The fantastic Prestwick Airport is the city of Glasgow’s second airport serving the Greater Glasgow urban area and is situated roughly 30 miles from the city centre.
Prestwick is Scotland’s largest commercial airfield, (although more passengers use Edinburgh, Glasgow International, and Aberdeen Airports) and the airport is the operating base for budget airline Ryanair.
The airport was opened 1934 but its main purpose was as a training airfield with facilities including a hangar, offices and control tower. It wasn’t until 1938 that the airport was opened to regular airline passengers with the original facilities used until improvements made it compatible with jet transportation.
Interestingly, The United States Air Force (USAF) operated from 1952 at Prestwick Airport. This lead to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, making his one and only venture onto British soil, on the 3rd of March 1960, when his US Army transport plane stopped to refuel while en route to Germany. The USAF base was eventually closed in 1966.