Lympne Airport in The 50s

Airport c1955
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That plane was bright blue! As far as I can remember, the pilot was Polish - left over from the war. He used to keep the plane at the airport, and give stunning free acrobatic displays on bright sunny days. For special events, like the village fete, he would give short flights. My mum paid for me and my brother to have one once - first time I'd ever flown. When we first moved to Lympne (very near the airfield) in 1952, the planes were Silver City Bristol Freighters, with huge front opening doors that swallowed cars whole. Silver City moved to Lydd, and they were replaced by Skyways, with a fleet of Dakotas. The runway was grass, and when Skyways wanted to replace their ageing Daks with HS748 turbo-props, they had to lay a concrete strip because the new planes couldn't land on grass. There was a lady (can't remember her name) who used to excercise her racehorses on the periphery of the field. One of her horses triggered a forgotten pipe mine, and the explosion cracked two of our windows.