Scotland's aviation industry has long been based in and around Prestwick and its international airport, and although aircraft manufacture ceased at the former British Aerospace plant in 1998, a significant number of aviation companies are still based on the Prestwick site.

Prestwick Golf Club, site of the first Open Championship in 1860 Open Championship | 1860.

Today, part of the Prestwick site is occupied by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm with RNAS Prestwick, ( officially known by the Royal Navy as HMS Gannet ), where a detachment of 3 Sea Kings provide a search and rescue role, covering one of the largest SAR areas of the UK including Ben Nevis, the Lakes, Northern Ireland and past the Irish coast.

Today BAE Systems retains a small facility at Prestwick for its BAE Systems Regional Aircraft division, with the adjoining main manufacturing site, producing components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft, having been sold to Spirit AeroSystems in January 2006.

After British Airways had ceased regular passenger operations in 1983, BA continued to intermittently use Prestwick as a site for pilot training, especially for training Concorde pilots.

The responsibilities of the site were assumed by the air traffic control centre at Prestwick, Scotland, in October 1978.

The British Airports Authority ( BAA ) took control of the airport in 1975 and when BAA was privatised in the 1980s, Glasgow Airport began to offer flights to other places around the world, flights which previously were facilitated by Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which was subsequently relegated as the city's secondary airport catering for low cost airlines and charter operators.

When BAA was privatised in the late 1980s, as BAA plc, it consolidated its airport portfolio and sold Prestwick Airport.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is Glasgow's second airport, it also serves the Greater Glasgow urban area, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and 32 miles from the city centre of Glasgow.

In the beginning, Prestwick was the only Scottish airport allowed to operate a transatlantic link, largely due to the very benign weather conditions on the Ayrshire coast.

Indeed, with a much lower incidence of fog than any other airport in the United Kingdom due to a geological anomaly, Glasgow Prestwick has the reputation of being " Britain's only fog-free airport ".

For this reason, it is often used as a diversionary airport when weather conditions close aviation hubs elsewhere in the United Kingdom-heavy snowfall in the recent severe winters of 2009 and 2010-2011 resulted in large numbers of intercontinental flights bound for London Heathrow and elsewhere to be temporarily diverted to Prestwick.

Concorde became a semi-regular visitor to the airport, and indeed BA and a number of other major airlines still use Prestwick for pilot training.

In her book about Prestwick Airport, South Ayrshire councillor Ann Galbraith writes about this tough time in the airport's history, saying that " if it hadn ’ t been for Matthew Hudson the airport wouldn ’ t be here today ".

Today, Ryanair now serves more than 20 destinations from Prestwick — now one of their maintenance hubs – and other budget airlines have also moved into the airport.

Cargo traffic has also become another stronghold of Prestwick with the vast majority of Scotland's Boeing 747 Freighter traffic entering via the airport.

The nearest station is just over 2 miles away, at Glengarnock which provides direct rail links to Glasgow Central station and services to the Clyde coast and Glasgow Prestwick airport.

Beith is approximately 13 miles south of Glasgow International Airport, 21 miles north of Glasgow Prestwick airport and 60 miles west of Edinburgh airport.

Though a period of sharp decline in the 1980s and 1990s saw it lose its status as Scotland's primary transatlantic airport, Prestwick continues to handle many US military flights.

The course is located near the Prestwick airport, and some holes run along railway tracks on the eastern side of the course.

* Glasgow Prestwick International Airport, IATA airport code

The A77 is a crucial link from Glasgow to one of its two major airports, Prestwick Airport, and to the three main ferry terminals at Stranraer, Cairnryan, and Troon for sailings to Northern Ireland.

* The burghs of Ayr, Girvan, Maybole, Prestwick and Troon

From Robert the Bruce to James VI, King of Scots, numerous Kings have traversed the coastal walks in and around Prestwick and Troon.

A diverse seat, it contains the more working class towns of Irvine and Kyle to the north, as well as the more affluent towns of Troon and Prestwick to the south.

Those wards are Kilwinning, Irvine West, Irvine East, Kyle, Troon, Prestwick, and the extreme northern element of Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton electoral ward covering the stretch of the B744 from Belston to Annbank and the Auchincruive Agricultural College.

As part of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which begun in 2011, the Boundary Commission for Scotland has proposed changes to the Central Ayrshire constituency which would see Irvine moved to a proposed " North Ayrshire and Arran " seat, with Prestwick, Troon and the entire Kyle electoral ward moved into a reconfigured contituency called " Kyle and Cumnock ".

which are further subdivided into zones dividing the main towns of the area for example Ayr, Prestwick and Troon are in A1, A2 and A3 respectively

He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy.

The Open Championship was first played on 17 October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.

From its revival in 1872 until 1891 it was played on three courses in rotation: Prestwick, The Old Course at St Andrews, and Musselburgh Links.

Specifically, the Westland Sea King Mk5 aircraft of HMS Gannet, operating in the Search and Rescue role from Royal Naval Air Station Prestwick, Ayrshire, display a Saltire decal on the nose of each aircraft.

The Jetstream however lived on as a successful product, the design being purchased and produced by Scottish Aviation at Prestwick and later when Scottish Aviation was incorporated into British Aerospace from 1977.

The restrictions on Glasgow Airport were lifted and the transatlantic operators immediately moved from Prestwick, Glasgow Airport being renamed Glasgow International Airport.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is considered to be the only piece of United Kingdom territory on which Elvis Presley ever set foot, when the United States Army transport plane carrying him home stopped to refuel in 1960, whilst en route from Germany.

Prestwick Airport also used to host a bi-annual airshow, the first of which was held on 30 September 1967.

In the early to mid-1990s passenger figures fell sharply with only freight traffic and a small number of charter flights using Prestwick on a regular basis.

On 6 July 2005, Prestwick Airport became the entry point into Scotland for the world's most powerful leaders on the eve of the 31st G8 summit which was being held in Gleneagles.

Manston was sold to Infratil ( owner of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport ) on 26 August 2005.

* On 28 April 1958, Vickers Viscount G-AORC crashed at Craigie, South Ayrshire on approach to Glasgow Prestwick Airport when the pilot misread the altimeter by a margin of.

It runs in a southwesternly direction from the city of Glasgow, past the towns of Giffnock, Newton Mearns, Kilmarnock, Prestwick, Ayr, Maybole, Girvan and Stranraer to the town of Portpatrick on the Irish Sea.

Her political achievements include securing an amendment to the Government legislation on National Air Traffic Control Services which secured the building of the new Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre at Prestwick and playing a lead role in persuading the Government to set up the Financial Assistance Scheme and the Pension Protection Fund for those at risk of losing their occupational pensions if their employers go bankrupt.

Jack McConnell welcomes President of the United States George W. Bush and Laura Bush to Scotland for the 31st G8 summit on 6 July 2005 at Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.

It is situated on the west coast of Scotland, about eight miles north of Ayr and three miles northwest of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.

The first fare-paying passengers to New York departed Prestwick on 21 December 1961.

* October 20 – The KLM Lockheed L-049-46-25 Constellation Nijmegen crashes in high ground on approach to Glasgow Prestwick Airport, in Prestwick, Scotland, killing all 40 people on board.

* December 25 – BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSA crashes on landing at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, killing 28 of the 36 passengers and crew on board.