941 and served chiefly as a fighter station within Fighter Command, guarding the Clyde approaches and the busy transatlantic terminal at neighbouring Prestwick. Its three concrete runways hosted a long succession of day and night-fighter units over the following years.

Among the squadrons that passed through were No. 141 Squadron, flying Boulton Paul Defiants and later Bristol Beaufighters on night patrols, and No. 488 Squadron RNZAF, whose Beaufighters made the airfield their home from September 1942 to August 1943. Several Spitfire units and Allied and Commonwealth squadrons were also based here at various times, and the station later supported armament and gunnery training ahead of the 1944 invasion of Europe.

In September 1944 the airfield was handed to the Royal Navy and commissioned as the Fleet Air Arm station HMS Wagtail, supporting carrier flying until naval use ended in 1946. The United States Air Force used the site for aircraft storage between 1951 and 1957. Much of the former airfield has since been redeveloped for housing, retail and leisure, though sections of runway and a surviving hangar still mark its wartime past.