Holloman Air Force Base
| Holloman Air Force Base | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | KHMN |
| IATA code | HMN |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 1248 m (4094 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 13 km southwest of Alamogordo |
| Street | US 70 / US 82 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1942 |
| operator | United States Air Force |
| surface | 24,135 ha |
| Runways | |
| 04/22 | 3223 m × 91 m |
| 07/25 | 3901 m × 46 m |
| 16/34 | 3698 m × 46 m |
The Holloman Air Force Base is a base of the US Air Force (USAF) in southern New Mexico , about 13 km south west of Alamogordo . It belongs to the Air Combat Command and from 1992 to 2008 was the only base for the stealth aircraft F-117 Nighthawk . The base has three start - and landing runways: 04/22 (3,225 m length), 7.25 (3,900 m) and 16/34 (3,700 m). Around 4,600 soldiers were stationed here at the end of 2003. In addition, the Air Force's aviation training center was housed there until 2018 and the airport is the most important training base for drone pilots on the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper models .
history
The base was founded on June 10, 1942 as Alamogordo Army Air Field , on January 13, 1948 it was renamed Holloman Air Force Base in honor of Colonel George V. Holloman , a rocket researcher from North Carolina .
During the Second World War , Air Force bomber crews trained here with B-17 , B-24 and B-29 for combat missions in Europe and the Pacific . In 1947, the Air Materiel Command , the forerunner of today's Air Force Materiel Command , began developing and testing unmanned aerial vehicles and guided missiles at the base . Lt Col John P. Stapp reached the record speed of 1017 km / h (632 miles per hour) on December 10, 1954 with a rocket-propelled sled; the observation aircraft for this experiment was piloted by Joseph Kittinger , who went down in aviation history in 1960 with a balloon flight.
The base housed the F-22 Raptor between 2008 and 2014 .
The American Air Force relocated its F-22 to Tyndall between January and April 2014 . F-16 Fighting Falcon training began in Holloman in spring 2014 and is to be completely taken over by Luke Air Force Base in the medium term ; where the F-35 Lightning II training has now started.
Rocket launch site
A rocket launch site is at 32 ° 53 '0 " N , 106 ° 4' 0" W . Numerous sounding rockets and military missiles have been launched here since 1948 .
Furthermore, the world speed records for rail vehicles were set here. In October 1982, an unmanned rocket sled propelled a 25 pound charge to a speed of 6119 mph (9845 km / h ). On April 30, 2003, the current world speed record followed on this launch site. The vehicle was also an unmanned (four-part) rocket sled that reached a speed of 6480 mph (10430 km / h).
German Air Force in Holloman
After the closure of the George AFB in Southern California, flight training for pilots of the German Air Force has also taken place here since 1992 , until December 2004 on F-4 Phantom II aircraft, and since 1996 also with Panavia Tornados .
On March 1, 1995, the then "Commander of the German Air Force Training Command America / Canada", Brigadier General Adam, announced that the Air Force would establish its own base in Holloman from 1996 and that the warplanes stationed there would also bear the German emblems . In addition, the air force can fly with its own air control and operational rules. The tornadoes stationed there bear German markings, while the Phantom flew with US license plates.
In September 2017, flight training in Holloman for the tornado was discontinued and transferred to Tactical Air Force Wing 51 in Jagel. The maintenance for the tornadoes will be used until mid-2018. Then the center is dissolved.
Tornado in special livery to celebrate the 55,555 flight hour in Holloman on October 13, 2009
Two F-4E Phantom IIs, one from the 1st German Air Force Training Squadron and the other from the US 9th Fighter Squadron in 1992
Todays use
The most important users of the base are currently (2016) in detail:
- 49th Wing , Holloman's main official user since 1968, equipped with four MQ-1 and MQ-9 squadrons of drones
- 96th Test Group with the 586th Flight Test Squadron as the only flying squadron
- 54th Fighter Group , since 2014 Holloman is the second F-16 training base with two flying squadrons, the 311th (since 2014) and 314 Fighter Squadron (since 2015), it is being considered to set up two more squadrons in Holloman
- Aviation training center of the German Air Force, 1996-2018 (since then moved to Tactical Air Force Wing 51 in Jagel , Schleswig-Holstein )
In addition to the airborne units, a number of non-airborne units are stationed in Holloman both within the USAF formations listed above and beyond.
Trivia
The base was used for some movie scenes from the movies Transformers and Transformers - Die Rache .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Drew: Holloman AFB to train 40% more Predator, Reaper pilots in 2016. In: Flightglobal.com. August 11, 2015, accessed on August 15, 2015 (English): "Holloman AFB in New Mexico has become ground zero for the US Air Force's shakeup of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned air vehicles operations, and will soon be training more pilots per year than any other schoolhouse in the service, manned or unmanned - bypassing even Boeing C-17 pilot output. "
- ↑ Ute Kindler: Tornadoes from Holloman will soon be flying on the North Sea coast. luftwaffe.de, April 13, 2016, accessed April 13, 2016 .
- ↑ Beth Stevenson: Holloman selected as temporary home for new F-16 training unit. Flightglobal, November 28, 2016, accessed November 30, 2016 .
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