RAF Ipswich

Ipswich’s municipal aerodrome opened in 1930 on the Nacton road south-east of the town and was taken over by the RAF in the Second World War as RAF Nacton, a fighter station guarding the Suffolk coast and the shipping in the Thames Estuary approaches. More than thirty squadrons and flights passed through its grass field over the war years — British, Polish, Norwegian and Canadian fighter units among them — flying types such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire on convoy patrols and air defence. Civil flying resumed after the war and the airport operated until 1996, when it closed and was redeveloped; the listed 1930s terminal building survives amid the Ravenswood housing estate that now covers the site.