Thun military airfield

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Thun with airfield (back left)

The Thun military airfield ( ICAO code LSZW ) was a military airfield in Thun in the Swiss canton of Bern . It was retired from the Swiss Air Force in 1955 and has been used as a civil airfield for light aircraft ever since .

history

The first flying activity on the Thuner Allmend was mentioned in 1910. In 1913, the aviation pioneer Oskar Bider landed on one of his training and exploration flights to traverse the Alps on the Thuner Allmend.

The Swiss Air Force was founded in 1914 . The procurement of the latest generation of aircraft from abroad was no longer possible because of the First World War . In May 1915, the Federal Construction Workshop (K + W) in Thun received the order from the Federal Council to build six aircraft based on August Haefeli's designs . In June, K + W created its own department for the design and manufacture of aircraft.

Häfeli DH-1 No. 43 produced by K + W Thun
Bücker Bü 131 HB-UUD of the Bücker Fan Club Thun

To test the aircraft, halls were built on the Thuner Allmend and a runway with direction 23/05 and an emergency landing runway 33/15 were set up. In November 1915 the first new machine was ready for a test flight and in April 1916 the six DH- 1s were delivered.

The Thuner Allmend was not only used by the military but also by civil aviation. In 1933 the Aeroclub Berner Oberland was founded as a regional association in the Aero Club in Switzerland . There was also a regional balloon group, a gliding club and a model assembly group.

From 1940 onwards, aircraft construction was gradually relocated from Allmendstrasse in Thun to Emmen . In January 1943, the design office was relocated to Emmen in central Switzerland and the Federal Aircraft Factory was officially founded in Emmen.

With the withdrawal of the army into the Reduit , Thun airfield was outside the defensive limits of the Reduit ( blocking point Einigen ) and lost its importance. At the end of 1955 the military airfield was closed and the last military aircraft left Thun in the direction of Emmen.

In 1967/68 the runway had to be relocated twice under the Allmend due to the construction of the motorway tunnel. The motorized runway was renovated in 1986 and the glider runway in 1999. A hard-surfaced piste could not be realized because the Allmend is now a nature reserve.

The Thun Airfield Association has 167 active members and five groups for powered flight, glider flight, model flight, Bücker Fan Club and oldtimers / do-it-yourself (as of July 2015).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tagblatt der Stadt Thun of June 29, 1910: A monoplan of the société jurassienne d'aviation crashed during flight attempts on the Allmend.
  2. ^ Hermann Keist: Decommissioned military airfields
  3. ^ History of Thun Airfield

Coordinates: 46 ° 45 ′ 16 "  N , 7 ° 36 ′ 10"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred twelve thousand five hundred and thirty-eight  /  178155