Newcastle Airport, Bellman hangar

A hangar, dating to the Second World War RAF use of the airport. Other RAF camp buildings, such as a wooden control tower on stilts, have gone. Tyne and Wear Museums have recorded this World War Two aircraft hangar in advance of airport redevelopment. The airport opened as the civilian Woolsington Airfield in 1935. It incorporated an art deco clubhouse (which still survives and is on the Local List), hangar, workshops, fuel garage and grass runway. The RAF Volunteer Reserve and the Civil Air Guard also used the airfield. At the onset of World War 2 it was taken over by the RAF and became a satellite station for the bases at Acklington and Ouston. In 1940 83 Maintenance Unit was established at RAF Woolsington along with 281 Squadron Air-Sea Rescue. Training Unit 62 trained radar operators for night fighter squadrons. 72 Fighter Squadron from RAF Acklington maintained detachments at Woolsington to mount night patrols. The Bellman hangar would have housed the RAF aircraft during the war. Bellman hangars were designed to be transportable and easily and quickly erected by unskilled labour. They were mass-produced to an Air Ministry design and are well documented by the Ministry of Defence. Today the hangar houses light aircraft. Recorded ahead of demolition in 2008 by TWM. It was noted as being a steel frame covered with corrugated metal sheeting.