Raf Tealing

RAF Tealing is a former Royal Air Force stationOverviewDuring the Second World War, the Air Ministry built an aerodrome at Tealing and in March 1942 No. 56 Operational Training Unit (OTU) was relocated to RAF Tealing from RAF Sutton Bridge in south Lincolnshire, equipped with Hawker Hurricane, Miles Master and Westland Lysander aircraft. The number of pilots training at the unit varied from about 35 to 40 in 1942, reaching a peak of 150 on 1943. It was at the aerodrome that Tealing's most famous visitor arrived. On 20 May 1942, a strange four engined aircraft appeared in the circuit at Tealing, piloted by Endel Puusepp. It was one of the first Russian TB7s to visit Britain and it brought Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian Foreign Minister and Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of Defence, on a military mission to meet with Sir Winston Churchill at Chequers. RAF Tealing was probably chosen to attract as little attention as possible and, for security reasons, as there was a local news blackout at the time. Molotov was given the choice of two aircraft in which to continue his journey to England. The aircraft he did not select, as was later revealed by Sir Archibald Philip Hope, 17th Baronet, Senior Controller of Fighter Command in Scotland in 1942, crashed in the Vale of York, killing various members of Molotov's staff and senior RAF personnel. Molotov arrived safely in London for the signing of the Anglo-Soviet Treaty on 26 May 1942.

RAF Tealing is a former Royal Air Force stationOverviewDuring the Second World War, the Air Ministry built an aerodrome at Tealing and in March 1942 No. 56 Operational Training Unit (OTU) was relocated to RAF Tealing from RAF Sutton Bridge in south Lincolnshire, equipped with Hawker Hurricane, Miles Master and Westland Lysander aircraft. The number of pilots training at the unit varied from about 35 to 40 in 1942, reaching a peak of 150 on 1943. It was at the aerodrome that Tealing's most famous visitor arrived. On 20 May 1942, a strange four engined aircraft appeared in the circuit at Tealing, piloted by Endel Puusepp. It was one of the first Russian TB7s to visit Britain and it brought Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian Foreign Minister and Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of Defence, on a military mission to meet with Sir Winston Churchill at Chequers. RAF Tealing was probably chosen to attract as little attention as possible and, for security reasons, as there was a local news blackout at the time. Molotov was given the choice of two aircraft in which to continue his journey to England. The aircraft he did not select, as was later revealed by Sir Archibald Philip Hope, 17th Baronet, Senior Controller of Fighter Command in Scotland in 1942, crashed in the Vale of York, killing various members of Molotov's staff and senior RAF personnel. Molotov arrived safely in London for the signing of the Anglo-Soviet Treaty on 26 May 1942.