Avord military airfield
| Base aérienne 702 Avord | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LFOA |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 177 m (581 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 20 km east of Bourges |
| Street | 1 km to the D 975 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1912 |
| operator | Armée de l'air |
| surface | 1100 ha |
| Employees | 2400 |
| Start-and runway | |
| 06/24 | 3503 m × 45 m concrete |
The Base aérienne 702 Avord (BA 702) is a military airport of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ) . The base is in the Region Center-Val de Loire in the department of Cher on the municipalities Avord , Farges-en-Septaine and Savigny-en-Septaine , about halfway between Bourges and Nevers . The second largest base of the Armée de l'air after Istres is the home base of the AWACS early warning aircraft and the transport flight school of the French armed forces.
history
A flight school has existed in Avord since 1912 and was attended by most of the famous French "aces" such as Georges Guynemer . Probably the largest flight school in the world at the time , it was closed for two years after the First World War in 1919. In 1921 the military training company began again, the focus of which was subject to constant changes. From 1935 onwards there were two groups of bombers equipped with Farman F.221 and F.222 .
At the beginning of World War II Avord was after the armistice in June 1940, a military airfield of the German Luftwaffe established that two concrete runways. In July 1940, the supplementary group 1 of Kampfgeschwader 27 (ErgGr I / KG 27) was set up in Avord and equipped with Ju 52 / 3m and He 111 and in April 1941 to the IV. Group of KG 27 (IV./KG 27). The group was mainly deployed via England and moved to Langenhagen at the end of 1941 .
At the beginning of 1942, IV. Group of Kampfgeschwader 4 (IV./KG 4), also equipped with He 111, came to Avord for two years . Between January 1943 and May 1944, the place was also used by the pilot school C (or from October 1943 B 15) (FFS C or B 15). In addition, there was a Ju 188 squadron between October 1943 and April 1944 , the 4th season of the KG 66 (4th / KG 60). In the spring, two Fw 200 squadrons of the III. Group of Kampfgeschwader 40 (III./KG 40) Avord for a few weeks. Between March and June 1944, Ju 88s of the I. Group of KG 66 flew their last attacks against England.
The airfield was repeatedly targeted by Allied air raids in 1944 and almost completely destroyed by these and the withdrawing German troops, but at the beginning of 1945 it was the base of American Douglas DC-3 / C-47 to support French paratroopers .
After the war, the base 127 (BA 127), Avord's name at the time, was called home to the French transport flying school in June 1945 as a "retraining unit for twin-engine people". As part of the renumbering of all flight schools with 700 numbers, Avord received the number 702 in 1947 and was assigned the Dassault Flamant in 1952 and the C-47 in 1957.
After 1964, Avord also became an operational support base and was expanded for this purpose. In November 1965 Avord became a base for the Boeing C-135FR of the air refueling group ERV 4/94 "Sologne" and in the following month the EB 1/94 "Bourbonnais", a bomber group, whose main operational model was the Mirage IV, was added. Both units were renumbered in 1976, the latter was also given the name "Guyenne".
The base was named "Capitaine Georges Madon" in 1982 and the flight school was named the EMB-121 Xingu the following year . After the Mirage bomber squadron was decommissioned in 1986, it was jointly used by the Mirage 2000N of Jagdgruppe EC 2/4 "Lafayette" from base 116 after 1989 . In December 1990, the first Boeing E-3F arrived at the EDCA 0/36 "Berry" early warning group set up for this purpose, which was first used in 1992 over Yugoslavia . The tanker group was dissolved in 1993.
As part of a reorganization, two squadrons were reorganized in Avord in September 2014, an early warning squadron and an anti-aircraft squadron.
Todays use
The base currently (2018) houses two airborne and one ground-based formation:
- 36e escadre de commandement et de conduite aéroportée (36e EC2A), early warning squadron with the flying group Escadron de détection et de contrôle Aéroporté 0/36 (EDCA 0/36) "Berry", equipped with two E-3F squadrons , since 1990
- Escadre sol / air de défense aérienne-1er régiment d'artillerie de l'air (ESADA-1er RAA), anti-aircraft squadron, combines three subordinate units
- Ecole de l'aviation de transport 0/319 (EAT 0/319) "Capitaine Dartigues", transport flying school, equipped with the EMB-121 AA / AN Xingu , since 1983
future
The airfield will be renovated in the coming years and will subsequently become the second base for the Airbus A330 MRTT alongside Istres .
