Venaria Reale military airfield

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Venaria Reale Military Air Base
“Mario Santi”
Venaria Reale (Italy)
Venaria Reale
Venaria Reale
Characteristics
Coordinates

45 ° 7 '52 "  N , 7 ° 36' 38"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 7 '52 "  N , 7 ° 36' 38"  E
Height above MSL 262 m (860  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 8 km northwest of Turin
Street A55
train Turin suburban train
Local transport bus
Basic data
opening 1909
operator Aviazione dell'Esercito
Runways
15/33 600 m × 30 m grass
18/36 400 m × 30 m grass

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The Venaria Reale military airfield is located in the northern Italian region of Piedmont , around eight kilometers northwest of Turin near Venaria Reale near the royal palace of the same name .

Infrastructure and use

The small army airfield connects to the castle park, which was once used as a parade ground. The airfield has two grass runways and a helipad . He is currently owned by one with helicopters equipped army aviation unit used (34 ° Distaccamento permanent "Toro") .

history

The airfield, which was built in 1909, is one of the oldest in Italy. In May 1909 one of the first motorized aircraft built in Italy, the Faccioli triplane No. 2, took off from Venaria Reale. The predecessor model Faccioli No. 1, developed in 1908 by the engineer and founder of the Società Faccioli Ferro Rampone , Aristide Faccioli, was in January 1909 lifted off at the racecourse in Mirafiori. The Turin-Mirafiori airfield was opened there in 1911 and closed in 1947. Aristide Faccioli and his son Mario, who piloted the planes, gave up their activities in Venaria Reale in 1910 and moved them to the Cameri airfield .

In 1912, a military flight school was established in Venaria Reale , which remained active until World War II . Reconnaissance aircraft were also stationed at the airfield during World War II . After the war damage had been removed, the Army Aviation took over the airfield and set up a flying unit there in 1954 with Piper L-21B propeller aircraft to support the Alpini Brigade Taurinense and the Cremona Infantry Division (both with staff in Turin). From this unit a small flying unit of the Taurinense Brigade emerged in December 1957 , which in 1976 was subordinated to the 4th Altair (Mountain) Army Aviation Regiment in Bozen as 442º Squadrone , but remained operationally assigned to the Taurinense in the western Alps. On September 1, 1985 the Army Aviation Division 34º Gruppo Squadroni “Toro” was set up in Venaria Reale and the two Army Aviation Squadrons 442º Squadron in Venaria and 545º Squadron in Pollein in the Aosta Valley are subordinated to it. The latter previously belonged to the mountain troop school in Aosta . In 1991 this season was also moved to Venaria; since then, the helipad in Pollein ( ⊙ ) has been used as a forward base. Parts of the 34th Army Aviation Department and the Taurinense Brigade were assigned to the NATO Allied Command Europe Mobile Forces and therefore practiced in Norway and Turkey, among other places . There were other missions abroad (often with the Taurinense ) in Mozambique , the former Yugoslavia , Iraq , Afghanistan and Lebanon . In Piedmont and northwestern Italy, the helicopters from Venaria Reale became known for numerous rescue missions for the civilian population, especially for rescue flights in the western Alps. The planned dissolution of the association for cost reasons and the abandonment of the traditional airfield therefore met with resistance. In 2019 the 442º Squadrone was dissolved and the 34º Gruppo Squadroni “Toro” became the “34. advanced unit “downgraded (34º Distaccamento permanente“ Toro ”) .

Over time, the following types of helicopters (built by Agusta under license from Bell ) were stationed in Venaria Reale: AB-47 , AB-204 , AB-205 (still in service) and AB-206 .

Web links