page_title: History of Manchester Airport
section_title: The widebody era and further expansion
hierarchical_section_title: History of Manchester Airport / The widebody era and further expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: The first visit to Manchester Airport by a widebody aircraft - BOAC Boeing 747-136 G-AWNC on 17.08.70
context_page_description: Construction started on Ringway on 28 November 1935 and it opened partly in June 1937 and completely on 25 June 1938, in Ringway parish north of Wilmslow, from which it derived its name Manchester Airport. Its north border was Yewtree Lane. Its southeast border was a little northwest of Altrincham Road.
  Local roads relevant to this account, on the map below:
  Yewtree Lane: the lane from the junction by Firtree Farm west to The Grange, and continuing northwest past Manor Farm to the next junction.
  Altrincham Road: the lane from Oversleyford running northeast then east into the Styal area.
  In World War II, it was the location of RAF Ringway, and was important in the production and repair of military aircraft and training parachutists.
  After World War II, it gradually expanded to its present size, including massive expansion of aprons, runways and car parking areas. Among the first expansions was car parking and service buildings north of Yewtree Lane.
  From 1958 to late 1962, Terminal 1 was built: this was the first of Ringway's modern large terminals and the first major public building north of Yewtree Lane.
context_section_description: 1968: Construction started on the M56 motorway, and it opened to Manchester Airport in 1972. (Conditions where it crossed Hasty Lane were unsuitable for a vehicle bridge, so the underbridge there is for pedestrians and bicycles only, and a cart track called Runger Lane from Yewtree Lane near its northwest end to the A538 road was made into a road to restore the connection. Some time after this, the part of Outwood Lane west of the M56 junction was renamed as part of Thorley Lane.)
  1970: The first widebody airliner arrived at the airport on 17 August when BOAC brought their Boeing 747 to test Ringway's facilities for the type
  1974: A Local Government Review placed the airport entirely within the city of Manchester boundaries in the new metropolitan Greater Manchester area. However, due to constant expansion of the airport it had expanded back into Cheshire by the early 1980s. The airport has since expanded farther into Cheshire, mainly because the second runway is almost entirely in Cheshire.
  1975: The airport decided to drop the name "Ringway" and renamed the airport "Manchester International Airport" severing links with the RAF past and the village after which the airport was named, a title retained until 1 April 1986 when it reverted to Manchester Airport, it having been patently obvious that the airport was international.
  17 August 1982: Opening of main runway extension to its current length of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) to attract long-haul flights from worldwide destinations. The A538 road from Altrincham to Wilmslow had to be diverted further south to a tunnel under the runway; the cut ends of its old course became airport back gates. This extension work (and building Runway Two later) needed heavy earthworks in the Bollin river valley, as the flat area around the original Ringway is much smaller than the flat area around Heathrow near London. This road diversion ran south of the locally well-known Oversleyford Brickworks, which was south of the original course of the A538 road. (The brickworks later closed and was demolished and its site fell down to wild vegetation and became an unofficial motorcycle scrambling ground. Land to the north of it to the west of Altrincham Road (Styal) became an unofficial planespotting area.)
  1980s: The airport was designated an "international gateway".
  1980s: The northwest side of Altrincham Road (Styal) was lined with a high embankment with dense trees planted on, to prevent aircraft spotting, due to a fear of use by terrorists' lookout men. (The remaining part of Altrincham Road (Styal) runs west from Hollin Lane (B5166 road) into the Styal area.)
caption: This BOAC Boeing 747 was the first widebody airliner to arrive at the airport on 17 August 1970
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