Koblenz-Karthauser airfield
The Koblenz-Karthaus airfield was a traffic landing area on the Karthauser in Koblenz . The airfield was opened in 1913 during the first Prinz Heinrich flight and had to be closed in 1965 because the site wanted to be used for urgently needed living space. As a successor, the Koblenz-Winningen airfield was opened in 1971 .
history
On October 7, 1909, the Parseval 3, the first airship in Koblenz, landed on the huge parade ground south of the Kaiser Alexander festival, which was abandoned in 1903 . On November 5, 1910, three airships of the Prussian military followed. From September 2 to 4, 1911, show and passenger flights took place on the parade ground on the Karthauser. The main attraction during the spectacular air show was the flight demonstration by the young aviation pioneer Bruno Werntgen , then the youngest pilot in the world. With his Dorner aircraft he carried out five single and seven passenger flights up to heights of 300 meters.
From 1912 the parade ground was expanded into a 430 × 720 meter airfield. Until the Second World War , however, it was a temporary arrangement, a simple grassy area with barracks. On January 6, 1913, the "Coblenzer Aviation Association" was founded, which shortly afterwards joined the German Aviation Association. This asked the new club to take part in the first Prinz Heinrich flight in 1913. During this reliability competition from May 10th to 17th, 1913, with which the new airfield was officially opened, 21 aircraft flew to the Karthauser. The planes came from Kassel and needed about 144 minutes for the 170 km long stage route. A year later, in May 1914, Koblenz was again the stage destination of the second Prinz Heinrich flight. During the First World War , aircraft from the young German air force were temporarily stationed on the airfield.
Since 1934 the airfield on the Karthauser was connected to the regular passenger and cargo air traffic. In the 1930s there were always flight days at which new developments were presented. The airfield was mainly used by glider pilots , but also by the Flieger- HJ , who tested school gliders here. During the Second World War were on the airfield briefly reconnaissance aircraft of the Air Force of the type Dornier Do 17 stationed. On May 10, 1940, 75 dive bombers (Stukas) took off from the Karthauser on a mission to Sedan .
After the Second World War, the airfield was first used by the American occupation forces and until 1956 by the French armed forces. In 1952 the Allies allowed German glider flying and in 1955 also motorized aviation and cruising air traffic. The Aero Club Koblenz was founded in 1951 . Since the end of 1956 the club has been using the airfield on the Karthauser with its motorized and glider planes. In the same year it was the stage destination of the first flight to Germany after the Second World War.
The airfield was closed in 1965 because the site wanted to be used for urgently needed living space in Koblenz. The groundbreaking ceremony for a settlement designed by Prof. Gather for around 12,000 residents took place on September 14, 1965 on the approximately 75 hectare site. In 1986, the new federal archive was built on the remaining part . Air traffic was relocated to Winningen when the Koblenz-Winningen airfield opened in 1971 .
literature
- Hans Bellinghausen jun. (Ed.): 2000 years Koblenz. History of the city on the Rhine and Moselle. Boppard 1971, ISBN 3-7646-1556-7 .
- Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People from the city's history - namesake for streets and squares. Edited by Bernd Weber. Publishing house for advertising papers , Koblenz 2005, DNB 583091059 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Schütz: Koblenz heads. Bruno Werntgen, p. 572ff.
- ↑ Airfield was opened 100 years ago in: Rhein-Zeitung , May 10, 2013.
- ↑ Bellinghausen, 2000 years Koblenz. Pp. 286 and 379.
Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 35 ″ N , 7 ° 34 ′ 2 ″ E