Ahlhorn Airfield

Former Ahlhorn airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code	EDHA
Coordinates	52 ° 53 '20 "  N , 8 ° 13' 58"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 53 '20 "  N , 8 ° 13' 58"  E
Height above MSL	46 m (151  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	1 km southeast of Großenkneten-Ahlhorn
train	Rail connection available
Basic data
opening	1916
operator	Metropolpark Hansalinie GmbH
Start-and runway
09/27	2101 m × 45 m concrete

The former airfield from a bird's eye view

The Ahlhorn airfield is located in the community of Großenkneten in the Oldenburg district in Lower Saxony . The airfield was a military airfield from 1916 to 1995 , which was used in different ways over the decades. Today the former airfield is being expanded as a logistics, technology and business park under the name Metropolpark Hansalinie . It is approved as a special landing site .

history

The airfield was opened in 1916 during the First World War under the name Luftschiffhafen Ahlhorn as a military airship port of the Imperial Navy .

In World War II the airfield when it was airbase Ahlhorner Heide from the Air Force of the Armed Forces used. In February 1945, a British air raid destroyed the facilities of the air base , which the Allies as Airfield B.111 designated. The British Air Force of Occupation , however, continued to use the runways for the time being; in the summer of 1946, for example, three squadrons of Spitfire , which formed the 131st (Polish) Wing (squadron), were lying here . It was made up of Polish volunteers and was relocated back to the UK in October of that year.

In view of the looming Cold War , RAF Ahlhorn was restored by the Royal Air Force since January 1952 and then reactivated. Since the end of 1952, the 125th Wing , a mixed squadron of two squadrons of Meteor NF11 night fighters and, in addition, Canberra B (I) 6 attack aircraft, had been here; The latter were subordinate to the Tactical Development Unit  (TDU), which from February to October 1953 - with an interruption in the summer - assessed the Canberra's suitability for night attack from Ahlhorn. Later a number of Canberra squadrons were based in this role on the RAF stations west of the Rhine.

In October 1958, the RAF handed the station over to the newly established air force of the Bundeswehr , which operated the field until 2005:

• 1959 to 1963: Jagdgeschwader 71
• 1963 to 1971: Air Transport Squadron 62
• 1971 to 1991: soldiers and aircraft of the US Air Force (at the NATO airfield Ahlhorn)
• 1971 to 1994: Helicopter Transport Squadron 64
• 1993 to 2005: Anti-aircraft missile group 25
• 1994 to 1995: Air transport group LTG 62 (Ahlhorn)

In the last decade of the Cold War, Ahlhorn was also a permanent Forward Operating Location (FOL) of nominally eight A-10 ground attack aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces , which were replaced approximately every two weeks. They formed Detachment 3 (Det. 3) of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wings (81st TFW) based on the English double base RAF Bentwaters / RAF Woodbridge . Det. 3 was activated on July 1, 1979 and decommissioned in 1991. The rotations, each a third of a squadron, provided the 91st Tactical Fighter Squadron (91st TFS) from Woodbridge until the end of 1988 and from the beginning of 1989 the 509th TFS of the 10th TFW from Alconbury . In the run-up to the stationing, 17 hardened aircraft shelters were built in Ahlhorn .

The regular military flight operations of the Bundeswehr ceased at the end of 1995, the military flight operations finally ended in 2005. Until October 2008, the Bundeswehr was still responsible for the area and the buildings, since then the landing site with the State Office for Road Construction and Transport in Oldenburg ( formerly the Weser-Ems district government ) of a civil aviation authority .

From 2005 on the site was u. a. represent Aircraft Maintenance Service GmbH , which waited there resp. dismantled, but went bankrupt in November 2009. From 2005 to 2009 a new operator for the airfield was searched for, whereby several sales procedures failed.

Since 1973 the glider pilots of the Aviation Association Wildeshausen-Ahlhorn eV have been based on the field.

In May 2016, the noise protection area around the military airfield established on February 20, 1986 was lifted.

Solar system on the site of the former airfield

Today used as the metropolitan park Hansalinie

On May 1, 2009, the site became the property of Johann Bunte Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG , which founded Flugplatz-Ahlhorn GmbH as the operating company . The area was initially named "Flugpark Ahlhorn". The operating company, which has been operating as Metropolpark Hansalinie GmbH since June 1, 2013, is expanding the site into a logistics , technology and business park called "Metropolpark Hansalinie". In addition to leasing space to companies, from 2011 a part of 45 hectares of the total of approx. 307 hectares will be used to generate electricity through photovoltaics .

Incidents

• On November 24, 1964, a Nord Noratlas 2501D of Lufttransportgeschwader 62 of the Air Force with the aircraft registration GB + 104 (serial number: D055) crashed on the flight from Bourges airfield (France) during the approach. All four crew members were killed.

• On June 14, 1965, after a Noratlas 2501D ( GB + 235 , serial number: D171) took off, the right engine failed . During the subsequent belly landing , the aircraft was totaled, the crew remained uninjured.

Web links

Commons : Flugplatz Ahlhorner Heide  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the Bürgererverein Ahlhorn eV on the former Ahlhorn air base
• Website of the operator Metropolpark Hansalinie GmbH

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lower Saxony Ordinance on the Abolition of the Noise Protection Area for the Ahlhorn Military Airfield from May 13, 2016, in: Niedersächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt No. 5/2016 from May 20, 2016, p. 79, ISSN  0341-3497
2. ^ Accident report Noratlas GB + 104 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 6, 2019.
3. ^ Accident report Noratlas GB + 235 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 6, 2019.