On a dreary day during the height of the Second World War, a plane suddenly appeared above what is now Oxford Airport.

The Kidlington airfield was then used as an RAF training base but, due to wet weather, every plane was grounded.

Personnel thought at first it was a British plane flying in to land, but they soon realised it was a German Ju-88 bomber.

The attack left one RAF serviceman dead and destroyed a plane.

Oxford Airport has risen from a small private airfield, to an RAF training centre and then to the busy airport it is today.

Amateur historian Peter Dickens, of Kidlington, said: “It was very significant during the Second World War.

“It was one of the basic flying training airfields and the primary one for glider training. Without the gliders, the invasion of France could not have taken place.”

The airfield was created in 1938 at the behest of Oxford City Council, which allocated £20,000 to buy the land.

Mr Dickens said: “Other towns had airfields so Oxford had to do the same. It was a case of keeping up with the neighbours.”

It started as a private landing strip for owners of Tiger Moths, Faireys and even homemade planes, but was requisitioned by the RAF in 1939.

Named RAF Kidlington, it was an emergency landing ground when RAF Abingdon, Bicester or Brize Norton were full.

But, in 1940, RAF Brize Norton was bombed, destroying 43 planes, and RAF Kidlington took over as a pilot training centre.

By the end of 1940, more than 100 Harvard aeroplanes were based at the airfield, training new pilots before they stepped into Spitfires and Hurricanes.

In the winter of 1941, RAF Kidlington figured in a high profile disaster.

World famous pilot Amy Johnson, who in 1930 became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia, vanished en route to the airfield.

She was flying a newly-built plane from Blackpool but could not find a gap in the cloud over Oxfordshire and ran out of fuel before she could land.

She bailed out over the Thames Estuary, but her body was never found.

After the war, the airfield ceased RAF training and was later bought by Goodhue Aviation, which turned it into a private airport.

It is now owned by The Reuben Brothers, which purchased it in 2007.

About 20 companies are based there, employing 800 people.

Airport business development director, James Dillon-Godfray, said he hoped to increase this to 2,000 people by 2016.

He said: “We have a whole myriad of aviation-related businesses. All are growing and in need of more space.”

The airport has been expanding in recent years, with five hangers built since 2006 and work on two three-storey office blocks set to start.

There are plans to increase commercial flights, offering day return business trips to places like Amsterdam, Paris and Edinburgh.