Etampes-Mondésir Airport
Aérodrome de Étampes-Mondésir |
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | LFOX | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 151 m (495 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 7.5 km southwest of Etampes | ||
| Street | N 20 | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | March 1910 | ||
| operator | ADP | ||
| surface | 112 ha | ||
| Runways | |||
| 06R / 24L | 700 m × 22 m asphalt | ||
| 06L / 24R | 1230 m × 50 m grass | ||
The Aérodrome de Etampes Mondésir is an airport of general aviation for the French capital region Ile-de-France . It is located in the Essonne department south-west of Paris in the Guillerval area near the Mondésir district.
history
The history of the airfield goes back to 1909, when one of the first airfields in France was built. Louis Blériot conducted a first flight here on July 13, 1909, and the brothers Farman and Blériot opened flight schools here in 1910, the former serving the military.
With the outbreak of World War I , the latter was replaced by one of the largest flight schools of the French military in those years, where 2,000 pilots were trained.
In the interwar period, the Aérodrome was used both civilly and militarily. In February 1925 two military pilots started here with their Bréguet 19GR on a long-haul flight to Dakar with only one stopover in the Spanish-Saharan Villa Cisneros and in the following August two more pilots started in Étampes on a Farman Goliath set a new record for range and flight hours over 4,400 km or 40 h. The air forces stationed bomber and fighter units here. The military designated the site as Base aérienne 251 Étampes-Mondésir . From 1930 a military flight school existed here again and in 1931, the Patrouille d'Étampes, an aerobatic team and forerunner of the Patrouille de France , which at that time flew the Morane-Saulnier MS.230 and moved to Salon-de-Provence in 1937 . From 1933 two satellite bases were built near Gaudreville and Angerville , and the expansion of the area near Mondésir was prevented by the outbreak of World War II in 1939 . From the end of October 1936, the airfield was the home base of the 1st Fighter Squadron , 1e Escadre de Chasse , consisting of three flying groups , which was initially equipped with Dewoitine D.510 and from July 1939 with Bloch MB.152 . The first hunting group, GC I / 1, left the place after the outbreak of war.
This took place from 1940 onwards by the German occupation forces and the German air force used the airfield until 1944. During the Battle of Britain , Étampes was a bomber base. Here were the end of June 1940 from Stuttgart or Landsberg coming, Ju 88A of the II. And III. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 51 (II. And III./KG 51), the former moved to Orly at the end of August and the latter to Brétigny at the beginning of November 1940 . Subsequently, the 4th squadron of reconnaissance group 11 (4th (F) / 11) lay here from December 1940 to April 1941 before the airfield had no more flying squadrons for a long time. Later used Italian also came from German battle groups reggiane re.2002 - fighter-bomber in the fight against the French Resistance used. Only a few weeks after the start of the Allied invasion of Normandy , in the first half of August 1944, a part of the I. Group of Jagdgeschwader 1 (I./JG 1) equipped with Fw 190A was located here .
The terrain was repeatedly the target of air strikes by the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and was after the liberation of the area by the US Army in late August 1944 under the Allied airfield code Airfield A.52 after a brief repair one month a USAAF transport air base.
After the war it was used exclusively by the French air forces. From 1947, the base was home to the previous Patrouille de Tours, another aerobatic team that was equipped with Stampe SV4 and was renamed Escadrille de Présentation de l'Armée de l 'Air when it arrived in Étampes . The season existed until 1953.
Activity as a military airfield in recent years has been limited to telecommunications. In the course of the conversion, the airfield became a place for general aviation and air sports after 1967. The operation was taken over by the ADP in 1988 and expanded in 1989 by the clubs and flight schools previously located in Guyancourt.
Todays use
The Paris airport company ADP has been operating the former military airfield of the Armée de l'air since 1988. The location of the former base aérienne 251 has served as a new location for the general aviation organizations previously located there since 1989, when the Guyancourt airfield was closed .
