RAF East Fortune

Royal Air Force East Fortune, or more simply RAF East Fortune, is a former Royal Air Force station located just south of the village of East Fortune. It is a short distance east of Edinburgh, in Scotland. RAF East Fortune was used as a fighter station during the First World War and later used by a night fighter operational training unit during the Second World War. The motto of the station is "Fortune Favours the Bold".

Following the Second World War, the runways were taken over for local private aviation use. The former RAF buildings have been used for the National Museum of Flight since 1976. The airfield is a Scheduled Monument.

The establishment of East Fortune as a flying station pre-dates the formation of the Royal Air Force. RAF East Fortune was first designated as a fighter and airship airfield in 1915 and became a Royal Naval Air Service station in August 1916. By early 1918, East Fortune was one of 66 Training Depot Stations (TDS). The purpose of the TDS was to train pilots for operational squadrons, and were often grouped together in threes. East Fortune was TDS station No. 208.

In July 1918, after the Royal Air Force was inaugurated, No. 22 (Training) Group RAF was activated at East Fortune and later moved 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. After acceptance, this aircraft was introduced to the Torpedo Aeroplane School at the base, which was opened in August 1918.

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 in 1919. 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), so on 4 June 1941, No. 60 OTU arrived from RAF Leconfield. This was an RAF Fighter Command unit that gave newly qualified pilots and other aircrew (wireless operator/air gunners or navigators) fresh from RAF Flying Training Command specific training and experience in night-fighting before assignment to operational squadrons as two-man (pilot and navigator/radar operator) crews. The OTU employed a mixture of trainer and operational aircraft types for this purpose; initially, crews were trained on the single-engined Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter, with Miles Master dual-control trainers being used for some pilot training exercises. As the Defiant became obsolete as a night fighter, the OTU switched to the twin-engined Bristol Blenheim and Bristol Beaufighter. By 1942 the Blenheim was also increasingly obsolescent as a night fighter, but as they had dual controls and were less challenging to fly than the newer Beaufighter they remained useful as trainers. Crews under training would therefore do most of their flying in Blenheims before converting to Beaufighters towards the end of the OTU course.