Swiss Central Airport Utzenstorf

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The Swiss Central Airport Utzenstorf was a project developed during the Second World War for an intercontinental airport in Utzenstorf , around 23 kilometers north of Bern and 10 kilometers south of Solothurn . Due to massive resistance, the project was never implemented and was abandoned in favor of Zurich-Kloten Airport .

history

In 1929 the Belpmoos airfield was opened near Belp south of Bern . A further expansion for approaches from different wind directions did not seem possible for topographical reasons. With the further development of the instrument landing system , an increase in flight movements was also to be expected. That is why in 1938/39 the city of Bern and the airport cooperative looked for a new location. The plain between Utzenstorf, Kirchberg and Koppigen , which is unobstructed in all directions, turned out to be ideal. The outbreak of the Second World War initially delayed further planning. In 1942, the federal administration created an expansion program for Swiss civil airports, one of which was intended to serve intercontinental traffic. The Bern cantonal government then pushed the project for the Utzenstorf Central Airport forward and passed it on to the responsible federal authorities at the end of 1943.

The dimensions of the project were huge for the time. In the main wind direction (southwest-northeast) a 2800 meter long main runway was planned, for the cross winds three secondary runways, each 1700 meters long. The slopes would have been connected to the L-shaped apron area by an extensive taxiway network. In addition, a tower , an administration building, a passenger terminal with a hotel and restaurant wing , a garage wing , a freight terminal, a hangar , a shipyard and workshops were planned. The development would have taken place via two new connecting roads to be built to Hauptstrasse 1 near Kirchberg and to Aefligen . A railway connection was also planned: a branch line would have branched off from the Emmental Railway (Solothurn– Burgdorf ) at Aefligen, which would have led to a terminus ; the freight terminal would also have been connected to the rail network. The area required was 309 hectares ; 132 of these would have been on meadow and arable land, and 177 hectares of forest would have had to be cleared. The total costs were estimated at 88.5 million francs.

Fierce political resistance to the project began among the rural local population. In the course of the cultivation battle , the agricultural area was massively expanded in the war years. The inhabitants of the region did not see why one of the most fertile plains of the Central Plateau should fall victim to a major project in this time of crisis . There was also resistance to the project from the canton of Zurich : the Dübendorf military airfield was also used for civilian purposes at the time and reached its capacity limits, which is why the Zurich cantonal government had a civilian airport planned. On the recommendation of the Federal Council , Parliament decided on June 22, 1945 to bring forward the Zurich project. The planned and finally opened in 1948 Zurich-Kloten airport had the advantage that the area was an agriculturally unused wetland and was already owned by the federal government as a military training area.

Today the A1 motorway and the new Mattstetten – Rothrist railway line, the most important east-west traffic axes in Switzerland, run just a few hundred meters east of the airport site, which was never built ; the airport would have been optimally developed. With regard to the current aircraft noise conflict with Germany, the central airport would have had the advantage over Zurich-Kloten that it was in the interior of the country.

The only large aircraft that ever touched the ground in Utzenstorf was an American Boeing B-17 ("Flying Fortress"), which made an emergency landing here on August 17, 1943 after the bombing of the Messerschmitt works in Regensburg ( Operation Double Strike ) had to.

Web links

literature

  • Sandro Fehr: The development of the third dimension. Origin and development of the civil aviation infrastructure in Switzerland, 1919–1990 . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-0340-1228-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First B-17 landings in Switzerland. Warbird Information File Switzerland, accessed March 19, 2010 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 6 ′ 39 "  N , 7 ° 34 ′ 15"  E ; CH1903:  610 030  /  217777