Leeds Bradford Airport has a long and storied history, including an encounter with some of history’s most famous planes and aircraft.
Yorkshire’s first and largest airport, it was opened on October 17, 1931 almost a century ago. At the time, it was known as Leeds and Bradford Municipal Aerodrome and was mostly used for training flights and local aviation.
It wasn’t until 1935, when the airport expanded by 35 acres, that the airfield began taking scheduled commercial flights.
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These first flights were entirely domestic, with planes heading out to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Blackpool and the Isle of Man. During the late interwar period of the 1930s, it received an infamous visitor.
In 1936, the German Zeppelin Hindenburg flew over Bradford and near to the airport on a return trip from America. This zeppelin became famous all over the world when, in New Jersey in 1937, it burst into flames and exploded on its landing pad, killing 36 people.
A few years later, the Second World War broke out in 1939 and the UK went to war with Nazi Germany. Civil aviation was halted at the airport as a result and a camouflaged factory was established nearby.
This belonged to the aircraft manufacturer Avro, who designed the Lancaster bomber and many of the iconic planes were built at the site. To accommodate the testing of military aircraft, two runways were built along with a taxiway and hangers which helped make the airport a major aircraft testing facility.
By the end of the war, there was less need for the bombers and so the factory was closed down and by 1947, civilian flights were once again flying from Leeds Bradford Airport.
In 1953, a new company was set up to administer the airport. Yeadon Aviation Ltd took control of the airport and within a couple of years a number of new destinations were on the flight list.
Düsseldorf, Belfast and the Isle of Wight were soon added to the growing roster of destinations available from Leeds Bradford. Throughout the 1950s and 60s more routes were added such as Dublin and London as the airport became more and more important.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing however. In 1965, disaster struck and the airport’s terminal was destroyed in a fire.
This required a complete rebuild and the work was soon underway. By 1968, this was completed and the airport was fully back up and running.
The seventies saw another successful decade for the airport as the package holiday became more and more common across the country. In 1976, the first package flight to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) flew out from the airport.
To put this in some historical context, 1976 was just one year after the death of Spain’s dictator and just two years after the fall of Portugal’s dictatorship.
Soon afterwards, in 1978, it was decided that, with some runway improvements, Leeds Bradford could be declared a regional airport. This meant work was needed on the roads around the site as well, including the construction of the A658 tunnel.
This work was completed in 1984 and soon transatlantic flights to America operated out of the airport. The iconic supersonic Concorde also flew from the airport until 2000.
The Concorde was famous worldwide for its instantly recognisable appearance and its supersonic speeds. It was the fastest passenger plane in the world a
Eventually, in 2005 the first runway at the airport was closed and transformed into a taxiway for planes and the airport has continued expanding despite more modern challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now, almost 100 years later, Leeds Bradford Airport continues to fly people to destinations across the globe as Yorkshire’s only airport, following the closure of Doncaster Sheffield. From the Second World War to flights to Málaga, it has helped keep West Yorkshire on the map for generations.
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