page_title: RAF East Fortune
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: RAF East Fortune / History
caption_attribution_description: 'English: r 34' and 'r 29' in the Shed at East Fortune image: Two enormous airships being worked on within a hangar-like aircraft shed. Workers are visible on the ground, appearing tiny next to the airships.
context_page_description: Royal Air Force East Fortune or more simply RAF East Fortune is a former Royal Air Force station, just south of the village of East Fortune, a short distance east of Edinburgh in Scotland. It was used as a fighter station during the First World War and for training and night fighters during the Second World War. The motto of the station was "Fortune Favours the Bold".
  In the post-war era the runways have been taken over for local private aviation use, while the former RAF buildings have been used for the National Museum of Flight since 1976.
context_section_description: The foundation of East Fortune as a flying station pre-dates the creation of the RAF; East Fortune was established as a fighter and airship airfield in 1915 and becoming an RNAS station in August 1916. By early 1918, East Fortune was one of 66 Training Depot Stations (TDS). The function of the TDS was to train for flying and squadrons were often grouped together in threes at the TDS stations. East Fortune was TDS station No. 208.
  In April 1918, when the Royal Air Force was inaugurated, No. 22 (Training) Group RAF was supposed to be formed at East Fortune. The group was established in July of the same year before moving to Stirling. No. 22 (Training) Group RAF is one of the few active Groups still operating within the RAF.
  In 1918, a prototype Sopwith Snipe was trialled at East Fortune and after acceptance, the type was introduced to the Torpedo Aeroplane School at the base, which was opened in August 1918.
  In 1919 the British airship R34 made the first ever return flight across the Atlantic and the first east-west crossing by air, flying from East Fortune to Mineola, New York. The flight took 108 hours and 12 minutes.
  In February 1920, the airfield and associated buildings were closed and listed for disposal. During the inter-war period the hangars and airfield buildings were demolished, while the domestic site was sold to the South Eastern Counties of Scotland Joint Sanatorium Board for use as a tuberculosis sanatorium. 
  The airfield was reactivated during the Second World War, the land being requisitioned in June 1940 for use as a satellite airfield for nearby RAF Drem.  However, it was subsequently decided to develop RAF East Fortune as a night fighter operational training unit (OTU), and on 4 June 1941 No. 60 OTU arrived from RAF Leconfield.  This was a RAF Fighter Command unit which gave newly qualified pilots and other aircrew fresh from RAF Flying Training Command experience of operational aircraft types and tactical/technical training specific to night fighting, before they were assigned to operational squadrons.  The OTU employed a mixture of trainer and operational aircraft types for this purpose; initially crews were trained on Boulton Paul Defiant and Bristol Blenheim night fighters, but from October 1941 the obsolete Defiants began to be replaced by the Bristol Beaufighter.
  As the war progressed the majority of the Luftwaffe's bombers were assigned to the Russian Front and Mediterranean Theatre so the threat of night attacks on Britain diminished and the need for additional night fighter crews was reduced.  From June 1942 part of 60 OTU was devoted to RAF Coastal Command daylight strike training on Beaufighters, and on 24 November 1942 the whole OTU was transferred to Coastal Command for this purpose.  Re-designated as No. 132 OTU the unit initially employed Bristol Blenheim, Beaufort and Beaufighter aircraft, but by the end of the war the de Havilland Mosquito was the main type used.  In addition to its training role, RAF East Fortune had also been available as an emergency diversion airfield for heavy bomber aircraft.
caption: Airships 'R34' and 'R29' in a shed at East Fortune (IWMART4086)
exif: {}