It started with a wing and a prayer but 50 years later Fife’s only airport is continuing to fly high.
Sunday will mark the day that the go-ahead was given to create Fife Airport on the outskirts of Glenrothes.
Members of Fife Flying Club will be leading celebrations throughout the year, including at its annual open day in June.
A special event to mark the anniversary of the first flights has also been suggested for August.
Home to a flight school and popular with visiting pilots from across the UK, the aerodrome remains one of the country’s most popular destinations for private pilots.
Airport operations manager Bob Garmory said that despite a downturn in activity, he was optimistic looking ahead to the next 50 years.
“Aviation at that level is a diminishing sport,” he said. “There’s not quite the same number of people flying as a few years ago.
“We’ve had the biggest economic downturn since the start of the last century so hopefully over the next 50 years people are flying a bit more and bring more footfall to the airport.”
Originally known as Glenrothes Airfield, the site was opened to planes in August 1964 and originally consisted of a 1,000-yard landing strip.
A crowd of 500 people lined the aerodrome to welcome two planes carrying business executives to the town, including officials of local firm Beckman Instruments.
Aiding local industry was to be the airport’s main aim, with Brigadier R S Doyle, then general manager of Glenrothes Development Corporation, declaring at the opening that the new town “would not be complete without such a service”.
Expanded in 1981 with the construction of a tarmac runway, the airport did experience some turbulence in 1993 when it closed for a brief period before the site was purchased by Tayside Aviation a year later.
A name change soon followed and, as Fife Airport, the site continues to thrive today.