Gatwick Airport

The Gatwick story really began when two young men purchased a plot of land near Gatwick Racecourse to develop as a flying field. From these humble beginnings in the 1930s, it has become Britain's second airport, with 34 million passengers a year passing through the terminals - and this despite it having only a single runway! This lavishly illustrated volume traces its extraordinary early history, including its varied and valuable wartime service under the auspices of the RAF, its subsequent redevelopment in the 1950s and its emergence in the 1960s and beyond - after considerable struggles - as the bustling, modern airport familiar to so many travellers today. It is an unashamedly nostalgic look at this historic airport, its hardworking staff and the iconic planes that have passed through it.

Auteur

Charles Woodley is a lifelong aviation enthusiast who first visited Gatwick in 1958. He is the author of several books and many magazine articles on historical aviation subjects, including the successful Heathrow: The First 50 Years and BOAC: A History for The History Press. A long-time member of Air-Britain, he founded and ran for over ten years the Grampian Airtouring Society, the local aviation enthusiasts' society for the Aberdeenshire area.