RAF Sharjah, Al Mahatta Museum

by Laurence Garey

When I lived in the United Arab Emirates, I discovered that vestiges of the original Sharjah airport, later RAF Sharjah, still exist.

Sharjah was the first airport in what is now the UAE. In 1932 it was very important for the British, who were developing an air route via the Persian Gulf, to be able to create a staging post in the region, and Sheikh Sultan of Sharjah offered a site just to the southeast of his city. The RAF built a runway on an area of hard, flat sand running northwest to southeast, and Imperial Airways built a resthouse in the form of an open square courtyard with accommodation in the enclosed wings, and a massive fort-like structure in one corner for control of the air traffic and a wireless station. Imperial Airways passengers in their Handley Page HP42s en route between London and India stayed overnight here from October 1932. During World War 2 the RAF made Sharjah into a base (click here to learn more about one man's experiences there), and they continued to use it until the 1970s. It was a major player in the Jebel Akhdar War of the 1950s. A new control tower was built next to the fort and a new terminal followed in 1968. But the rapidly growing town of Sharjah was now too close, and a new airport opened in the desert south of Sharjah in 1977. The runway at RAF Sharjah become King Abdul Aziz Street, now right in the town centre.

The figures below show Sharjah airport in 1976 (adapted from Kay 1995, see reference at end of this page), and a Google Earth image of the same area now. The black and yellow arrows show the museum site. The old borders of the airport are easy to trace, and the runway is visible as King Abdul Aziz Street.