Before Edinburgh Airport offered budget flights around the world, the site was used as an air defence base in the First World War.
Opened in 1916, Turnhouse Aerodrome, as it was first named, was used by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War as the most northerly British air defence base. Once the Royal Air Force was created in 1918, the site changed its name to RAF Turnhouse and the ownership moved over to the Ministry of Defence.
It continued to undergo major expansion through the 1930s and 40s with three concrete runways built and was heavily used during the Second World War when No 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron acquired Supermarine Spitfires in September 1939.
