Wideawake Airfield

RAF Ascension Island Wideawake Airfield Ascension Island Auxiliary Airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code	FHAW
IATA code	ASI
Coordinates	7 ° 58 '11 "  S , 14 ° 23' 37"  W Coordinates: 7 ° 58 '11 "  S , 14 ° 23' 37"  W
Height above MSL	85 m (279  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	3 miles southeast of Georgetown
Basic data
operator	British Forces South Atlantic Islands
Start-and runway
13/31	3054 m × 46 m asphalt

The Wideawake Airfield or RAF Ascension Island is a military airfield of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) on the island of Ascension in the South Atlantic , which is operated jointly with the US Air Force . The latter refer to it as the Ascension Island Auxiliary Airfield . The northwestern settlement of Traveller's Hill , which belongs to the base, has about 200 inhabitants. The runway was approved as a possible emergency runway for the space shuttle .

history

The airfield was created in 1942 by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) after a corresponding agreement with the British government in order to be able to protect the transatlantic supply routes of the Allies with air support. The first plane landed at Ascension in June of the same year, and construction work was completed in August. After the end of the Second World War , the airfield was abandoned, but in 1957 the US Air Force reopened it.

In the Falklands War of 1982, Wideawake played a key role as a base for the aircraft used during Operation Black Buck .

Due to potholes, the runway had to be closed to large aircraft in April 2017. The airfield should no longer be usable for aircraft the size of an Airbus A330 until at least mid-2022 , before the necessary repairs are completed. Smaller aircraft are exempt from the landing ban.

Repair of the runway was for 170 million in January 2020 dollars to an American US awarded companies. The renovation is expected to take 28 months.

Flight connections

Before the runway was closed for large aircraft in 2017, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had up to four flights a week to Brize Norton military airport (Great Britain) and the Falkland Islands . These flights were operated by the RAF itself or by civil airlines on its behalf. Air Seychelles (in 2010), Titan Airways (in 2011) and AirTanker, among others, were commissioned with the military charter flights . The US Air Force flies to the airport once a month from Patrick Air Force Base ( Florida , USA ).

Since the end of the 1980s, the airport has also been released for civil flight operations in order to be able to develop the island for tourism. However, until 2015 there was no commercial airline interest in establishing civil flight connections. At the end of 2015, the South African company Comair was selected to operate a flight connection from St. Helena Airport on the island of St. Helena to Ascension. A monthly return flight between the two islands was planned with a Boeing 737-800 . Due to the problems with the airport on St. Helena, Comair has not started operations on this route.

Airlink has been connecting Johannesburg with St. Helena Airport since October 2017 . There is an onward flight to Ascension once a month. The first flight on this route took place on November 18, 2017. The aircraft used, an Embraer E190 , meets the criteria necessary for a safe landing on St. Helena and is not affected by the runway closure on Ascension.

gallery

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  View of the airfield

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  Royal Air Force machine on the airfield

Web links

Commons : Airfield Wideawake  - Collection of Images

• Aeronautical chart for Wideawake on SkyVector.com
• RAF Ascension Island. Royal Air Force information on Wideawake. In: Royal Air Force. (English). 
• FHAW - ASCENSION I. (PDF; 340 kB) Airfield and approach charts (Jeppesen). December 12, 2008(English). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ British Forces South Atlantic Islands. In: Permanent Joint Operating Bases (PJOBs). Government of the United Kingdom, December 12, 2012, accessed June 20, 2019 . 
2. ^ Justine Whitman: Space Shuttle Abort Modes. In: Aerospaceweb.org. June 25, 2006, accessed June 20, 2019 (listed in the article as "Ascension Auxiliary Air Field"). 
3. ↑ João Vitor Tossini: Ascension Iceland and Britain's presence in the South Atlantic. In: UK Defense Journal. George Allison, July 27, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019 . 
4. ^ Les Smith: Ascension at War - The Wide-Awake News. In: Ascension Island - 1997 visit. Retrieved on June 21, 2019 (English, compilation of excerpts from a contemporary troop newspaper). 
5. ↑ Stefan Eiselin: Ascension Island: British island without a flight connection. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. April 24, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Stefan Eiselin: Broken slopes: Ascension at least two years without flights. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. May 17, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2019 . 
7. ^ Fluor Corporation awarded Ascension Island runway contract. The Sentinel, January 23, 2020, p. 6.
8. ↑ Flights to Ascension Island, flight schedule. (No longer available online.) In: ascension-flights.com. Ascension Island Government, archived from the original on November 26, 2015 ; accessed on June 22, 2019 (English). 
9. ^ Air Seychelles begins operating Brize Norton-Falklands Air Bridge. In: MercoPress. January 28, 2010, accessed June 22, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Falklands Air Bridge. In: titan-airways.com. September 1, 2011, accessed June 22, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Alastair Leithead: Ascension Islanders left stranded after RAF halts flights. In: BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation , July 4, 2017, accessed June 22, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Comair announced as preferred bidder for Ascension – St Helena air service. In: ascension-island.gov.ac. Ascension Island Government, October 9, 2015, accessed June 22, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Fly here. In: Saint Helena Island Info: All about St Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean. John Turner, accessed June 23, 2019 . 
14. ^ Airlink Schedules & Fares. In: ascension-island.gov.ac. Ascension Island Government, accessed June 23, 2019 . 
15. ^ First Flight to Ascension Island. In: sainthelena.gov.sh. St Helena Government, November 21, 2017, accessed June 23, 2019 .