Pontoise Aerodrome or Pontoise – Cormeilles Aerodrome (french: Aérodrome de Pontoise - Cormeilles) is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located northwest of

Pontoise Pontoise () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the "new town" of Cergy-Pontoise. Administration Pontoise is the official ''préfecture'' (capital) of the Val-d'Oise ''dép ...

in Boissy l'Aillerie near

Cormeilles-en-Vexin Cormeilles-en-Vexin (, literally ''Cormeilles in Vexin'') is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. Education The commune has a single combined preschool (''maternelle'') and elementary school, Ecole Jean Ja ...

, all

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...

of the

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.

department in the

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

region in northern France. The airport is also located northwest of Paris. It supports mostly

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

History

Built in 1937, the airfield was used by the French Army prior to the Second World War.

German use during the Second World War

Seized by the Germans in June 1940 during the Battle of France, Cormeilles-en-Vexin was used as a

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

military airfield during the occupation. Known units assigned (all from Luftlotte 3, Fliegerkorps IV): The Luftwaffe, 1933-45
/ref> * Kampfgeschwader 76 (KG 76) June 1940-7 June 1941 Dornier Do 17Z; Junkers Ju 88A * Kampfgeschwader 53 (KG 53) 22 November-30 December 1942 Heinkel He 111 * Kampfgeschwader 6 (KG 6) 6 December 1942-September 1943 Junkers Ju 88A * Jagdgeschwader 2 (JG 2) 27 November 1943 – 7 June 1944 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A * Kampfgeschwader 66 (KG 66) February–June 1944

Junkers Ju 188 The Junkers Ju 188 was a German ''Luftwaffe'' high-performance medium bomber built during World War II, the planned follow-up to the Ju 88 with better performance and payload. It was produced only in limited numbers, due both to the presence of i ...

KG 76 participated in the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

; KG 53 and KG 6 performed night bombing raids over England; KG 6 was a day interceptor unit against Eighth Air Force bombing raids; KG 66 flew raids over Allied shipping around England. The Luftwaffe also constructed two concrete, all weather runways, both of which are still in use today. Largely due to its use as a base for Fw 190 interceptors, Cormeilles was attacked by USAAF

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint De ...

B-26 Marauder medium bombers and

P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bom ...

s mostly with 500-pound General-Purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers (

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base. The attacks were timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers. Also the P-51 Mustang fighter-escort groups of Eighth Air Force would drop down on their return to England and attack the base with a fighter sweep and attack any target of opportunity to be found at the airfield.

American use

It was liberated by Allied ground forces about 6 September 1944 during the Northern France Campaign. Almost immediately, the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

IX Engineer Comman
818th Engineer Aviation Battalion
cleared the airport of mines and destroyed Luftwaffe aircraft. Due to the Allied air attacks on the base, a significant amount of battle damage was sustained, which needed to be repaired to put the base back into operational use. The airport became a USAAF

combat airfield, designated as "A-59" about a week later, on 15 September. It was also known as "Cormeilles-En-Vexin Advanced Landing Ground". Under American control, the

assigned the 344th Bombardment Group, flying B-26 Marauder medium bombers to the airfield on 30 September 1944, remaining at the base until 9 April 1945. The 410th Bombardment Group replaced the 344th with A-26 Invader medium bombers in May, remaining until June when they were withdrawn. The Americans returned full control of the airport to French authorities on 17 July 1945. A memorial to the American use of the airport has been erected near the control tower

Modern

After the war, the airport was refurbished and reopened for public use in August 1946. Since 21 April 1949, the airport has been managed by Aéroports de Paris. An aircraft parking ramp on the southeast side of the airfield, along with several new hangars and support infrastructure, which appear to be used by the government or the military, are separate from the civil airport. Noise measurement trials related to a typical electric-powered short range craft were underway in Spring 2022 in preparation for a tentative network to be provided during the Paris Olympiad of 2024. Volocopter first flew its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) rotary drone at the Paris Air Forum held in June 2021. In the past, there were scheduled flights by

Aigle Azur Aigle Azur was a French airline based and headquartered at Paris Orly Airport. The airline operated scheduled flights from France to 21 destinations across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with a fleet of Airbus A320 family and A330 airc ...

(between 1988 and 1995) and Debonair (between November 1998 and October 1999) operated from the airport daily to London (Gatwick and Luton), using Embraer and

BAe BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

146-100 and 200 respectively. In addition, there were also seasonal daily flights to Brighton operated both by Skysouth using a

Piper Chieftain The Piper PA-31 Navajo is a family of cabin-class, twin-engined aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft for the general aviation market, most using Lycoming engines. It was also license-built in a number of Latin American countries. Ta ...

and subsequently

Brighton City Airways City Airways Limited, trading as Brighton City Airways, was a short-lived British virtual airline that sold tickets for one route, Shoreham Airport (West Sussex) to Cormeilles Aerodrome, Pontoise, north west of Paris, France, between March 2 ...

using a

Let L-410 Turbolet The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft, manufactured by the Czech aircraft manufacturer Let Kunovice (named Aircraft Industries since 2005), often used as an airliner. The aircraft is capable of landing on short a ...

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has two paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s. The main runway is 05/23 which measures and is equipped with ILS. The secondary runway is 12/30 measuring . * An area of * 4 Warehouses * Number of companies based: 5 * A parking area 12,400 square meters and 3 aircraft hangars of 10,000 square meters. * Airport Assistance for business aviation and airlines * Ameridair Handling

Airlines and destinations

There are no regular passenger services. Scheduled flights to Brighton operated by

ended on 6 May 2013.

Statistics

Flying clubs

* Aéropilot * ASTH * CPAC * Hispano-Suiza

Relics

Many wartime relics can be found at the airport:Pontoise - Cormeilles en Vexin-LFPT
* Luftwaffe barracks, water tower and what appears to be a parachute training tower: * Hardstands and dispersal sites: * Luftwaffe aircraft hangar: * Ammunition dump with many concrete bunkers (in wooded area):

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pontoise - Cormeilles Aerodrome Airports in Île-de-France World War II airfields in France Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in France Val-d'Oise Airports established in 1937 1937 establishments in France