RNAS Burscough
| RNAS Burscough (HMS Ringtail) | |||||||||||||
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| Burscough, West Lancashire in England | |||||||||||||
| Site information | |||||||||||||
| Type | Royal Naval Air Station | ||||||||||||
| Owner | Admiralty | ||||||||||||
| Operator | Royal Navy | ||||||||||||
| Controlled by | Fleet Air Arm | ||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||
RNAS Burscough Shown within Lancashire RNAS Burscough RNAS Burscough (the United Kingdom) | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 53°35′33″N 002°52′01″W / 53.59250°N 2.86694°W | ||||||||||||
| Site history | |||||||||||||
| Built | 1943 | ||||||||||||
| In use | 1943 - 1957 | ||||||||||||
| Battles/wars | European theatre of World War II Pacific War | ||||||||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||||||||
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Royal Naval Air Station Burscough (RNAS Burscough, also known as HMS Ringtail), was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air station which was 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of Burscough, Lancashire. The Admiralty acquired 650 acres (2.6 km2) of land in December 1942 and the airfield was built with four narrow runways and several hangars, being commissioned on 1 September 1943.
It was used to train for landing aircraft on aircraft carriers. Specifically, according to Aldon P. Ferguson's book Lancashire Airfields in the Second World War: "it was constructed to the normal Navy plan with four runways instead of three, all of which were only 30 yards wide instead of the RAF standard 50 yards. The extra runway allowed the aircraft to land and take off as close as possible into the wind, with eight directions to choose from. The narrower landing strips also simulated take off and landing on aircraft carriers."
The name HMS Ringtail was as for a ship because it was a Naval airfield, rather than a Royal Air Force one, and it was named was for a bird. (Note: "Ring-tail" is an informal term used by birders for juveniles of several harrier species when seen in the field and not identifiable to an exact species.)