Woodford, Greater Manchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about Woodford in Greater Manchester, England. For other uses see Woodford (disambiguation).
Woodford is situated in the south of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport.
BAE Woodford is the site of a factory and large airfield located to the south of the villages of Woodford & Bramhall and is partly in Greater Manchester and partly in Cheshire. The initial small airfield was created from farmland during late 1924 by A.V.Roe & Company Ltd which later became a part of the Hawker Siddeley Group and is now part of BAE Systems.
The major project during the mid 1930's to early wartime was the building of many thousands of twin-engined Avro Ansons for use as patrol aircraft, trainers and light transports. From 1941, over 4000 Lancaster bombers were built here and these formed the backbone of RAF Bomber Command. No.617 'Dambusters' Squadron flew the type on the famous raids against reservoirs in Germany, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC.
The Lancasters were followed by Lincoln bombers and then from 1949 the Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft. The delta-winged Vulcan four-jet nuclear bomber rolled from the Woodford factory between the mid 1950's and early 1960's. Vulcan B2 XM603 is preserved at Woodford for static show puposes.
From 1960 onwards, a series of civil airliners was built at Woodford, starting with the Avro/HS 748, then the BAe ATP, followed by the BAe 146 jet airliner.
Until 1998, a bi-annual air event was held at Woodford Aerodrome sponsored by RAFA. Now, as part of BAE Systems Regional Aircraft, the airfield is the site of the company's Customer Training and Engineering department.
