Dessau airfield

Dessau airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code	EDAD
Coordinates	51 ° 49 '55 "  N , 12 ° 11' 3"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 49 '55 "  N , 12 ° 11' 3"  E
Height above MSL	57 m (187  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	4 km west of Dessau
Street	Old runway 27
train	Dessau-Alten train station
Local transport	Bus 11, 471 (Amtsweg stop)
Basic data
opening	1926
operator	Airfield Dessau GmbH
Flight movements	4972 (2010)
Employees	2
Start-and runway
09/27	1000 m × 25 m asphalt

The airfield Dessau (also: airfield Hugo Junkers ) is an airfield in Dessau-Roßlauer district Kleinkühnau .

The operator is Flugplatz Dessau GmbH , a company of the Dessauer Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (DVV). The paved runway is paved, 1000 m long and 25 m wide and has edge and threshold lighting.

Classification

The airfield Dessau is as airfield classified and for airplanes up to 5.7 tons, the Ju 52 D-AQUI , rotorcraft , self-starting motor gliders , gliders and not self-starting motor gliders in the winds - and aircraft towing , Ultralight , parachute jumping operation , free balloons ( PPR ), airships (PPR ) authorized. However, much heavier aircraft have already landed there, for example a Transall C-160 of the Bundeswehr , which has an empty weight of around 29 tonnes.

history

The history of the airfield is closely linked to the aviation pioneer Hugo Junkers , who worked in Dessau until 1933. At the beginning of the 1930s the airfield of the Hugo-Junkers-Flugzeugwerke was an airfield with a modern runway. Among other things, this was heated and consisted of solid concrete slabs. In addition, this runway became known as the starting point for the attempted first ocean crossing from Europe to America (the successful one started a year later in Ireland) by the " Bremen ". Today it is a listed building; In order not to destroy them by a road, a bridge was specially built over the runway.

The contract for the airfield south of Kühnauer Strasse and north of the Dessau-Köthen railway line , where it is still located today, was signed on August 15, 1924, the new Junkers airfield opened on October 1, 1924. The first assembly hall of Junkerswerke was built next to the level crossing on the airfield in 1925. The official opening of the Junkers factory airfield finally took place on January 7th, 1926 by the Anhalt state government.

In July 1927, Junkerswerke's Dessau facility was the first European airfield to have a concrete runway. The site remained the factory airfield of the Hugo-Junkers-Flugzeugwerke until 1945, until it was occupied by units of the United States Army Air Forces on April 17th . In July 1945 the airfield became part of the Soviet occupation zone. Then, under Soviet supervision and under the direction of Brunolf Baade, research was carried out on jet aircraft projects started during the war , e.g. B. the jet bomber EF 131 , resumed. In autumn 1946 this work was stopped, the entire system dismantled and brought to the Soviet Union for further research together with the Junkers employees (see Ossawakim campaign ). The airfield was then not used.

It was not until 1948 that some Soviet aviation units were relocated to Dessau and in 1951 the runway was extended to 2200 x 55 m due to the deployment of the 157th fighter regiment equipped with MiG-15 jet fighters. From 1956 to 1963 the air forces of the National People's Army used the airfield as a transport flying school. First helicopters of the type Mi-4 were relocated from Cottbus to Dessau, then came the single-engine L-60 "Brigadyr" , An-2 and then the Il-14 . On average, nine IL-14s were used to train military and civilian crews for Interflug . From 1952 to 1979 the area was also used as a glider airfield for the Society for Sport and Technology (GST). The technical base continued to operate until the GST was dissolved in the spring of 1990. He was housed in a Junkers hall in the northwest of the square. In 1963 the Dessau airfield was the installation site for the transport squadron 24 . From 1963 to 1989 it was an alternate airfield for the transport helicopter squadron 34 (THG-34) " Werner Seelenbinder " of the NVA based in Brandenburg-Briest .

After 45 years, a Ju 52 landed again on March 6, 1990 at the former Junkerswerke airfield. From 1990 to 1994 the area was used as a glider airfield for the “Hugo Junkers” Dessau e. V. used. Since August 1994 it has been used as a commercial airfield.

Today the Hugo Junkers technology museum is located at the airfield .

• 

  Junkers works with airfield (1928)

• 

  Aerial photograph (1990)

• 

  Tower (2010)

Airlines and Destinations

Since the reopening in 1994 there have been no scheduled or charter flights. The runway is too short for today's commercial aircraft .

Powered flight

Flugplatz Dessau GmbH chartered a Cessna 172 .

Gliding

At the Dessau airfield there is a glider plane south of the asphalt runway, which is operated by the “Hugo Junkers” Dessau e. V. is used. The winch launch is mainly used here . Aircraft tow is performed as needed.

Incidents

• May 16, 1959: A MiG-17F (757) rolled over the end of the runway during an alternative landing on Dessau airfield at around 8:00 a.m.
• On July 22, 1960, a VEB 14P (T) of the National People's Army (400) hit the first of the four 140 meter high chimneys of the Vockerode power plant ten minutes after take-off in fog . The machine crashed on the power plant site, with its six occupants and a power plant employee died on the ground (see also aircraft accident in the Vockerode power plant ) .

• July 10, 2001: On the final approach, the PZL Bielsko SZD-9 “Bocian” glider got into an excessive flight condition ( spin ) and fell to the ground. There were two dead.

Company at the airfield

Luftsport Service-Center Ost GmbH operates a company for the maintenance of airworthiness (CAMO / DE.MG.0536) and a maintenance operation (MF-Betrieb /) on the site for the air sports clubs of the new federal states and Berlin , as well as private and commercial aircraft operators DE.MF.0536).

Clubs at the airfield

• Flying club "Hugo Junkers" Dessau e. V.
• Dessauer Fallschirmsportverein e. V.
• Anhalt Association for Aviation e. V.
• Luftsportverband Sachsen-Anhalt e. V.

Others

• From 1945 to 1990 air corridors connected West Berlin with West Germany, the Frankfurt Air Corridor (southwest) ran through Dessau.
• April 29, 1952 a French airliner type was Douglas C-54A ( air vehicle registration number F-BELI) via Dessau of MiG-15 - fighter planes with live ammunition fired, there were five injured on board. The Soviet side claimed that the machine had left the international corridor .
• In 1970, the Potsdam University of Film and Television shot the film Micha learns to fly , a story about GST's glider training, largely on this airfield.
• July 2008: The Argentine national team prepared on the pitch for the 30th World Gliding Championships in Lüsse .
• June 22, 2009: For the third season of the ARD series Tierärztin Dr. Mertens , filming takes place on the airfield.

literature

• Stefan Büttner: Red places. Russian military airfields in Germany 1945–1994. Air bases – aerodromes – military fallow areas . Aerolit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 .
• 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 .

Web links

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

• Official website of Flugplatz Dessau GmbH
• Official website of Luftsport Service-Center Ost GmbH

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://siedlung.andat.de/siedl/zentral_siedl_uu.htm
2. ^ Military transport aircraft Dessau – Dresden . ISBN 3-935525-08-7 .
3. ↑ The other German air force . ISBN 3-344-70746-9 , page 26f.
4. ↑ Approval for the operation of the Dessau airfield by the Ministry of Transport of the GDR to the flying club "Hugo Junkers" Dessau e. V. of March 14, 1990
5. ↑ http://home.snafu.de/veith/fag-15.htm
6. ↑ Investigation report 3X153-0 / 01. Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) , August 2002, accessed on July 12, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Flight Archive 1965
8. ↑ Aviation Safety Network: Criminal Occurrence description Date: 29 APR 1952
9. ↑ Glider pilots expect Argentinians . In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , July 15, 2008.
10. ↑ Annette Gens: Heavenly surprise over the Dessau airfield . In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , June 22, 2009.