RAF East Fingask
- Opened: 1940
- Closed: 1945
- Details: The airfield, located around 20 miles northwest of Aberdeen, was a dispersal site for RAF Dyce. It was used during WWII for aircraft including the Avro Ansons of No. 612 Squadron. Aircrews would be diverted to the station from Dyce, and other surrounding airfields, when an attack was imminent, before waiting for the all-clear.
RNAS/RAF East Fortune
- Opened: 1915
- Closed: 1961
- Details: Opening during WWI as a Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) airfield, East Fortune was used by fighter aircraft but was predominantly an airship station. Its location just south of North Berwick, close to the mouth of the Forth, made it ideal to launch coastal patrols. Among the aircraft based at the station was the R.34, an airship that made the first east-west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, departing on 2 July 1919 and arriving at Long Island four-and-a-half days (108 hours) later.Closing in 1920, it reopened in June 1940 as a satellite for Drem. Three hard runways were constructed (still visible from the air today) with No. 60 Operational Training Unit (OTU) arriving. It continued as a training centre initially for night fighter crews, before its role switched to anti-shipping in November 1942, when Coastal Command took control of the station. Post-war, Fighter Command took over East Fortune, but the station closed soon after hostilities ended. Plans for US forces to take command never materialised, and the site was sold by the Air Ministry in 1960. It served as a civilian airport for a short time in the 1960s when upgrade work was being carried out at Edinburgh Airport.
RFC/RAF Eccles Toft
- Opened: 1917
- Closed: 1919
- Details: A WWI Home Defence Landing Ground (HDLG) was established around eight miles northwest of Coldstream. It was used by the aircraft of No. 77 Squadron, with BE2s and BE12s operating. A site nearby was later developed during WWII as RAF Charterhall (see previous).
RAF Edzell
- Opened: 1918
- Closed: 1997
- Details: The station, 14 miles northwest of Montrose, opened towards the end of WWI. The formation of No. 26 Training Depot Station saw Edzell’s airfield play host to aircraft including Royal Aircraft Factory FE2Bs and Avro 504s. The original station closed soon after the end of the Great War, but a site just south of the original was developed at the start of WWII as a satellite for Montrose, with the Hawker Harts and Miles Masters of No. 8 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) operating.As well as training, Edzell was utilised for aircraft storage and maintenance, with more than 400 aircraft on site at its peak when No. 44 MU was formed there in August 1940. No. 44 MU was disbanded in 1949, but reformed at Edzell in 1951, continuing its original role for several years. Put under care and maintenance in 1957, Edzell became a US communications centre, complete with "golf ball" structures, remaining in use until the late 1990s.
RAF Elgin
- Opened: 1940
- Closed: 1947
- Details: An airfield around a mile southwest of the town opened in 1940 as a satellite for Lossiemouth, six miles to the north of the site. Obstructions were initially placed around its three grass runways as fears of a German invasion reached their peak during the Battle of Britain. No. 57 Squadron was the first to arrive in August 1940, flying Bristol Blenheims. When Lossiemouth was attacked by the Luftwaffe in October 1940, Hawker Hurricanes of No. 232 Squadron were deployed to Elgin to carry out defensive duties. The station was later used for training with No. 20 OTU arriving with Vickers Wellingtons. As use of the station grew, Somerfeld tracking was laid because the high frequency of operations led to the runways becoming damaged.
RAF Errol outbuildings
RAF Errol
- Opened: 1942
- Closed: 1948
- Details: Located midway between Perth and Dundee on the north shore of the Firth of Tay, Errol opened in August 1942 for No. 9 Pilots Advanced Flying Unit (PAFU), operating Miles Masters. Becoming a major training centre, it was tasked early in 1943 with a special role to coach Soviet aircrews in operating Armstrong Whitworth Albemarles. No. 305 Ferry Training Unit carried out the work with several hundred of the aircraft ordered by Russia—though only 14 Albemarles ended up leaving for the Soviet Union, two of which were lost in transit. The station continued operating beyond the end of WWII under the control of No. 260 MU, becoming a storage centre for a time after its closure. Errol’s wartime runways are still visible from the air.
RAF Evanton (also known as RAF Novar)
- Opened: 1922
- Closed: 1956
- Details: Beginning life as RAF Novar, it soon became a support airfield for the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet based nearby at Invergordon. Located on the north side of the Cromarty Firth, 18 miles north of Inverness, the site was known as HMS Fieldfare, and its navy role continued through to the 1930s. It was expanded in the late 1930s to become a flight and bombing training school, becoming RAF Evanton. Later during WWII, it was used for maintenance and storage by Coastal Command, returning to Royal Navy control in the autumn of 1944.While it was reduced to care and maintenance status in 1948, flying continued, with Evanton later acting as a RLG for No. 8 Advanced Flying Training School in the 1950s. It was also used as a secret launch site for USAF spy balloons, which photographed sites in Russia at the height of the "first" Cold War.
RAF Fearn
- Opened: 1941
- Closed: 1957
- Details: An airfield at Fearn in the Highlands, around 30 miles northeast of Inverness, opened in 1941 as a satellite for Tain (see later). Following its limited use by No. 8 Advanced FTS, control was handed over to the Royal Navy, becoming HMS Owl. Post-war, control returned to the RAF, with the site used for storage, and in the early 1950s as a RLG for aircraft based at Dalcross.
RAF Findo Gask
- Opened: 1941
- Closed: 1948
- Details: The airfield and village, located seven miles west of Perth, gained their unusual name after a local saint, Fynnoga or Findoca, and the Gaelic word gasg, meaning a strip of land. Opening in June 1941, the plan was to use it as a training centre and aircraft storage site. The latter role never materialised, and it instead became a satellite for 309 Squadron at Dunino ahead of the Polish army co-operation unit arriving in November 1942. Findo Gask was also utilised as a RLG by the Miles Masters of No. 9 PAFU, but even with Somerfeld tracking laid on its three runways, it was still prone to flooding. Consequently, flying was wound down, and it instead became home to Nos. 44 and 260 MUs. Closing in 1948, Findo Gask’s rare three-storey control tower was one of only five built in Britain; the building still stands today with proposals to turn it into a private home.
RAF Findo Gask control tower
RAF Fordoun
- Opened: 1942
- Closed: 1950
- Details: No. 2 Flying Instructors School (FIS), based at Montrose, used the airfield around eight miles southwest of Stonehaven as a satellite for their Airspeed Oxfords. The station passed to War Office control in 1944 and returned to the RAF in August 1945, with Nos. 98 and 243 MUs using Fordoun as a site for ammunition storage.
RAF Forres
- Opened: 1941
- Closed: 1944
- Details: During WWII, No. 19 OTU used an airfield at Forres, just west of Elgin, as a satellite under the control of Lossiemouth, with Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys operating from the grass runways up to the end of 1944. It was also used as a RLG for No. 19 PAFU.
RFC/RNAS Fort George
- Opened: 1913
- Closed: 1916
- Details: A seaplane base used by the RFC (Naval Wing) and the RNAS was located on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, just north of Inverness Airport. Opening pre-WWI and closing three years later, aircraft operating from Fort George included Wight seaplanes, which carried out anti-submarine patrols.
RAF Fraserburgh
- Opened: 1941
- Closed: 1945
- Details: While Fraserburgh opened as a RAF station, it was the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) that arrived first at the location around 12 miles northwest of Peterhead. RAF Coastal Command took control of the site in the spring of 1942, with photo-reconnaissance Spitfires and Mosquitoes among the aircraft operating from the station.
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