Inauguration of New Derby Air Service

Bumping over a grassy runway the Derby Aviation Dakota signals a small step forward in regional air travel.

A new Derby to Glasgow route for Burnaston based Derby Aviation in 1957 maintained the firm's growth in the air travel market. Derby Aviation was already flying passengers to Europe (although without customs facilities they had to make an inconvenient extra stop at Elmdon near Birmingham for passport checks). The Dakota aeroplane may be war surplus but in a few years, renamed British Midland, the airline would be flying jets from the new East Midlands Airport.

Burnaston near Derby was used for flying from the late 1930s, initially as a flying school. It reached its peak in the 1950s and early '60s with scheduled flights to UK cities and Europe. The site was never equipped with a metalled runway and was replaced by East Midlands Airport in 1965. Derby Aviation was renamed Derby Airways in 1959 and moved their operation to Castle Donington in the 1960s surviving as a major scheduled carrier until 2012. Burnaston continued to be used as a landing strip for light aircraft until 1989 when the site was sold to Toyota who built a car factory on the site.