UK Airfields Past and Present: A Directory of Airfields from 1908 to 2018

A great many books have been written over the years about individual airfields or those in particular counties/areas but this one covers a good proportion of them in one publication, from Abbots Bromley to Zeals. It provides brief details of over 1700 airfields from before the First World War to the present day and describes the main activities carried out, based units/operators and current status. It includes military bases, civil airports/airfields, gliding sites, microlight sites and larger farm strips, together with the probable number of based aircraft. An appendix lists over 500 books which have been published about individual airfields and this, together with the details provided in this book affords a convenient source of reference for further research. It does not pretend to include every flying site that ever existed as this would require a much larger volume but covers what are considered to be the most significant airfields of the past 110 years. It includes over one hundred photographs in color and black & white, most of which have not been published previously.

Grant Peerless was born in St Albans in 1943 and followed a career in civil engineering until taking early retirement in 1999. He then returned to his life-long interest in aviation, particularly airfields in the UK and following extensive research co-wrote two books with aviation journalist and photographer Richard Riding: ‘Elstree Aerodrome – The Past in Pictures’ (Sutton Publishing 2003) and ‘Leavesden Aerodrome – From Halifaxes to Hogwarts’ (Amberley Publishing 2011). He has also had several articles published in ‘Airfield Review’.