Longman

57°29'30"N 004°15'30"W

Runway: n/a - ....meters/....feet - grass
Runway: n/a - water

Longman airfield (RAF Longman, also known as RAF Inverness) was an airfield 180 kilometers north-northwest of Edinburgh.
The airfield was built as a civilian airfield for Highland Airways and opened in 1933. Located near the harbour and inner Moray Firth, it was envisaged that flying boats would utilise the facilities. However, flying boat operations proved to be the minority. On 8 May a regular daily land-based aircraft service opened between Orkney, Wick and Inverness, allowing passengers to connect with southbound trains.

After the outbreak of war, 'A' flight of 614 Sqn was dispatched to Longman with a flight of Lysander aircraft. The flight soon became 241 Sqn. In April 1941 Longman officially became RAF Longman, but 241 Sqn departed shortly after on the 15th April, leaving the airfield without aircraft. RAF Longman then became a relief landing ground for surrounding airfields, especially those with flooding or overcrowding issues such as RAF Kinloss and RAF Lossiemouth. August 1941 saw the return of the Lysanders with the deployment of 309 Sqn supporting Army exercises. From Spring 1942, with the arrival of 289 Sqn, 70 Signals Wing Calibration Flight and 56 MU (Maintenance Unit), RAF Longman began hosting numerous squadrons and aircraft.
289 Sqn operated Hurricanes and Oxfords for radar and gunnery calibration,
70 Signals Wing Calibration Flight operated Blenheims.
Headquarters considered RAF Longman to be a great strategic asset protecting the Caledonian Canal and North of Scotland fuel supplies. For this reason it was subjected to a large number of elaborate defence exercises. In September 1942 these culminated with the airfields defences repelling a force of 50 'enemy' attackers from 3 flying boats which alighted on the Firth.
From June 1943 a twice weekly RAF ferry service commenced between Orkney, Inverness and RAF Castletown.
70 Signals Wing Calibration Flight became 526 Sqn, which continued to calibrate ground and Naval radar stations. For that purpose, the squadron flew Blenheim IV, Hornet Moth and Oxford I aircraft, sometimes augmented with bright orange Hurricane I's from 527 Sqn.
Later that year, 3 Dominies from 527 Sqn formed a communications flight along with 782 Naval Sqn, providing communications for units in the North of Scotland.
RAF Longman held the record for uninterrupted operations up to 19th January 1945 when the airfield was closed due to snow. It soon re-opened after its personnel quickly cleared an 800yds runway, thus providing the only usable airfield in the north apart from Hatston, Orkney.
From May 1945 all squadrons based at RAF Longman began disbanding and all were gone by July, leaving the airfield without flying units.

In January 1943, the Germans were aware that Inverness had an airfield, but incorrectly believed it to be
a sea plane base (Seeflughafen) only (Luftwaffe, via Scotlandsplaces.gov.uk).


RAF Longman in 1945 (Google Earth)

With the withdrawal of wartime restrictions on civil flying in 1946, RAF Longman was taken over by civil aviation authorities. The British European Division of BOAC started operations with German JU52 and latterly Dakotas. In 1947 Longman was considered too small for safe operations and all flying moved to RAF Dalcross, which later became Inverness Airport.
The airfield closed on 31 August 1947.


Oblique photo of Longman/Inverness airport in 1947 (RAF, via Scotlandsplaces.gov.uk).

Today, all that remains of RAF Longman is a Bellman storage hangar in the middle of Longman Industrial Estate and the fuel transfer depot, GPSS Inverness. GPSS Inverness supplies Inverness Airport and RAF Lossiemouth (and earlier RAF Kinloss too) with aviation fuel.


Longman Industrial Estate in 2009 (Google Earth).