Manston Airport

[grumpy52]

The above is going into 45 day consultation to close it again.
Why is it never considered for development into an alternative for air travel in the South east, its only ever run as a one company/airline site.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Presumably lack of infrastructure coupled with poor communications to London.

[Simpo Two]

I expect it will eventually be another massive housing estate to house our bulging population. Easy to reach after they get off the ferry too.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Yet another RAF Station I operated from which has gone.

[mikef]

Fond memories of practicing PAR at Manston. The reassuring voice saying "You are slightly North of the centre line and correcting nicely", meaning that I was somewhere over the Thames Estuary

[Burrow01]

mikef said:

Fond memories of practicing PAR at Manston. The reassuring voice saying "You are slightly North of the centre line and correcting nicely", meaning that I was somewhere over the Thames Estuary

Would that be the old valve driven PAR 3C or the updated CR62 with those modern transistor things in it

[mikef]

1980's so I expect it was this beastie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nrhjah/8575950258/

[Geneve]

Nice feature on Manston in the latest issue of 'Pilot' - aimed at G.A., but BA had a 380 in there.

[The Hypno-Toad]

They need to have a hunt round the sheds before they close it down though. Might be a 777 hiding round the back...

[Chrisgr31]

I wonder what commitment they made to keep the airport open when they bought it. It appears they bought it for a £1 and the following year are seeking to close it and presumably sell it for development. Stunning deal!

How does Lydd stay open and make money?

Must admit I never really understand why Manston fares so badly but I guess its chicken and egg, people wont fly from there whilst there are so few flights, but you need masses of money to subdsidise many flights whilst passenger numbers build up.

[Chrisgr31]

A bit more research shows that it was only sold in November effectively for £350,000 and apparently it loses £10,000 a day. 5 months isn't long to turn it round in!

[grumpy52]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

Presumably lack of infrastructure coupled with poor communications to London.

It now has dual carriageway from the perimeter fence to London and is/was due to be connected to the high speed rail link , it also has one of the longest runways in the country.
It was rumoured to be kept open in the past as a standby landing site for the shuttle, presumably this is no longer a requirement .

[Shar2]

Is it not still an emergency landing field for big stuff in trouble? Thought it was also one only a few stations that could provide full runway foam cover. Although I could be stuck in a time warp and what I wrote is a load of cods?

[ecsrobin]

grumpy52 said:

It now has dual carriageway from the perimeter fence to London and is/was due to be connected to the high speed rail link , it also has one of the longest runways in the country.
It was rumoured to be kept open in the past as a standby landing site for the shuttle, presumably this is no longer a requirement .

It has a long runway but certainly not one of the longest.

Heathrow 3902 Metres (Runway 9L)
Heathrow 3658 Metres (Runway 9R)
RAF Marham 3209 Metres
Gatwick 3159 Metres
RAF Brize Norton 3050 Metres
Campbeltown 3049 Metres
Manchester 3048 Metres
Stansted 3048 Metres
RAF Fairford 3046 Metres
Bruntingthorpe 3000 Metres





Manston 2748 Metres

As to the space shuttle tie in I'm not so sure, I know fairford was used for launch diversions

[ecsrobin]

Shar2 said:

Is it not still an emergency landing field for big stuff in trouble? Thought it was also one only a few stations that could provide full runway foam cover. Although I could be stuck in a time warp and what I wrote is a load of cods?

Foam cover is not a common practice these days, I know Boeing don't see the benefit. I'll check in work later but in Europe there's only 2/3 airfields that can provide a foamed runway and none of them are in the UK.

[Shar2]

Thanks for that. I could have sworn that in the dim and distant past that was one of the things that kept Manston open, oh well, so much for the old memory.

[philwhite]

I live nearby and as an aviation enthusiast it would be a great shame to see it go, it’s one of the last places in Europe that still sees regular DC-8 flights. Back in the early to mid 90’s it used to be a haven for 707’s too, although most that flew in probably met their end there.

They’ve always struggled to attract scheduled services; I think the only KLM fly there now, with one or two daily feeder flights to and from Schiphol.

I know local residents have always kicked up a stink whenever expansion is mentioned, complaining about noise and whatnot, so maybe that has something to do with why it never really expanded?

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Manston was one of the airfields that could provide a foamed runway but that was back when it was a RAF MEDA (Master Emergency Diversion Airfield - Military and Civil). I think the foam capability was binned when the RAF went to having MDAs (Master Diversion Airfields - Military) in the mid/late 1980s.

ISTR that the other airfield with the capability was RAF Leeming.

[ecsrobin]

Got the info on aerodromes with foam laying equipment, in Europe/Mediterranean you have Istanbul and Zurich and elsewhere you have Lusaka and Dhaka.

Apparently it takes a minimum of 45min to cover the runway.

[jonnyb]

Manston was renowned for having one of the widest runways, not the longest. Although it's not that wide anymore. When it was a USAF station it could handle 2 B52s in a formation takeoff. Or so I was told.

I learned to fly at Manston, very sad to hear the latest news. I wonder if TG will look to take it over.