Hradčany Air Base
Hradčany Airport Letiště Hradčany | |||||||||||
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AMSL 912 ft / 278 m | | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 50°37′14″N 14°44′17″E / 50.62056°N 14.73806°E | ||||||||||
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Location of airport in Czech Republic | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Hradčany Airport (in
History
The area was used for military training during
After the war, German speaking inhabitants were
Between 1945 and 1968 the Czechoslovak Air Force operated several regiments from Hradčany airfield:[3]
- 46 Bomber Division (46 letecké bombardovací divize) between 1951 and 1955.
- 24 Bomber Regiment (24. letecký bombardovací pluk) between 1952 and 1954.
- 25 Bomber Regiment (25. letecký bombardovací pluk) between 1952 and 1954.
- 17 Fighter Regiment (17. stíhací letecký pluk) between 1955 and 1964.
- 26 Fighter Regiment (26. stíhací letecký pluk) between 1956 and 1958.
- 30 Fighter-Bomber Regiment (30. stíhací bombardovací letecký pluk) between 1958 and 1959.
- 2 Fighter-Bomber Regiment (2 stíhací bombardovací letecký pluk) between 1964 and 1968.
Aircraft operated from the airfield included Arado Ar-96Bs, AS-11s, and MiG-15 (MiG-15, MiG-15bisR and MiG-15UTI).
Former airport
After the fall of the communist party from power in 1989, withdrawal of Soviet troops was negotiated in February 1990. The last soldier left the district in May 1991. The district lost its military status in the same year, was open to the public and on 1 January 1992 the village of Ralsko (area of 170 km2, town since 2006) was established by joining of nine villages together. Between 1993 and 2004 the area was extensively cleaned up from chemical contamination and searched for unexploded ammunition.
Soon after the airport was handed over to Czech authorities several projects has been proposed: setting up large cargo terminal here, to use it by
The airport is now (without official certification) used by
Notes
- ^ "Short info about the former village Hradčany" (in Czech).
- ^ "Vojenský výcvikový prostor Ralsko a letiště v Hradčanech" (in Czech). Archived from the original on 2007-09-28.
- ^ Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Czech Republic: Hradcany Archived 2013-01-20 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 2012
- ^ "Na místě ruské střelnice v Ralsku chce poslanec Farský skautskou rezervaci". 30 October 2018.
Literature
- Ladislav Lahoda: Průvodce bývalým vojenským prostorem Ralsko (Guide through former military district Ralsko), 2000, selfpublished. Shortened version online (PDF).
External links
- Short information about the airport (in Czech)
- Article about recent state of the airport: part 1, part 2, collection of photos (in Czech)