Baldonnel began as a British training aerodrome in the last year of the First World War. The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust gives May 1918 as the earliest date it can prove and February 1922 as the end of RAF use; Wikipedia says the field was established in 1917. Either way, the Irish inherited a grass aerodrome with hangars, not an air force.

The Defence Forces trace Irish military aviation to a single Martinsyde Type A Mk II bought in 1921 so that Michael Collins could escape from London if the Treaty talks failed. By June 1922 the Air Service headquarters had been established at Baldonnel and 14 pilots flew 13 aircraft. The Military Archives’ Air Corps Museum Collection gives the same chronology. The Air Corps page itself says the service has been at Baldonnel since April 1922; the history page puts it at June.

What followed was institution-building. The Cadet Scheme to select pilots started in 1926 and is still used; the Boy Apprentice Scheme for technicians began in 1936 and, in modified form, still trains Air Corps technicians at Baldonnel. The same year the aerodrome briefly became Ireland’s airport: Aer Lingus flew its first service, to Bristol, on 27 May 1936, and stayed until it moved to the new Dublin Airport four years later.

The Defence Forces say the 1928 crossing "put Baldonnel on the world stage". The Junkers W33 "Bremen", flown by Hermann Köhl with Baron von Hünefeld and Comdt James Fitzmaurice, the Air Corps’ second-in-command, left Baldonnel on 12 April 1928; Wikipedia gives the take-off as 1.30 p.m. before a large crowd. After 37 flying hours the aircraft came down on Greenly Island, completing the first successful aeroplane crossing from Europe to North America.

Ten years later the traffic went the other way. On 18 July 1938 Douglas Corrigan landed his 1929 Curtiss Robin at Baldonnel after 28 hours 13 minutes from Floyd Bennett Field, New York, according to Wikipedia. He had been refused permission for a transatlantic flight and insisted he had set out for California, which gave him his nickname. Both episodes are why a military aerodrome is better known to aviation historians than many of Europe’s airports.

The official history says the ground facilities were expanded so that long concrete runways and taxiways were in place by 1956, in time for Ireland to enter the jet age on 30 July. Three Vampire trainers arrived from Hatfield and gave Fighter Squadron its teeth for about two decades, until the Fouga Magister replaced them in 1975. The Magisters, which also flew with the Silver Swallows display team (per Wikipedia), retired in 1999; the sound of one was not heard again at Baldonnel until four French civil Magisters visited in July 2016.

Helicopters followed the harsh winter of 1962–63, first for search and rescue and then for troop transport, air ambulance and island relief. Eight Alouette IIIs served until 21 September 2007, 44 years in all. The price of the rescue role was paid on 2 July 1999, when Rescue 111, a Dauphin from Baldonnel, crashed at Tramore after guiding a lifeboat to a missing boat; its four crew were killed. By 2002 the Coast Guard’s civilian contractor had taken over maritime rescue entirely.

Baldonnel also absorbed the fleet when the Air Corps’ second airfield closed. The Cessnas that had moved to Gormanston in 1974 came back to Casement Aerodrome when Gormanston closed to air operations in 2002, leaving Baldonnel the only Irish military airfield.

According to the Air Corps’ own AD 2 publication (March 2026), the aerodrome is open H24, runway 10/28 is 1,828 m and 04/22 1,462 m, both 45 m wide and asphalt, and every other user needs prior permission. The Irish Times reported in May 2025, as cited by Wikipedia, that a shortage of air traffic controllers would restrict flying to 12-hour weekday operations; the 2026 AD 2 publication still lists H24 air traffic services.

The fleet on the apron changed faster between 2023 and 2026 than in any period since the 1950s. The first Airbus C295 maritime patrol aircraft landed here at 10.25 on 27 June 2023, replacing the two CN235s of 1994; a third C295 arrived in October 2025. The Viking 400 for the Garda Air Support Unit arrived on 13 December 2025 and the Dassault Falcon 6X on 16 December; the Learjet 45 it replaced made its last flight, to Shannon, on 21 April 2026. Four H145M helicopters are due from 2027.

The aerodrome has also become the public face of the service. The Air Corps held its first Aviation Convention here on 7 November 2024 and a second on 2 October 2025, with 7,000 to 8,000 students expected. Its most sensitive recent history is also here: Wikipedia records that the minister for defence confirmed in 2002 that 22 US military aircraft had landed since September 2001, and that a senator alleged CIA use in 2005, a claim that was never substantiated in the sources consulted.