Air Force Base Swartkop is South Africa's oldest

air force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

base and houses the South African Air Force Museum. It is managed as part of

AFB Waterkloof Air Force Base Waterkloof is an airbase of the South African Air Force. It is situated on the outskirts of Pretoria, and is the SAAF's busiest airbase. The base's name means "water ravine" in Afrikaans and in Dutch. Despite the name, this base i ...

and houses one of the three branches of the South African Air Force Museum. The name of the air force base, ''Swartkop'' means ''Black hill'' in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

. AFB Swartkop is located in the town

Centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

(previously Verwoerdburg) in the

Gauteng Province Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1.5% of the coun ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, between

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

and

Midrand Midrand is a town in central Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated in-between Centurion, Gauteng, Centurion and Sandton. Formerly an independent municipality, Midrand now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. History ...

(

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

), which is a part of the

City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (; ; ), also known as the City of Tshwane (), is the Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of northern Gauteng in South Africa. The metro ...

History

Air Force Station (AFS) Zwartkop was established in April 1921 after a private farm named Zwartkop was acquired by the Government in 1920. The Dutch spelling of Zwartkop was retained for the Air Force Station that was subsequently established there. On 1 April 1949, the Dutch spelling was dropped in favour of the Afrikaans spelling and resulted in Air Force Station Swartkop. The Air Force Station was upgraded to an Air Force Base on 1 February 1968. The name of the base reverted to the original "Zwartkop" in 2012. The SAAF claims Swartkop is the second oldest air station in the world and the oldest operational air station in the world. Over the years many distinguished Squadrons have been based at Swartkop. This includes 26 Squadron SAAF which was formed there on 24 August 1942. The Chief of the South African Air Force opened the relocated South African Air Force Museum at AFB Swartkop in 1993. The Air Force Base reverted to Air Force Station status in 1999. This decision was made by the South African Air Force to vacate the base and leave behind the South African Air Force Museum located there and to keep the Airfield as an extension of Air Force Base Waterkloof. The SAAF Museum Historic Flight has also moved to the airfield. As of December 2013 the South African Air Force still hasn't vacated all operational units on the base. The South African Air Force Museum currently occupies the northern side of the base while 17 Squadron is housed at the southern side of the base. In May 2023 the facility was redesignated a "mobile deployment wing".

South African Air Force Memorial

The South African Air Force Memorial is located at Swartkop. It contains a roll of honour of SAAF personnel who have been killed on duty as well as a memorial to personnel of all nations that died during the

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a large-scale multinational military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the Second Wo ...

in South Africa.

Gallery

Image:SAAF Mirage F1CZ at AFB Swartkop.jpg, A SAAF Mirage F1 on static display as part of the South African Air Force Museum. Image:SAAF-Cheetah-001.jpg, Cheetah C at the South African Air Force Museum. Image:South_African_Air_Force_Mustang_in_AFB_Swartkop.jpg, SAAF North American Mustang at the South African Air Force Museum. Image:SAAF_Buccaneer_on_static_display_with_munitions_and_radar.jpg, SAAF

Blackburn Buccaneer The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British aircraft carrier, carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough Aerodrome, Brough, it was later officially k ...

on static display with munition loadout and its Blue Parrot radar system.

References

External links

AFB Swartkop
on saairforce.co.za
Swartkop SAAF Museum website
{{authority control Swartkop Swartkop Transport in Gauteng City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

History

South African Air Force Memorial

Gallery

See also

References

External links