Built for Royal Naval Air Service use in the First World War, it was an RAF base from 1918-50. In Spring 1943 work started on a huge runway, 3000yds long and 250yds wide, with 500yd grass overruns at either end, created as an Emergency Landing Ground for Allied aircraft in distress. It opened in April 1944 and was much in use by both 8th and 9th Air Force. So much so that Detachment A of 16th Mobile Reclamation and Repair Squadron, USAAF, was stationed there from August 1944 to 12 May 1945.

After the war a USAF Strategic Air Command base from 1950-51, a United States Air Forces Europe base from 1950-58, an RAF station again from 1958-1999. Since 1989 it has been known as Kent International Airport.

A former military airfield used in both World Wars and the Post-War period. It was first opened in 1916. During World War Two the airfield was used in the Battle of Britain as a fighter airfield by 11 Group Number 604 and 600 Squadrons. By 1944 the airfield had a single very broad 3000 yard long runway with dispersals and hardstandings to the north side. There were reused World War One hangers and Blister type aircraft hangars, the fate of these is unknown. A World War Two decontamination centre is still extant. At least part of the accommodation for personnel was semi permanent in nature. From 1969 to 1999 part of the airfield was run by civilian airlines. The site now houses two adjacent museums, the Manston History Museum and the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Building, run by the MoD. The former museum was established in what was the airfield's Motor Transport Section's garage, in 1997. The Memorial building was purpose built. The RAF station closed in 1999 but the airfield continued to be used for further flying as a civilian airport