Aircraft cavern

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A Mirage IIIRS, Buochs Airfield, stands in front of the gate of the tunnel
Decommissioned fighter planes of the Albanian Armed Forces of type Shenyang F-6 in the underground hangar in Gjader
Aircraft cavern on the Shahe military airfield in China, now the Chinese Aviation Museum
Entrance to the Željava aircraft cavern , Europe's largest aircraft cavern that was supposed to withstand a nuclear attack. Destroyed.

An aircraft cavern is a cavern-like aircraft hangar for the accommodation of combat aircraft, which is not only protected against enemy influences like a normal hardened aircraft shelter by the construction above ground in concrete and steel , but in particular by the underground construction and the surrounding mountain.

history

During the Second World War , various air forces (Italy, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland) began to put new types of aircraft protection systems into operation. In addition to the unarmored aircraft hangars , which were mostly still made of wood, and the so-called boxes (a kind of garage into which the aircraft could enter through a gate on the back and which it could exit again through a gate on the front), this was started Construction of hardened aircraft shelters. These consisted of at least 20 cm massive reinforced concrete shell and were overgrown with grass and trees for camouflage purposes. At the end of the Second World War, it was possible to evaluate the first experiences of how massive area bombing and the use of atomic bombs affected the reinforced concrete protective structures. This resulted in a new generation of protective structures, the aircraft caverns. They were driven deep into the rock in a tunnel-like manner and protected from the explosion pressure of nuclear weapons by means of angled entrances.

Infrastructure

In addition to the hangars for fighter planes, the underground aircraft shelters also accommodate other rooms in order to maintain flight operations. This includes power generation units for self-sufficient power supply, a ventilation center with air conditioning for each sector (which prevents them from entering the system when nuclear, biological or chemical warfare agents are used), and fuel, ammunition and spare parts stores for the independent operation of the combat aircraft.

A separate command tunnel is built in an ABC-safe manner by means of armored lock doors. This is where the flight control, emergency briefing rooms, medical, kitchen, lounge and sleeping rooms for the pilots and some of the crews, spare parts stores, workshops, news evaluation and a communication center are located.

A cavern is equipped in such a way that it can fully carry out flight operations 24 hours a day under NBC threats . This without being supplied with kerosene, weapons, electricity or water from the outside. Flight operations could be maintained for a period of at least one month without external supply. This is also the estimated period of time after which, after the use of nuclear weapons, the environment can be re-entered without fatal radiation. All repairs, including engine changes, can be carried out in the cavern on the aircraft.

Cavern locations worldwide

AlbaniaAlbania Albania

China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China

  • Anqing Airplane Gallery (An Ching)
  • Beijing Shahezhen Aircraft Gallery (Datang Shan)
  • Changzing aircraft tunnel
  • Cha-su-Chi aircraft tunnel
  • Chifeng aircraft tunnel
  • Daishan aircraft tunnel
  • Dezhou Aircraft Gallery (Jiugucheng)
  • Feidong aircraft tunnel
  • Fuxin aircraft tunnel
  • Huairen aircraft tunnel
  • Jining aircraft tunnel (ZSJG)
  • Jingyuan (Dalachi) aircraft tunnel
  • Aircraft tunnel Jinzhou Xiaolingzi (ZYJZ)
  • Jiyuan (Chi-yüan) aircraft tunnel
  • Leiyang aircraft tunnel southwest
  • Pulandian aircraft tunnel
  • Ranghe Zen aircraft tunnel
  • Rugao aircraft tunnel
  • Suzhou west aircraft tunnel
  • Taihe aircraft tunnel
  • Urumqi south aircraft tunnel (Ürümqi)
  • Xuzhou Daguozhang aircraft tunnel
  • Yantai Southwest Aircraft Gallery (ZSYT)
  • Yinchuan Airplane Gallery (Xincheng)
  • Yiwi aircraft tunnel (Yiwu)
  • Yongning aircraft tunnel
  • Zhangjiakou aircraft tunnel
  • Zunhua aircraft tunnel

ItalyItaly Italy

CroatiaCroatia Croatia

Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina

MontenegroMontenegro Montenegro

NorwayNorway Norway

SwedenSweden Sweden

SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland

SerbiaSerbia Serbia , KosovoKosovoKosovo 

  • Slatina aircraft tunnel (Pristina; LYPR)

Korea NorthNorth Korea North Korea

  • Hoemun aircraft tunnel
  • Hwangju aircraft tunnel
  • Hyon-ni aircraft tunnel
  • Kaechon aircraft tunnel
  • Koksan aircraft tunnel
  • Aircraft tunnel Kuum ni
  • Kwail aircraft tunnel
  • Puckchang aircraft tunnel
  • Aircraft tunnel Pyongyang International Airport / Sunan (ZKPY)
  • Sunchon aircraft tunnel
  • Taetan aircraft tunnel
  • Toksan aircraft tunnel
  • Wosan aircraft tunnel

TaiwanRepublic of China (Taiwan) Taiwan

VietnamVietnam Vietnam

Aircraft caverns in Switzerland

In today's armasuisse documents , a military airfield where the command facilities and the aircraft are protected in aircraft caverns / aircraft tunnels under rock are also referred to as a cavern airfield, in contrast to a normal military airfield with decentralized protective structures for aircraft. In older documents these systems are also called plane tunnel , tunnel systems , caverns , rock cavern or as a complete system caverns bases . The aircraft caverns and tunnels of the Swiss Air Force are an expression of the Swiss Reduit strategy in the aviation infrastructure. In addition to splinter protection shelters, tunnels (so-called retablation tunnels ) were driven into the mountains at some war airfields during the Second World War to park the aircraft during minor repairs; Repairs had previously been carried out under tents. There was enough space in the tunnels to park single-engine fighters like the Messerschmitt Bf.109E or, after the war, the P-51D “Mustang” .

During the Cold War , these tunnels were expanded into aircraft caverns at six locations. At the beginning of the Cold War, in 1947, Oberstdivisionär Rhiner raised the question in an essay entitled "Do we need an air force" as to whether, in view of long-range weapons and air transport, an own air force would still make sense. He said yes, since Switzerland would be on its own, at least in the first phase of the war, before the opposing party in the war between the two superpowers , which he considered to be the only likely war , would help Switzerland. He postulated that the establishment of a radar network was necessary and saw the primary task of the air force in ground combat . At the same time, it is necessary that the aircraft on airfields are protected from interference by foreign land fighters by being housed in caverns. In an inserted subordinate clause ("- possibly with runways out of the mountain -") he outlined a thought to move more than just the airfields into the mountain. This idea of ​​aircraft taking off from the mountain became an urban legend and as such was mentioned in the Swiss Air Force's anniversary book as a "fairy tale story".

The newer aircraft caverns consist of separate tunnels:

  • There is space for 15 aircraft in tunnel X (Xaver). It is protected on the valley side by a wood / steel composite gate, which is followed by an approximately 50 cm thick reinforced concrete gate in an offset position after a tunnel. This eliminates the possibility of direct fire. The aircraft tunnel is connected to the armory by a corridor equipped with a Halon gas extinguishing system. In this be ammunition for assault rifles , ammunition for cannons, bombs , missiles ( AIM-9 "Sidewinder" and AIM-120 "AMRAAM" ), Täuschkörperpatronen ( chaff - and luminous torch ) and various explosive bolts for ejection seats and weapons suspensions stored.
  • A second adjoins the central command tunnel
  • Aircraft tunnel Y (Yvonne). It is identical to tunnel X and also holds 15 aircraft.
  • The fuel tanks are located behind the tunnels .

The planes are brought into the correct position in the tunnels using cranes.

Locations

The Meiringen cavern was adapted to the F / A-18 for 120 million Swiss francs . In addition, tunnel Z was drilled, which, unlike the other tunnels, has no cranes on the ceiling. The tunnels Y and Z are connected with cross aisles, in which ten to twelve F / A-18 can be parked together with niches integrated in the tunnels. The two pre-tunnels for Y and Z can also be crossed by the aircraft in front of the armored gates. In addition, the cavern in Meiringen differs in that it has its own access to the ammunition tunnel near tunnel X. This tunnel was originally built for the A-7G Corsair II.

With the Army Reform XXI, the caverns in Alpnach, Ambrì, Raron and Turtmann were closed. Buochs ​​was designated as the reserve base, which is inactive but can be operated again at any time. Meiringen is the only cavern airport that is still in use. The Turtmann airfield with its underground facilities, on the other hand, is an example of a cavern airfield, the facilities of which have largely been preserved in their original state.

Used aircraft types

In principle, only single-seat fighter planes were used from the tunnel. Two-seaters were usually too long and had no fighting, but training functions. Helicopters did not fit in because of the non-foldable rotor blades.

Possible types, but no stakes

Tested in caverns, but not procured

stored there after decommissioning, until sale / gift to other countries, no use

Aircraft bunker

Double shelter type U-80 in Mollis. The shelter is not built into the rock, but in front of it.

By order of the army command from 1942, a total of 152 concrete arched shelters of the type U-43 had been built on the airfields. One or two aircraft fit in there, including those of the DH100 "Vampire" type , but the shelters that were open to the front were more about splinter protection.

The newer shelters were designed as aircraft bunkers from 1968 (type U-43/68) and were enlarged in type U-80 and put together in pairs - often for better use of the taxiways with another shelter in the immediate vicinity and at mountain airfields taking advantage of the terrain. In addition to the two to four aircraft, both chambers also house crew rooms, a diesel generator , a spare parts store or a kitchen. The crew quarters are ABC- safe thanks to locks . The aircraft shelters leaning against the site, for example at the Mollis or St. Stephan military airfield , are not caverns, even if they are called colloquially as such. In Mollis and on the Ulrichen military airfield , helicopters were also housed in the shelters, while part of the rotor joints of the Super Puma helicopters were detached so that they did not hang too high.

Web links

Commons : aircraft cavern  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Uno Zero Zero - A Century of the Swiss Air Force. Aeropublications, Teufen / ZH 2013, ISBN 978-3-9524239-0-5 , p. 230
  • 25 years Fligerbrigade 32nd Fl Br32 1990

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Hildebrand: Overview of the development and expansion of the Swiss military airfields. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Military monuments in the area of ​​the Air Force. Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport , 2008, p. 11 , archived from the original on July 22, 2012 ; Retrieved on August 26, 2014 : "A cavern airfield is a military airfield that has a protected (under rock) command post and where the aircraft (from two squadrons) are protected in aircraft caverns under rock."
  2. ↑ Online access: archive plan search ( Swiss Federal Archives )
  3. ↑ Laurent F. Carrel (ed.): Swiss Army today and in the future . 13th edition added. Ott, Thun 1998, ISBN 3-7225-6853-6
  4. ^ Oberstdivisionär Rhiner: Do we need a flight weapon , Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitung, Volume 93 (1947), Issue 1, p. 6
  5. ↑ a b c Uno Zero Zero - A Century of the Swiss Air Force. Aeropublications, Teufen / ZH 2013, ISBN 978-3-9524239-0-5 , pp. 259/260, section "Mythos Kaverne"; English text: "The myth that everyone is guaranteed to hear is that Swiss combat aircraft could take off directly from the caverns".
  6. ↑ Military monuments in the area of ​​the air force. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport , 2008, p. 30 , archived from the original on July 22, 2012 ; Retrieved November 12, 2014 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ar.admin.ch
  7. ↑ Airfields are protected by bernerzeitung.ch
  8. ↑ The inventory of historically significant air force infrastructure ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. skynews.ch  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.skynews.ch