The former WW2 RAF base on the Cambridgeshire border now one of UK's busiest airports

Inside Stansted Airport
-Credit:EssexLive


If you've ever been on a holiday to Europe, chances are you have flown from Stansted Airport. It's the fourth-busiest airport in the UK, after Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester, with nearly 28 million passengers passing through in 2023.

It might seem hard to imagine now, with duty-free shops and modern passenger jets on the tarmac, but the airport's original use was as an RAF base in WW2. It was built in August 1942 by American engineers before opening a year later.

It was officially named RAF Stansted Mountfitchet after the nearby Essex village but was commonly shortened to simply Stansted. At its peak, the base had three runways, hard standings for 50 aircraft, hangars, workshops, offices, and Nissen huts housing more than 2,600 people.

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It was home to bomber squadrons from the USAAF, flying B-26 Marauder bombers. B-26 Marauders were twin-engined bombers first used over the Pacific Theatre in WW2 before later use in Europe. Pilots flying from Stansted included a bombardment group who led a major mission on D-Day.

During the war, the airfield was also used as a maintenance and supply depot. As the Allies advanced into France and pushed the Germans back, Stansted remained in use to support aircraft deployed over Europe.

Stansted Airport began life as an American Airforce Second World War base in 1943
Stansted Airport began life as an American Airforce Second World War base in 1943

The USAAF left Stansted in August 1945 after the end of the war. It was then run by the Air Ministry, with continued use as a storage site until 1949 and as a prisoner-of-war camp until 1947.

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The airfield was handed over to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1949, before being enlarged and redeveloped in the mid-1950s as a potential Cold War emergency base, according to the American Air Museum. Fortunately, it was never needed to serve this purpose.

After the Cold War, Stansted was used as a civil charter airport. A plan to develop Stansted into London's third airport was approved in 1985, with construction complete in 1991.

For more than 80 years, planes have been flying from Stansted. Who knows what the next 80 years will bring?

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