Cameri military airfield

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Cameri military airfield
“Natale e Silvio Palli”
AeroportoCameri.JPG
Characteristics
ICAO code LIMN
Coordinates

45 ° 31 '47 "  N , 8 ° 40' 9"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 31 '47 "  N , 8 ° 40' 9"  E
Height above MSL 179 m (587  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 3 km north of Cameri
Street A4 , SS 32, SP 4
Local transport bus
Basic data
opening 1909
operator Aeronautica Militare
Start-and runway
17/35 2990 m × 30 m asphalt

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The Cameri military airfield is located about 40 kilometers west of Milan in the northern Italian region of Piedmont , about ten kilometers northeast of the provincial capital Novara and three kilometers north of Cameri . It is named after the two pilots and brothers Natale and Silvio Palli.

Infrastructure and use

The military airfield has a runway that is almost three kilometers long and runs in a north-south direction parallel to the Ticino rivers in the east and Sesia in the west. The majority of the military facilities with parking areas , maintenance hangars and some protected aircraft shelters are in the north, the main entrance is in the west. In the northeast of the Army base at borders Bellinzago Novarese with associated training area on the airfield. The Leonardo company operates a final assembly line for the new Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter on the site .

The Cameri airfield is an important location for the logistics command of the Italian Air Force . The command maintains a maintenance association here, which is responsible for the technical overhaul of Eurofighter F / TF-2000 Typhoon and Panavia A / EA-200 Tornado fighter aircraft . There are also material depots here.

history

The airfield was laid out in autumn 1909, making it one of the oldest in Italy. The French engineer Clovis Thouvenot, representative of the aircraft designer Gabriel Voisin in Italy, built the airfield together with some Italian partners and employees. In addition to maintenance hangars, they also built production facilities and a civil flight school . In 1913, the Italian aircraft designer Giuseppe Gabardini took over these facilities and expanded them, especially the flight school. The airfield was declared a military airfield in 1930 by order of the fascist aviation minister Italo Balbo , but the civilian companies on site were largely allowed to continue their operations. After Gabardini's death, Fiat used the facilities to repair aircraft from 1936. During the Second World War , the Italian Air Force stationed various bomber formations in Cameri from 1940 to 1943. In September 1943, the German Air Force took over the airfield and expanded it. Shortly before the occupation by Allied ground troops, German units blew up almost all of the airfield's facilities.

After setting up a small airfield command in the summer of 1947 and starting to rebuild it in the following years, the 2nd Squadron (2 ( Aerobrigata or 2º Stormo ) with its F-86 Saber was able to move from Bergamo to Cameri in 1957 . However, it stayed here for only five years and then moved on to Treviso (and later to Rivolto ). During his time in Cameri, the squadron maintained the aerobatic team Lancieri Neri . An F-86 of this squadron is still standing in front of the main entrance to the airfield.

In 1967 the 53rd Squadron ( 53º Stormo ) was re-established in Cameri , a fighter unit that had been used during the Second World War to defend Turin and Milan , among other things . As the only flying unit it received the 21st squadron ( 21º Gruppo ) with aircraft of the type F-104 Starfighter , which one flew in Cameri in different versions until 1997. Because of the delays in the introduction of the Eurofighter , the Italian Air Force was forced to convert the squadron to Tornados of the air defense variant ADV, which had been leased from the British Royal Air Force as an interim solution. The 21st season flew with these machines from Cameri until the summer of 1999 and then came to Gioia del Colle for a few years . Because of the relocation of its only flying squadron, the 53rd Squadron in Cameri was disbanded in 1999. The technical and logistical systems and units mentioned remain at the airport.

The 21st squadron, now a helicopter unit in Grazzanise , has had a tiger in its coat of arms since it was re-established. For this reason, she has been participating in the NATO Tiger Meet since the late 1960s . Cameri was the venue in 1973, 1980 and 1988.

Others

Since the introduction of the tornado in the 1980s, there have been connections between Cameri and the German air base Erding due to various similarities in logistical and technical support . At both airports, flight operations had to be severely restricted due to major airports close by, and in Cameri due to the expansion of the Milan-Malpensa airport .

Web links