RAF Ringway
England
About
RAF Ringway, on the southern edge of Manchester, opened in 1938 and played a role out of all proportion to its size. It was the home of No. 1 Parachute Training School, where tens of thousands of Allied paratroops and Special Operations Executive agents learned to jump, and a major centre of aircraft production, Fairey and Avro building thousands of warplanes there. The RAF left in 1957, and the field has grown into Manchester Airport, one of the busiest in the country.
Photographs
The Parachute Training School, Royal Air Force Ringway, Cheshire, 1944. Seven members of the WAAF, each with over two and a half years service at the Parachute Training School. The women have, between them, packed nearly fifty thousand parachutes to date. Left to right: ACW1 Sheina Brown (25) of Covent Grove, Glasgow (formerly a saleswoman); ACW1 Edith Tindle (26) of Shotton Colliery, County Durham (formerly a cinema attendant); ACW1 Olive Snow (23) of Knutsford, Cheshire (formerly a mill worker); Cpl Doris Mothersole (29) of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, (formerly a laundry hand); Sergeant Betty Jones (24) of Pontefract, Yorkshire (formerly a housekeeper); LACW Phyllis Baduchowska (21) (the English wife of a Polish paratrooper); and ACW1 Anne Douglas of Liverpool (formerly a tailoress).
ⓘ licence & credit
Bridge B (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Parachute_Training_School,_Royal_Air_Force_Ringway,_Cheshire,_1944._CH13267.jpgView source & full licence →Royal Air Force Army Co-operation Command, 1940-1943. Paratroops marching to emplane on Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mark Vs No. 297 Squadron RAF, at Ringway, Cheshire, during a Combined Operations exercise.
ⓘ licence & credit
Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Army_Co-operation_Command,_1940-1943._CH6045.jpgView source & full licence →Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Airspeed As.51 Horsa. Horsa Mark I, DP726, of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment based at Ringway, Cheshire, in flight under tow
ⓘ licence & credit
Daventry B J (Flying Officer), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Airspeed_As.51_Horsa._CH10891.jpgView source & full licence →Paratroopers from the 6th Royal Welch Parachute Battalion undergoing physical training at Ringway, UK. In the foreground a Whitley III is serviced.
ⓘ licence & credit
Malindine E G (Lt) Puttnam L (Lt) Spender H (Lt) War Office official photographer. / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:6th_(Royal_Welch)_Parachute_Battalion_training.jpgView source & full licence →A parachute soldier demonstrates the exit point from the tail of a Whitley bomber converted to parachute-dropping, RAF Ringway, January 1941. A parachute soldier demonstrates the exit point from the tail of a Whitley bomber converted to parachute-dropping, RAF Ringway, January 1941. The Whitley’s rear turret was removed to create an exit platform, but this method of jumping proved laborious. The introduction of a circular hole cut into the floor of the fuselage enabled a ‘stick’ of ten men to jump in rapid succession.
ⓘ licence & credit
Taylor (Mr), War Office official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_parachute_soldier_demonstrates_the_exit_point_from_the_tail_of_a_Whitley_bomber_converted_to_parachute-dropping,_RAF_Ringway,_January_1941._H6531.jpgView source & full licence →Operational Gloster Meteor F.4 VT340 at Manchester (Ringway) Airport in July 1955
ⓘ licence & credit
RuthAS / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gloster_Meteor_F.4_VT340_Fairey_Ringway_21.07.55_edited-2.jpgView source & full licence →Avro 691 Lancastrian VH742 operated by Rolls-Royce Limited and fitted with two outboard RR Nene jet engines
ⓘ licence & credit
RuthAS / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avro_691_Lancastrian_Nene_VH742_Ringway_24.04.48_edited-2.jpgView source & full licence →No. 613 Squadron Spitfire F.14’s at RAF Ringway
ⓘ licence & credit
Ringwayobserver / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:613_Squadron_Spitfire_F.14s_at_RAF_Ringway_in_1947.jpgView source & full licence →Squadrons that operated here
3 RAF squadrons flew from this airfield during the Second World War.