RNAS Burscough (HMS Ringtail)

The station in 2010

RNAS Burscough (HMS Ringtail) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air station which was situated 1.5 statute miles south-west of Burscough, Lancashire. The Admiralty acquired 650 acres (2.6 km²) of land in December 1942 and the airfield was built with four runways and several hangars, being commissioned on 1 September 1943.^[1]

Operational history

The air station was planned to accommodate FAA day, night and torpedo fighter squadrons for their formation, training and working-up. Many FAA squadrons were based at Burscough for a period of a few weeks or months, before moving to front-line FAA bases or on to aircraft carriers for deployment in action in the European or Far Eastern war fronts.

One of the first FAA units to operate from HMS Ringtail was 809 Squadron FAA, equipped with Supermarine Seafires, it arrived from RAF Andover on 19 December 1943, then departed on 29 December when it flew its aircraft aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Stalker.^[2]

Postwar operations

Old hangar at the airfield, 2008

RNAS Burscough closed for flying in May 1946. Thereafter, the hangars were used for the storage of aircraft engines and other FAA equipment, under the direction of RNAS Stretton, until both airfields was disposed of in 1957.^[3]

During the 1960s, civil cropduster agricultural aircraft, both fixed wing and helicopters, used the now otherwise inactive airfield as an operating base for refuelling and filling the aircraft's spray tanks.

As of early 2009, four naval hangars still survive in use for non-aviation purposes, and were used by the Merseyside Transport Trust, from the late 1970s until January 2012, when the charity moved to new premises within the industrial estate. The four hangars now stand empty and unused. These four hangars include 'Pentad' type hangars, and are located on the western edge of the old airfield.

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