Beauvechain military airfield
| Base aérienne de Beauvechain | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | EBB | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 104 m (341 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 3 km south of Beauvechain | ||
| Street | N91 | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | 1936 | ||
| operator | Belg. Air Force | ||
| Runways | |||
| 04L / 22R | 3074 m × 45 m asphalt | ||
| 04R / 22L | 2450 m × 23 m asphalt | ||
The Base aérienne de Beauvechain is a military airfield of the Belgian air component . The base is in the Wallonia region in the province of Walloon Brabant near Beauvechain . It is the main base for pilot training in Belgium.
history
The then Aviation Militaire Belge established an airfield between Beauvechain and Meldert in 1936.
After the start of the German Wehrmacht's western campaign at the beginning of World War II , the Luftwaffe attacked the base, which it captured shortly afterwards and which it continued to use as the war continued. Initially , parts of Kampfgeschwader 3 (KG 3) and 30 (KG 30), both equipped with Ju 88A , were located in Le Culot , as it was then called . With the advance of the Wehrmacht on France, the latter left the base, while the KG 3 remained stationed in Belgium until March 1941, before it was relocated to Poland in the run-up to the attack on the Soviet Union . During this time the Ju 88 of the squadron took part in the Battle of Britain .
After the KG 3 left the airfield, it was modernized and expanded. This resulted in two concrete runways as well as hangars , workshops and barracks buildings . After expanding to a full-fledged air base the place between December 1941 and May 1942 was based on Ju 88 for maritime patrol over the North Atlantic and the North Sea of education groups 22 (AufklGr 22) and, as of April 1942, 33 (AufklGr 33).
In November 1943, the II. Gruppe / Kampfgeschwader 6 (II./KG 6) moved here. In the spring of 1944 she flew missions in southern England as part of the Steinbock company before she was completely destroyed in the fighting after the Allied landings in Normandy . The I. Kampf- / Lehrgeschwader 1 (I. (K) / LG 1) and the I./KG 30 were also stationed in Le Culot in the middle of summer 1944.
In the run-up to the Allied invasion of Normandy , the airfield was bombed by the 8th US Air Force of the USAAF in early 1944 and was increasingly the target of fighter-bomber attacks from the summer , especially after the Air Force had stationed FW 190 here . The Americans used Airfield A.89 (originally B.68 ), the Allied code name, after a six-week repair phase on their part between October 1944 and June 1945 as a base for fighter and light bomber groups.
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After the war, in autumn 1946, Beauvechain became the home base of the two Spitfire squadrons of the 160th Squadron ( 160th Wing ), which had previously been in Faßberg as 349th and 350th Squadron ( RAF ) . The following year, the squadron received a third squadron before it was renamed 1st Wing in February 1948 . A fourth season was added in the same year.
In 1951 the unit received a second night fighter squadron with the Meteor NF.30 / NF.11 . The squadron in the 1950s consisted of up to six squadrons, in addition to those mentioned above, these were the 4th, 10th, 11th and 42nd. Later the Hunter F.4 was flown and in 1957 the 4th and 10th squadrons were disbanded. In the following year the CF-100 was introduced and the squadron was named 1st All-Weather Fighter Wing.
The 11th Squadron was disbanded in 1960 and replaced by the 42nd Squadron, equipped with RF-84F , before the squadron converted to the F-104G from April 1963 .
The first F-16 arrived in Beauvechain in January 1979, where it initially served at a conversion facility. The 1st Fighter Squadron was dissolved in 1996 and gave its squadrons to Florennes and Kleine Brogel .
They were replaced by the Marchettis , Magister and Alpha Jets , which were previously in Gossoncourt and Brustem and which from then on formed the 1st Squadron, which is still active today. The 7th season gave their Alpha Jets to the 11th season in September 2005, which then moved to Cazaux , France , where they then belonged to the Franco-Belgian Advanced Jet Training School (AJeTS). The 7th season existed for two years until the Magister was decommissioned in 2007.
Todays use
The base currently (2015) hosts the following flying associations:
- 1st Squadron ( 1st Wing ), equipped with helicopters in three squadrons
- 15. Smaldeel , equipped with Agusta A109BA , in Beauvechain since 2010
- 17. Smaldeel , equipped with A109BA helicopters, in Beauvechain since 2010
- 18. Smaldeel , equipped with NH90 Caïman transport helicopters , since 2013
- Competence center of the air force ( Center de Compétence Air Component ) with two squadrons ( 5th and 9th Smaldeel ) SF-260D / M + basic trainers, since 1996
There are also some non-flying units.
Web links
- Homepage of the 1st Squadron (French)
- Henry L. deZeng IV: Luftwaffe Airfields 1935–45, Belgium and Luxembourg