Before Edinburgh Airport offered budget flights around the world, the site was used as an air defence base in the First World War.
Opened in 1916, Turnhouse Aerodrome, as it was first named, was used by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War as the most northerly British air defence base. Once the Royal Air Force was created in 1918, the site changed its name to RAF Turnhouse and the ownership moved over to the Ministry of Defence.
It continued to undergo major expansion through the 1930s and 40s with three concrete runways built and was heavily used during the Second World War when No 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron acquired Supermarine Spitfires in September 1939.
It was this squadron that was responsible for the first German aircraft to be shot down over Britain on October 16 1939, during the Second World War.
The airport remained under the ownership of the MoD but allowed its site to be used for commercial flights too with the first one arriving in 1947 from London. The flight ran from London to Shetland and used Edinburgh and Aberdeen as an intermediate stopping point.
As more people travelled on domestic flights to and from Edinburgh, a new passenger terminal was built in 1956.
Over the next 20 years, most of the flights remained charter and private only, with the only international commercial services flying to Dublin. It wasn't until British Airports Authority (BAA) took over the airport in 1971 with plans to build a new runway and terminal.
Edinburgh Airport's new terminal was opened by Queen Elizabeth on May 7 1977. RAF Turnhouse was operational near the passenger terminal of the airport for all of the post-war period but was eventually closed in 1997.
Now there is no sign of the former RAF base but Edinburgh Airport has continued to expand and long gone are the days of just the flights to London and Dublin and Belfast.
