Shanghai Longhua Airport

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Shanghai Longhua Airport
Shanghai Lunghwa Airport Terminal.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code ZSSL
Coordinates

31 ° 10 ′ 1 ″  N , 121 ° 27 ′ 13 ″  E Coordinates: 31 ° 10 ′ 1 ″  N , 121 ° 27 ′ 13 ″  E
Basic data
opening before 1930
surface (formerly) approx. 4000 ha
Start-and runway
18R / 36L 600 m × 60 m concrete (built over today)

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The Shanghai Longhua Airport (ICAO: ZSSL), also known as Shanghai Lunghwa Airport called, was a former civilian airport and PLAAF airfield south of downtown Shanghai , People's Republic of China , on the banks of the Huangpu River .

A provisional airfield already existed in Longhua in the 1920s. In China, after the collapse of the central Beiyang government and the end of the First World War, civil war raged and various warlords tried to build an air force to consolidate their position of power. Since the import of foreign aircraft turned out to be difficult, General Lu, the local ruler in Shanghai, commissioned the German company Buchheister & Co., which was based in Longhua, with the construction of the first aircraft made in China with the aid of individual parts imported from Europe. Under the direction of the German technician Leopold Schoettler , the first small series of aircraft was built in Longhua in 1923/24 - named Schoettler I after the head of production .

The airport was opened for passenger traffic in the 1930s and it was given a semicircular terminal in the Art Deco style.

During the Second World War , Japanese naval air forces used the airport as a base. In February 1944 an air defense unit with over 30 fighter planes, including the famous Japanese fighter Zero , was stationed there.

The airport then served as the city's main airport until the 1950s when Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport opened, and remained in commercial use until 1966. After that, the airfield served as an emergency landing site for police, fire and rescue operations and a flight school used the airport's old hangars.

A single runway (18/36) has now been built over and the old terminal building is now surrounded by apartments and houses an exhibition of historical aircraft.

Incidents

On December 25, 1946, a Curtiss C-46 Commando of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) ( aircraft registration number B-115 ) had an accident while approaching Shanghai Longhua Airport in thick fog. Of the 36 occupants, 31 were killed (one crew member and three passengers). On that day, a total of three aircraft crashed in the Shanghai area with very poor visibility.

Web links

Commons : Shanghai Longhua Airport  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Longhua Airport (ZSSL) on the Aviation Safety Network homepage
  2. ↑ Lennart Andersson: The first German aircraft in China. Published in: The Propeller Blade. Bulletin of the Aviation Interest Group 1900–1920. Number 25, summer 2009. Pages III / 921 to III / 923.
  3. ↑ Article: Zeros over China, 1941-1942 on the webpage The Warbird's Forum (in English).
  4. ^ Accident report Curtiss C-46 B-115 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 19, 2020.