Meiningen Airfield
| Meiningen Airfield | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 455 m (1493 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 2.5 km east of Meiningen | ||
| Street | L 1140 | ||
| train | Meiningen train station | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | May 2, 1927 | ||
| closure | 1991 | ||
| operator | City of Meiningen NVA (1965–1990) |
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| surface | 36.5 ha | ||
| Runways | |||
| 04/22 | 770 m × 35 m grass | ||
| 09/27 | 475 m × 35 m grass | ||
| 7 helicopter landing pads | 15 m × 15 m concrete | ||
The airfield Meiningen was a commercial airport on the Rohrer mountain and one of three former airfields in southern Thuringia county town Meiningen . From 1965 it was used as a military airfield .
description
The owner of the airfield, officially called Meiningen Airport , was the city of Meiningen, whose city council was responsible for the administration of the field. The airfield was located 2.5 kilometers east of Meiningen city center on today's state road 1140 and had an area of 365,750 m², of which the runway occupied 152,100 m². The roll length in the northeast – southwest direction was 770 m, that in the east – west 475 m. The middle of the runway showed a height of 455 m above sea level. The magnetic magnetic bearing was 7 degrees west. On the buildings there was a gas station for aviation fuel and a police station with an aviation weather post. Further buildings were not erected until 1965. Customs clearance was carried out by the Meiningen main customs office.
history
Civil aviation
Even before the First World War, two small airfields were set up in Meiningen at Henriettenplatz in Drei 30acker and on the Totenfeld in the north of the city. Various flight events, flight days and balloon rides took place there. As early as 1913, the city decided to build a new airfield, which initially failed due to resistance from foreign authorities and the outbreak of the First World War. In 1921 the Meiningen Aviation Association was founded with the aim of building a commercial airport in Meiningen. Because of their unfavorable location, the airfields in Drei 30acker and on the Totenfeld (residential building area) were eliminated, but they continued to be used until the new airfield opened.
On May 2, 1927, the airfield on the Rohrer Berg was opened and opened for regular air traffic. Meiningen Airport was a station of the Leipzig-Mockau - Munich airline and was served twice a day. The airline was operated by Nordbayerische Verkehrsflug GmbH Fürth . This mainly used the all-metal Messerschmitt M 18 aircraft . A flight to Weimar , for example, cost 12 Reichsmarks (RM), to Nuremberg 24 RM and to Munich 40 RM. In 1931 air traffic had to be largely stopped for economic reasons. Large flight days with aerobatic maneuvers and parachute jumps continued to take place until the beginning of the Second World War.
Flight connection
(Leipzig) - Saalfeld / Rudolstadt - Erfurt / Weimar - Meiningen - Schweinfurt - Fürth / Nuremberg - (Munich) (Reichs Luftkursbuch, flight plan number 304)
Zeppelin landings
Meiningen Airport was also the destination of Zeppelin landings. On October 11, 1931, the airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin landed here from Friedrichshafen in front of around 100,000 onlookers who had come with 13 special trains and 3,000 vehicles, among other things. On July 2, 1939, the airship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II followed on its so-called Meiningenfahrt . About 40,000 people attended this landing.
Military airfield
From a military point of view, the airfield served as a reserve airfield ( deployment port ) from the beginning of the Second World War until the end of the war . An air raid on the airfield planned by the 457th USAAF bomber group on February 6, 1945 was canceled during the approach due to bad weather. After the war, the field airfield was completely shut down by the Soviet Army and the area was partly used for agriculture.
In 1965 the GDR border troops reactivated the airfield. They built it into a helipad for the southern border chain of Helicopter Squadron 16 (HS-16) in order to secure the nearby inner-German border . Several buildings with aeronautical facilities and seven concrete landing sites were built. The Soviet helicopter types Mi-8 and Mi-2 were stationed . An Mi-24 of the Combat Helicopter Wing 3 (KHG-3) was also permanently stationed in Meiningen from 1982 onwards. After 1990 the airfield was closed and the area came back into the ownership of the city. Efforts to re-establish an airfield for civilian use failed in the 1990s.
industrial area
In 2012/13, the city had the airfield converted into the "Rohrer Berg" industrial area due to its favorable location on the A 71 and B 19 . The streets “Am Alten Flugplatz” and “Zeppelinstraße”, which were newly built in the course of the development, are reminiscent of the airfield. On the former airfield there are also some residential buildings, the city animal shelter and a dog sports field .
literature
- Günter Flach: Meiningen from a bird's eye view - then and now. Verlag Resch, Meiningen 1998, ISBN 978-3980594233 .
- Kuratorium Meiningen (Hrsg.): Lexicon for the history of the city of Meiningen. Bielsteinverlag, Meiningen 2008, ISBN 978-3980950442 .
Web links
- Pennula.de/Flughandbuch Verkehrslandeplatz Meiningen.
- Meiningen museums Airships over Meiningen.
- NVA-Flieger.de Meiningen airfield.
- Mil-airfields.de Meiningen Airfield.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Section description: Large Air Traffic Atlas - 1928 edition
- ^ Paragraph: Günter Flach: Meiningen from a bird's eye view . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 1998, pp. 30-34
- ↑ Lexicon on the history of the city of Meiningen , Meiningen 2008, p. 76
- ↑ Reichsluftkursbuch summer 1929 in the Lufthansa archive
- ^ Günter Flach: Meiningen from a bird's eye view . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 1998, p. 60
- ↑ Meininger Museen ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Airships over Meiningen.
- ^ Günter Flach: Meiningen from a bird's eye view . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 1998, pp. 42-56
- ^ Günter Flach: Meiningen from a bird's eye view . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 1998, pp. 64-66
