Overview

Facilities
Flying Info
Contact Us

The Station

Leuchars Aerodrome is an RAF Unit located on Leuchars Station, a British Army barracks on the East coast of Scotland.

Formerly known as RAF Leuchars, Leuchars Station passed from the RAF to the British Amy in 2015 and is home to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and 2 Battalion Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers (REME).

Leuchars Aerodrome continues to operate a fully operational airfield 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year from within Leuchars Station and has a diverse workforce of circa 50 RAF Regular, Reserve & Civil Servants, across Operations, Logistics & Engineering pillars.

These pillars include the Visiting Aircraft Handling Section, Ground Engineering Section, Engineering Support Flight, Air Traffic Control, Ground Radio Maintenance Section, and Mechanical Transport.

Connect with Leuchars Aerodrome

Commander

Squadron Leader Sam Courtenay

Squadron Leader Courtenay joined the RAF in 2014 as an Air Traffic Controller.

He has completed tours at RAF Coningsby, RAF Brize Norton as part of the Tactical Air Traffic Control unit, and RAF Shawbury teaching Air Traffic Control at the Defence College of Air and Space Operations.

Selected for promotion to Squadron Leader in October 2023, Courtenay assumed the role of Officer Commanding Leuchars Aerodrome and SATCO in January 2024.

Who's based here

Squadrons

612 Squadron RAuxAF

UAS Squadrons

East of Scotland Universities Air Squadron

Units

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) maintains and repairs equipment to keep aircraft, tanks and weapons in fighting order.

The Royal Engineers provide large scale engineering and construction solutions to the British Army.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are Scotland’s most senior and only regular cavalry regiment, formed in 1678. The Regiment has recently re-roled to Light Cavalry after 75 years in tanks and has also moved from Germany to Fife.

History

Aviation at Leuchars dates back to 1911 with a balloon squadron of the Royal Engineers. Heavier than air craft moved in to the site soon afterwards and it was used as a training airfield through the First World War. A Coastal Command station during the Second World War, in 1943 BOAC used the airfield to set up a covert air link to neutral Sweden, rescuing RAF crews who had been shot down and interned as well as importing Swedish goods for the war effort.

Leuchars became a fighter station in 1950 hosting a variety of jet air defence aircraft, belonging both to the RAF and the Royal Navy, due to its coastal location. It remained an air defence airfield through the Cold War and up to 2015 where it was handed over to the British Army and renamed Leuchars Station with the RAF Unit being named Leuchars Diversion Airfield.

Key dates

1911 - Flying starts at Leuchars.

1920 - Station renamed RAF Leuchars.

2014 - The last RAF air defence squadrons left the Station.

2015 - The Station was handed over to the British Army and renamed as Leuchars Station.

2015 - The remaining RAF Unit renamed from RAF Leuchars to Leuchars Diversion Airfield (LDA).

2024 - Leuchars station was renamed to Leuchars Aerodrome.