Sunderland Airport began life in 1916 as a Royal Flying Corps base, with BE 2s and BE 12s from 36 Squadron mounting anti-Zeppelin patrols. From the end of WWI the site was unused until re-activation for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force in 1930 with a large Lamella hangar, several Callendar hangars and living quarters erected. 

In 1939, two 850 m (2,800 ft) concrete runways were laid, along with new perimeter tracks, eight dispersal pens and significant areas of hard stand. The pre-war Callendar hangars were dismantled, leaving just the Lamella and one Callendar hangar opposite the main gate. Operations buildings, new accomodation blocks and AA emplacements were constructed for the new RAF Station, which housed 607 Squadron's Hurricanes. Due to its role as a sector fighter station, RAF Usworth was singled out for a major Luftwaffe attack during the Battle of Britain. From 1941 Usworth was used in a training role and given over entirely to ground training in late 1943.

Between 1949 and 1953, No. 23 Reserve Flying School formed with Ansons, Tiger Moths and, later, Chipmunks; between 1953 and 1955, the airfield housed Durham University Air Squadron and the Auxiliary Observation Flight. The site was sold to Sunderland Corporation in 1962 and the runways re-laid, opening as Sunderland Airport in 1964. By 1976 the airfield could boast 23,376 aircraft movements and 5,419 passengers, with 29,242 movements and 7,182 passengers the following year. Military aircraft began to arrive from 1975 for the newly formed North East Aviation Museum, the biggest being the AVRO Vulcan in 1983, a considerable feat of aviation given the short runways.

In 1984 the airport was closed due to mounting financial lossed, the land sold to Nissan and the site re-developed as a car manufacturing plant. The Museum was relocated to adjacent land and the runways torn up, although the 1929 Lamella hangar was retained for storage. Attempts to have this rare Hugo Junkers movable hangar construction with lamella layout listed failed and it was demolished by Nissan in 2003. Usworth contained a number of rare structures, including fully retractable Hamilton forts, which could pop up out of the ground at the runway sides and open fire with machine guns at any attempted landing by German troop-carrying aircraft. They were never used but one can still be seen on display in the car park of the Sunderland Air Museum. From an aircraft, crop marks of bomb craters can still be seen in the fields near the motorway bridge.