Wiener Neustadt / West airfield
| Wiener Neustadt / West airfield | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LOXN |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 285 m (935 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 2 km north of Wiener Neustadt |
| Street | Airfield belt 19 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1909 |
| operator | Austrian Armed Forces |
| Runways | |
| 18L / 36R | 1620 m × 45 m grass |
| 18R / 36L | 870 m × 30 m grass |
| 14L / 32R | 940 m × 30 m grass |
| 14R / 32L | 940 m × 30 m grass |
| 09/27 | 840 m × 30 m grass |
| 04/22 | 1500 m × 45 m grass |
The Wiener Neustadt / West airfield is located northwest of the city of Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria . It is the location of more than 20 flight clubs and schools. The airfield is the largest natural airfield (i.e. no paved runways) in Europe. It is the center of gliding and skydiving in Austria. There are six grass runways on the airfield, the longest measuring 1620 m.
history
The Wiener Neustädter Flugfeld , today the Wiener Neustadt military airfield with the ICAO identification LOXN, was the first airfield in Austria-Hungary . The airfield was built before the first powered aircraft existed in Austria.
On June 11, 1909, the Wiener Neustädter City Council decided the following: For the purpose of promoting mechanical aviation, the municipality is building an aeroplan hall on one of the properties on Steinfelde on Wöllersdorferstrasse for an amount of roughly 2500 kroner, which is the one in this area The property is available to the tenants of the hall for flight test purposes and allows other interested parties to build similar halls.
No slopes in the current sense have been built, but a 5 km² meadow has been leveled.
On November 17, 1909, the area was declared an airfield. The first Kuk military aircraft were housed in three hangars . As early as 1910, three flight competitions were held, some of which Emperor Franz Joseph attended. The Parseval airship also landed at Wiener Neustadt airfield. In 1911, some Etrich pigeons were purchased as training aircraft, with which 16 field pilots were trained. In 1913 the entire airfield was rented by the military.
The airfield gained strategic importance through the First World War . In 1915, the Oesterreichische Flugzeugfabrik AG (Oeffag) was founded here, which in the course of the war produced the Oeffag CI and C II combat aircraft , seaplanes and the Albatros D II and III fighter aircraft .
After the Treaty of Saint-Germain , everything had to be destroyed on the orders of the Allies . Among other things, there were a few hundred aircraft and a few thousand aircraft engines as well as the halls and workshops of the Oeffag. This made the airfield meaningless.
In 1929, however, the area was used again as an external landing site for the Graz Aviation School. In 1934 a new rise began with the stationing of an academy squadron of the military academy in the undestroyed barracks, which was built during the First World War as the Kaiser Karl-Fliegerkaserne . In 1936 the Ministry of Defense bought the area with the barracks and built a non-public airfield. Some squadrons, some of which were equipped with Fiat CR 32 fighters, were stationed here. New buildings such as hangars, workshops and a tower made Wiener Neustadt the center of Austrian aviation again. At the military world championships in 1937, an aerobatic team stationed in Wiener Neustadt took second place.
After the Anschluss , the Austrian Air Force was incorporated into the German Air Force and the airfield was rapidly expanded. Before the start of the war, this was where the headquarters and I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 76 were located . The airfield in the safe hinterland was important in the Balkan campaign , but also for the Messerschmitt aircraft factory built in Wiener Neustadt . On April 7, 1941, a Yugoslav bomber of the Bristol Blenheim type is said to have attacked the airfield in retaliation for the attack on Yugoslavia. The aircraft was so badly damaged by the air defense that it had to make an emergency landing 40 kilometers further south near Markt Allhau.
On August 13, 1943, Tunisia was the first to bomb the airfield and the nearby city. The waves of attack that destroyed the entire area consisted of up to 100 aircraft. While the defense was completely taken by surprise in this first attack, the American attackers suffered heavy losses in their second attack on October 1, 1943. However, flight operations continued until March 1945 despite the major damage. Only the ground troops of the Red Army took the area in early April.
see also: Air raids on Wiener Neustadt
The following table shows a list of selected active flying units (excluding school and supplementary units) of the Wehrmacht Air Force that were stationed here between 1938 and 1945.
| From | To | unit | equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 1938 | April 1939 | Stab, I., II./KG 158 (Stab, I. and II. Gruppe des Kampfgeschwaders 158) | |
| September 1938 | October 1938 | I./JG 334 | Messerschmitt Bf 109B / D |
| May 1939 | August 1939 | Staff, I./KG 76 | Dornier Do 17Z |
| February 1940 | March 1940 | III./KG 54 | Heinkel He 111P |
| February 1941 | February 1941 | I./LG 1 (I. Group of Lehrgeschwader 1) | Junkers Ju 88A |
| March 1941 | June 1941 | Staff, I./KG 51 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| March 1941 | August 1941 | III./KG 51 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| April 1941 | June 1941 | II./KG 51 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| September 1941 | December 1941 | II./KG 51 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| January 1942 | May 1942 | I./KG 76 | Junkers Ju 88A |
| July 1942 | September 1942 | II./ZG 2 (II. Group of Destroyer Squadron 2) | Messerschmitt Bf 110C / F |
| February 1943 | March 1943 | III./KG 76 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
| September 1943 | November 1943 | I./LG 1 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
| September 1943 | March 1944 | II./LG 1 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
| March 1944 | March 1944 | I./LG 1 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
| March 1944 | June 1944 | III./LG 1 | Junkers Ju 88A-4 |
| November 1944 | March 1945 | Parts of 1./KG 200 (1. Staffel of Kampfgeschwader 200) | |
| December 1944 | March 1945 | II./KG 4 | Heinkel He 111H-20 |
| January 1945 | February 1945 | III./KG 4 | Heinkel He 111H-20 |
The airfield was used as a base by the Soviet Union because Austria was not allowed to design or build aircraft. Previously hidden gliders , which were allowed again by the Western powers from 1949, were smuggled into the western zones. From 1950 the Soviet troops adapted the field for jet aircraft , set up landing lights and built an instrument flight system. Mainly MIG 15 were stationed.
In August 1955, the airfield was handed over to the Republic of Austria according to the State Treaty . The newly established armed forces did not want the airfield for several reasons. On the one hand, they did not want to do this airfield to the population, who had suffered so much from the stationing during the World War. On the other hand, he was too insecure so close to the Iron Curtain for strategic reasons . Some civil aviation clubs took over the airfield. Only since 1961 does the armed forces use the space again, primarily for parachute training .
On September 15 and 16, 2018, the Red Bull Air Race World Championship will celebrate its comeback in Austria at the Wiener Neustadt / West airfield. "We are grateful and proud at the same time that the Red Bull Air Race with the Austrian race arrives directly at the birthplace of Austrian and European aviation", said Mayor Klaus Schneeberger in a press conference on the occasion of the announcement of the venue.
See also
literature
Franz Pinczolits: The Aviation Pioneers. Wiener Neustadt - Austria's first airfield on old postcards. Weilburg Verlag, Wiener Neustadt, 1989. ISBN 3-900100-82-9
Web links
- Homepage of the airport LOAN (Wiener Neustadt / Ost)
- Aviation clubs in Wiener Neustadt East and West
- Wiener Neustadt Ost airfield information for pilots, photos, clubs
- Wiener Neustadt West airfield information for pilots, clubs
Individual evidence
- ^ Air raids by the Yugoslav Air Force on April 6 and 7, 1941 , website regiowiki.at, accessed on December 6, 2014.
- ^ Emergency landing of a Bristol Blenheim near Markt Allhau , website regiowiki.at, accessed on December 6, 2014.
- ^ Air raid on Wiener Neustadt on October 1, 1943 , website regiowiki.at, accessed on December 6, 2014.
- ^ Losses of the 44th bomber group in the air raid on Wiener Neustadt on October 1, 1943 , website regiowiki.at, accessed on December 6, 2014.
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Austria (1937 Borders) , accessed on September 4, 2014.
- ↑ Fix! Premiere for Red Bull Air Race in Wiener Neustadt. In: wn24. May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018 .