Croydon Airport 1920-1959

It’s International Civil Aviation Day!  A day to celebrate the importance of international civil aviation to social and economic development. 

And what better way to mark it in 2020 than with the hundredth anniversary of the opening of Croydon Airport, which began operating as London Terminal Aerodrome on 29 March 1920.

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  _{The London Terminal Aerodrome Croydon from the air}

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  _{Lockheed Model 10A Electra, of British Airways}

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  _{Armstrong Whitworth Argosy II, City of Edinburgh, of Imperial Airways}

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  Farman F60 Goliath of Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes

Photographs courtesy of National Aerospace Library/Royal Aeronautical Society

By the mid-1930s the airport was the hub of an international network connecting
Britain to Europe and the Empire.

Although it was replaced by Heathrow as London’s principal airport after World War Two and finally closed in 1959, the Historic Croydon Airport Trust is doing great work to preserve the heritage and history of Croydon Airport, operating the Visitor Centre museum and managing a substantial archive relating to the airport’s history.

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