RAF Kuala Lumpur

RAF Kuala Lumpur was an RAF station in the Federation of Malaya and saw extensive use during the Malayan Emergency.

RAF Kuala Lumpur

Simpang Airport
Summary
Airport typeMilitary
OperatorRAF
LocationKuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Time zoneMST (UTC+08:00)
Elevation AMSL111 ft / 34 m
Coordinates03°06′41″N 101°42′10″E
Map
WMKK
Location in West Malaysia
a. Now assigned to KLIA
Sources: AIP Malaysia[1]

It was built and opened by the RAF in 1931.[2]

Military

The airfield was home to:

The station was handed over to Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1961. During the height of the Emergency, the single runway had the highest number of aircraft movements in the world.

The station was situated about 3 miles from the town with its own swimming pool and cinema. It is commonly known to the locals as Sungai Besi Air Force Base.

Civilian

The airfield was also the site of the first civil airport, Sungai Besi Airport, which had a route to London with British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) using Britannia aircraft. The airport opened in about 1957. Malayan Airways operated Dakota aircraft on domestic flights. The Duke of Gloucester was greeted at the airport by the British High Commissioner in Malaya, Sir Donald Charles MacGillivray, when Malaya was granted independence ("Merdeka").

Sungai Besi Airport was in use as a civilian airport long before 1957, with Malayan Airways Airspeed Consuls and DC3's flying in and out of the airport from the late 1940s. BOAC Argonauts used the airport in the early 1950s, after the Marsden Matting runway and taxiways were replaced by asphalt. A new terminal building was built in 1957 and this may be the source of confusion as to the date the airport was opened. This building was demolished around 2004.

Qantas started Super Constellation services into the airport in 1958 and BOAC Comets replaced the Britannias in 1959.

The civilian airport was later replaced by Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in 1965.

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See also

References
  1. AIP Malaysia: WMKF - RMAF Kuala Lumpur/Simpang at Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia
  2. Ranter, Harro. "Kuala Lumpur-Simpang Air Base profile - Aviation Safety Network". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 10 October 2017.



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