Guidonia military airfield

Military airfield Guidonia ; “Alfredo Barbieri”
Characteristics
ICAO code	LIRG
Coordinates	41 ° 59 '25 " N , 12 ° 44' 27" E Coordinates: 41 ° 59 '25 " N , 12 ° 44' 27" E
Height above MSL	88 m (289 ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	28 km northeast of Rome
Street	A1 , Via Tiburtina , SP 636, Via Cristofaro Ferrari
train	Guidonia-Montecelio-Sant'Angelo train station
Local transport	Regional train FR2
Basic data
opening	1916
operator	Aeronautica Militare
Runways
18/36	1462 m × 30 m asphalt
04/22	1200 m × 60 m grass

The Guidonia military airfield is located in the Italian region of Lazio , almost 30 kilometers northeast of Rome , in the urban area of Guidonia Montecelio . Between the two world wars, one of the most important flight test centers in Europe was located here. Today the military airfield only plays a subordinate role. It is partially open to general aviation .

Infrastructure and use

The airport is on the Rome- Pescara railway line , on a plain at the foot of the central Apennines , not far from Tivoli . It has an asphalt runway almost 1500 meters long and another grass runway . Most of the military installations are in the north, the main entrance is in the northwest.

The training command of the Italian Air Force was located in Guidonia until 2007 , when it moved to Bari . The Air Force personnel selection center and the so-called Scuola di Aerocooperazione , which trains members of all branches of the armed forces and other authorities in the field of aerial and satellite image analysis (IMINT) and promotes cooperation between the air, land and naval forces in various other areas, will remain in Guidonia . The Luftwaffe's gliding school is also located here ( 60º Stormo , Grob G 103 , LAK-17 , Nimbus 4DM ), as well as various administrative offices and a branch of the Vigna di Valle Air Force Museum . The Aeroclub Rome, which is based at the Rome-Urbe airfield, has a flying school at the Guidonia airfield .

history

The airfield was built near Montecelio in 1916 and initially served primarily for training purposes. He was named after the military pilots Alfredo Barbieri, who in the First World War had fallen. After the war, a flight test center with various scientific facilities was built here. In 1928, the 47-year-old head of the center, Brigadier General Alessandro Guidoni , died while testing a new parachute in Montecelio. That year, Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo Del Prete started from here on a 7,000-kilometer non-stop flight to Brazil . On the basis of the ideas and plans of the scientist Gaetano Arturo Crocco , the Direzione Superiore Studi ed Esperienze (German: "Higher Directorate for Studies and Trials") was set up in Montecelio from 1935 . This was initiated by Benito Mussolini , who collected the achievements of the scientists in Montecelio for fascism . Mussolini had the airfield and his research facilities expanded and a new city built next to it in the style of his movement, Guidonia, named after General Alessandro Guidoni. Later Guidonia and Montecelio were united. In the course of the expansion, an internationally acclaimed supersonic wind tunnel was created under Antonio Ferri . The numerous international records that Italian aviation set between the two world wars were based to a not inconsiderable extent on the work of the scientists in Guidonia. From December 1939 to December 1941 the airline LATI, a subsidiary of Ala Littoria , used the airfield for scheduled flights to South America . During the Second World War , the Guidonia airfield and its scientific facilities were largely destroyed by Allied bombers.

After the war, the airfield served temporarily as the location of two squadrons, then again for training purposes. The military gliding school that existed in Pavullo nel Frignano before the war was rebuilt in Guidonia and, together with the local airfield command, renamed the 60th Squadron (60º Stormo) in 2015 , creating a formerly in Amendola training association (60ea Brigata Aerea) . From 1988 to 1991, the first flying unit of the Italian Coast Guard operated from Guidonia and then moved to the Sarzana-Luni military airfield near La Spezia .

The Italian Air Force built a new flight test center on the Pratica di Mare military airfield in south-west Rome, which continues Guidonia's aviation and scientific traditions.

photos

The airfield in 1934
Monument to Alessandro Guidoni
Coat of arms 60º Stormo / 60ª BA (Guidonia)

literature

Antonio Ferri: Investigations and experiments in the supersonic wind tunnel at Guidonia. Lilienthal Society, Berlin 1938.

Web links

Commons : Guidonia Air Base - Collection of images, videos and audio files