Cottbus-Drewitz airfield
| Cottbus-Drewitz airfield | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | EDCD | ||
| IATA code | CBU | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 84 m (276 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 20 km northeast of Cottbus | ||
| Street | B97, exit Jänschwalde Ost | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | 1939 | ||
| operator | Airport South - Brandenburg - Cottbus GmbH | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 07/25 | 2484 m × 45 m concrete | ||
The Cottbus-Drewitz Airport was a German airfield 25 km northeast of Cottbus . The former military airfield was, next to the Neuhausen airfield and the Welzow airfield , one of three airfields in the Spree-Neisse district .
The airfield was approved for aircraft up to 20 tons ( jets ) or 30 tons (fan guns). It extends over areas in the south of the Drewitz district and in the north of the Jänschwalde district, districts of the Jänschwalde community , south of the Schlaubetal nature reserve .
Connection
The airfield can be reached by train via the Jänschwalde -Ost station with the RE 11 line on the Cottbus - Guben - Eisenhüttenstadt - Frankfurt route.
It can be reached by car via the old route of the B 97 or via the motorway 15 / E 36 and the new B 97. It is located about 25 kilometers northeast of Cottbus.
expansion
Similar to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , the airport was to be expanded into a cargo airport with a runway of up to 3000 m. However, these attempts failed as investors withdrew.
history
Until 1945
Between 1928 and 1929, the first facilities for the operation of a civil airfield were built on the site. In 1937/38 the clearing of the forest and the application of peat to create a portable lawn area began. From 1938 the Luftwaffe took over with the Fl.H.Kdtr. Drewitz (Air Base Command) took the place. In 1939 the airfield was used as a work airfield for the school / FAR 41 (Flieger-Training-Regiment 41), FFS A / B 41 ( Flugführererschule A / B 41) renamed FFS A 41 and FFS A / B 3 Guben in Business. In 1944, student training ended and the place was occupied by active flying units. From January to February 1945 the III. Group of Jagdgeschwader 4 and in March 1945 the 9th squadron of Jagdgeschwader 6 stationed here. On January 30, 1945, the last aircraft from the pilot school took off for Plauen . On April 22nd, the Red Army took the place.
GDR
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After the Second World War, the airfield was used by the Soviet military administration. From 1951 made plans to expand the airport the second class for the deployment of IL-28 - bombers of the 16th Air Army . Construction work began a year later.
At the end of May 1953, the GDR Aeroklub ( KVP Luft) took over and completed the site, partly with the use of prisoners. On September 26, 1956, it was taken over as a military airfield by the air forces of the National People's Army of the GDR . The Jagdfliegergeschwader 7 (JG-7) and from 1971 also the Jagdbombenfliegergeschwader 37 (JBG-37) were stationed here. The JG-7 was dissolved in October 1989 as part of the CSCE negotiations . The Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 87 (TAFS-87) was then set up. The NVA's last flight service took place on September 25, 1990.
After 1990
Due to the reunification, the air force of the Bundeswehr officially took over the airfield on October 3rd, 1990. On April 8th, 1991 a MiG-21bis / SAU took off for the last time from Drewitz to the Ingolstadt-Manching airfield .
Civilian use of the area began in April 1992 with the establishment of Flughafen Süd-Brandenburg-Cottbus GmbH . On March 17th, the first sports machine from the Netherlands, a PA-32, landed. A little over a year later, on August 18, 1993, the airfield was opened to civil aviation. The aviation school opened on March 2, 1995.
On April 29, 1995, the first Beechcraft King Air aircraft landed for the opening of the 1995 Federal Garden Show in Cottbus . About a month later, on May 4, 1995, the operating company received approval to start operations at the Cottbus-Drewitz airfield. The first training flight of the Airbus A320 “Cottbus” followed on September 26, 1995. The data from the airfield was published in the Aviation Manual on February 15, 1996 , and the lighting system was inaugurated on November 28 of the same year.
The new tower went into operation in April 2000, and construction began on the new terminal in September of the following year . Instrument flight operations began in September 2002 .
On May 22, 2012, an Airbus A400M carried out take-off and landing tests on a grass runway on the field.
At the Cottbus-Drewitz airfield there is a small museum next to the flight school. There is a bistro in the terminal. Part of the old military airfield was used for airsoft tournaments in the past . As part of the economic stimulus package II ( scrapping bonus ), hundreds of vehicles that were supposed to be scrapped have been temporarily parked since 2009 in various open areas of the airport. From 2011, large-scale photovoltaic open-air systems were built on the site.
On July 20, 2015, the Cottbus District Court announced that insolvency proceedings had been ordered for the operating company, for the time being independently. The concrete runway was closed on November 1, 2015 due to severe damage and the area was then only allowed to be approached with prior permission ( Prior Permission Required ).
In November 2019 it became known that the airfield would once again change hands. Flight operations are to be abandoned and the site is to be rededicated as an industrial area. This with the aim of converting buses to electric drives on the site.
Flight operations ceased on January 31, 2020. A Cessna 172 was the last aircraft to leave the airfield by air.
literature
- Thomas Bussmann: Reinforced concrete, grass and railway lights - the airfields used by the military in the GDR . MediaScript, Cottbus, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814822-0-1 .
- Jürgen Zapf: Airfields of the Air Force 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 1: Berlin & Brandenburg . VDM Heinz Nickel , Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-52-8 .
Web links
- www.flugplatz-drewitz.de Official website
- www.spree-neisse-flug.de page of the flight school
- [1] Private page on the history of the airfield
Individual evidence
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp. 142-143 , accessed on September 13, 2014
- ^ Stefan Büttner: Red places: Russian military airfields in Germany 1945-1994. Aerolit, first edition, June 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , p. 149
- ^ Chronicle of Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 87
- ^ The next big thing , in: Berliner Zeitung of May 8, 2010
- ↑ Official Gazette Office Peitz 03/2011
- ↑ AIP SUP VFR 16/15. (jpg) In: Aviation Handbook . German air traffic control , November 26, 2015, accessed on July 3, 2017 .
- ↑ https://www.rbb24.de/studiocottbus/wirtschaft/2019/11/flugplatz-drewitz-wird-verkauf.html
