Nellingen airfield
| Nellingen Air Base Nellingen barracks |
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_in_Scharnhausen_-_panoramio.jpg)
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| Characteristics | |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 384 m (1260 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 3 km southwest of Esslingen am Neckar |
| Street | 3 km to 4 km to 
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| Basic data | |
| opening | 1938 |
| closure | 1992 |
| operator | Air Force / US Army |
| surface | 124 ha |
| Start-and runway | |
| 09/27 | 274 m × 91 m asphalt |
The airfield Nellingen was a military airfield in the 20th century. The area was in the area of today's city of Ostfildern ; until the regional reform in Nellingen on the Fildern . After the end of the Cold War , the area was converted . A new district was created here, the Scharnhauser Park .
history
Nellingen Air Base
At the location of the former royal stud in Scharnhausen, construction of another airfield for Stuttgart began in 1932, to complement the existing one near Böblingen. During construction in 1936, due to lack of space, it was decided to stop the construction of the civil airfield at this point and to start over near the new motorway (today's A 8). This is where today's Stuttgart Airport emerged .
The Air Force took over the infrastructure under construction and built it into a military airfield from. The Nellingen Air Base was opened in 1938 and, in addition to a grass airfield, had five hangars.
The northern part of the air base was used by the Graf Zeppelin research institute from 1941 . This research institute dealt with the construction of bombs, torpedo stabilization, underwater detonations, construction of aircraft catapults and parachutes for decelerating aircraft and recovering missiles. The latter developments were also widely used in space travel
In January 1940 the II. Group of Destroyer Squadron 76 (II./ZG 76) with its Bf 109 was stationed here and part of this unit was again here during the Wehrmacht's western campaign in May / June 1940. At that time, the association flew already the Bf 110 C . After the attack on the Soviet Union , two of the three squadrons of the supplementary destroyer group (Erg.Zerst.Gr.) With Bf 110 and Bf 109 lay here for a week in the first half of September.
After some Fw 189A reconnaissance planes stayed for several weeks in February / March 1943, they belonged to the 1st (altitude) squadron of reconnaissance group 31 (1st (H) / 31) and 5th (altitude) squadron of reconnaissance group 12 (5th) . (H) / 12), Nellingen became the base of training aircraft just under a year later. Between the middle of February and the end of June 1942, the C 15 pilot school was located here and an A / B pilot school between August 1943 and December 1944 . In addition, for radar calibration from mid-December 1942 to the first half of April 1943, the target display relay 103 , which had Go 145 and Ar 96 , was located here.
In June 1943, the 5th group of night fighter squadron 6 (V./NJG 6) with Bf 110 was re-established in Nellingen and stayed here until July. In mid-August, the III. Gruppe des Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (III./NJG 2), a Ju 88C unit, which remained stationed here until September 1943.
In contrast to the Stuttgart and Böblingen airports, Nellingen was hardly attacked by Allied bombers in 1944/45, but it was only used irregularly. At the end of March 1945, the last German aircraft were the Bf 109G / K of the III. Jagdgeschwader 53 group (III./JG 53). Before they withdrew from the advancing Allied troops, parts of the facility were blown up by the withdrawing German troops.
After Nellingen was occupied by French troops in April 1945, the airfield was given the code name Airfield R.94 ; Allied task forces were no longer stationed here during the war.
Nellingen barracks
In August, the airfield was taken over by the US Army , which tested German helicopters of the types Fl282 and Fa 223 that had been captured in Bavaria until February 1946 . In the following years the area served as a storage area for military equipment and the unpaved areas for growing grain.
In 1951, the strongest VII. US Corps Nellingen long-term use and in the following period, which originated Nellingen- Barracks (Engl. Nellingen Barracks ). Military flight operations were also resumed, and Nellingen became a helicopter base.
The first US airborne unit stationed here was the 328th Transportation Company ( 328th Trans Co ) from April 1954 , which was renamed 11th Trans Co in May 1956 and remained stationed in Nellingen for ten more years until the company was deactivated in June 1966 has been.
From the end of 1966, Nellingen was a location of the 16th Aviation Battalion , which was renamed the 223rd Aviation Battalion in 1972 . In the course of a reorganization, the 7th Battalion of the 159th Aviation Regtiment ( 7th / 159th Aviation ) took its place in 1987 . All kinds of helicopters flew here. These included UH-19D , UH-34A , CH-37A , H-13 , UH-1H , AH-1 , OH-58C , UH-60A and AH-64A .
During the Cold War, up to 5,000 Americans lived in Nellingen; the peak was reached in the late 1970s. In addition to Army Aviation , there were a number of other non-flying units here. Pershing 1 missiles were also stationed here in the 1960s . This included the 2nd Support Command, which had been based here since the late 1960s and which was used in the Second Gulf War in 1990/91 .
On November 2, 1992, the Nellingen Barracks were formally closed and the area was returned to the original property owners, the city of Ostfildern , the House of Württemberg and the state of Baden-Württemberg . In 1993 the site was used as accommodation during the 1993 World Athletics Championships .
Todays use
After 1995 the new district of Scharnhauser Park was built here . With the exception of the troop accommodation and some buildings of the former air base management (see photo), the buildings were demolished in 1996.