Münster VS military airfield
The Münster military airfield ( ICAO code LSPU ) was a military airfield in Münster in the Swiss canton of Valais . The former Reduit airfield of the Swiss Air Force was retired in 1996 and has been used as a civil airfield (glider camp, etc.) since 1959 in the summer.
history
When the army withdrew into the Reduit, various airfields were located outside the Reduit's defensive limits. As a replacement, reduit airfields had to be built under great time pressure and effort: in the Bernese Oberland the airfields Saanen , St. Stephan , Zweisimmen , Reichenbach , Frutigen , Interlaken and Meiringen and in Valais Turtmann , Raron , Ulrichen , Münster and in central Switzerland Alpnach , Kägiswil and Mollis . Together with the Sion and Buochs airfields already in the Reduit area , the army had sixteen Reduit airfields.
Münster airfield is located in Obergoms (Valais) around ten kilometers southwest of the Furka and Grimsel passes between the villages of Münster and Reckingen . It was built as a military airfield during the Second World War with runways and has a hard-surfaced runway (05/23) 800 meters long.
The military airfield was occupied by an air force from December 1943 to February 1944. Fliegerkompanie 16, equipped with two-seater reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft C35 and C-36 , was stationed half in Münster and half on the neighboring Ulrichen military airfield . With the last stationing of fighter planes in 1944, the military activities at Münster airfield came to an end.
The civil airfield in Münster was operated by the Academic Flight Group Zurich (AFG) for 42 years. With the sale of the airfield site from the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (VBS) to the municipality of Münster-Geschinen in 2000, a broadly based owner (including AFG) was sought and the Münster airfield cooperative was founded in 2001 . The glider pilots bear the brunt of the airfield and are now being supported by local motor pilots, affected communities, local businesses and tourism organizations who are actively involved in the sponsorship.
On August 10, 2015, the Federal Office for Civil Aviation (Bazl) approved the conversion of the former Münster military airfield into a civil airfield.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Keist: Decommissioned military airfields
- ^ Münster: Former military airfield becomes glider airfield
Coordinates: 46 ° 28 '48 " N , 8 ° 15' 48" E ; CH1903: 663,325 / one hundred forty-seven thousand nine hundred fifty-five