Balchik Airfield ( bg, Летище Балчик) , is a

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 ...

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

and reduced former military

airbase An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

in the town of Balchik, northeast

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

coast. In August 2011 the Bulgarian government transformed Balchik airbase from a military to a civilian airport and it became part of the assets of the state-owned company Sofia Airport EAD. Due to its strategic location, the former military airfield has been home to different military aviation formations and performed different types of tasks related to the country's defence. Despite major structural changes in the

Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force ( bg, Военновъздушни сили, Voennovazdushni sili) is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and p ...

, the disbandment and closure of military airbases, Balchik airbase continues to perform reduced defence-related tasks. The intention to organize civil flights at Balchik airfield and its use as both a military airbase and a civilian airport established Balchik as a non-commercial regional transport hub, providing jobs and better use of the resources in this region. On 3 May 2012 at 19:06 the first private civil flight "

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

-Varna-Balchik" landed, via neighbouring

Varna Airport Varna Airport () is the airport of Varna, the historical maritime capital of Bulgaria. Varna Airport is the third largest airport in Bulgaria. It is located 10 kilometers from the center of Varna near the town of Aksakovo. The airport serves ...

due to the lack of

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the perso ...

border control Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

at Balchik airport. The airport's

civil aviation license at this stage is for non-commercial flights with a

maximum takeoff weight The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) or maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) or maximum takeoff mass (MTOM) of an aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot is allowed to attempt to take off, due to structural or other limits. The analogou ...

up to 5.7 tonnes and for flights within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

48 hours prior notice is required for the airport to provide a border police control presence; this is due to Bulgaria currently not being a member of the EU

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and ...

Description

Balchik airfield is located 2 kilometres northwest of the centre of Balchik on an area of 3700 decares of flat terrain, at an altitude of 188 metres and the runway is about one kilometre from the

coastline The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

. Due to this, its strategic location is called "the unsinkable aircraft carrier of Bulgaria". Its location allows when taking off in the direction of the

to immediately begin the descent to 150–180 metres, which makes it unique in Bulgaria. The runway has a length of 2498 x 60 metres. The military airbase operated until 1998 as the 6th Fighter Air Base of the Bulgarian Air Force, when the last

MiG-21bis The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nick ...

and

Aero L-29 Delfín The Aero L-29 Delfín ( en, Dolphin, NATO reporting name: Maya) is a military jet trainer developed and manufactured by Czechoslovakian aviation manufacturer Aero Vodochody. It is the country's first locally designed and constructed jet aircr ...

s were transferred to the 26th Reconnaissance Air Base, ending the base's period as a front-line military airbase. Since 1998, the airbase has been active as the 6th Aviation Material Preservation Base for tasks related to other operating military airbases with fighter jets such as the

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (russian: Микоян МиГ-29; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the ...

Su-25 The Sukhoi Su-25 ''Grach'' (russian: Грач ('' rook''); NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Sukhoi. It was designed to provide close air support for Sovie ...

and Albatros L-39ZA trainer, transport/utility aircraft such as the

Alenia C-27J Spartan The Alenia C-27J Spartan is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27A Spartan in ...

or helicopters such as the Mil Mi-24V Hind E,

Mil Mi-17 The Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russian service. ...

and

Eurocopter AS532 Cougar The Eurocopter AS532 Cougar (now Airbus Helicopters H215M) is a twin-engine, medium-weight, multipurpose helicopter developed by France. The AS532 is a development and upgrade of the Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma in its militarized form. Its civil ...

. The reduced staff keep the airfield infrastructure ready to accept military aircraft participating in tactical training flights in naval exercises, parachuting,

airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distan ...

air-sea rescue Air-sea rescue (ASR or A/SR, also known as sea-air rescue), and aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (AMSAR) by the ICAO and IMO, is the coordinated search and rescue (SAR) of the survivors of emergency water landings as well as people wh ...

and training at the

Shabla Shabla ( bg, Шабла ) is a town and seaside resort in northeastern Bulgaria, administrative centre of the Shabla Municipality part of Dobrich Province. Shabla municipality includes the following villages: Bojanovo, Chernomortsi, Durankulak, E ...

air force air gunnery firing range.

History

The first information about the establishment of an airfield in the region is from 1 July 1935. The town of Balchik was at that time within the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...

. The established civil airfield served the Balchik- Constanţa-

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

air route and was probably established by the will of the Romanian royal dynasty; to use the resort facilities of the region and the summer palace residence of Queen

Marie of Romania Marie (born Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I. Marie was born into the British royal family. Her parents were Prince Alfred, ...

Balchik Palace The Balchik Palace ( bg, Дворец в Балчик, ''Dvorets v Balchik''; ro, Castelul din Balcic) is a palace in the Bulgarian Black Sea town and resort of Balchik in Southern Dobruja. The official name of the palace was the Quiet Nest Pal ...

is located 2 kilometres south-west of Balchik. The air traffic was carried out by several 6-seater Junkers (

Junkers F 13 The Junkers F 13 was the world's first all-metal transport aircraft, developed in Germany at the end of World War I. It was an advanced cantilever-wing monoplane, with enclosed accommodation for four passengers. 322 planes of the type were manufa ...

) aircraft. By virtue of the

Treaty of Craiova The Treaty of Craiova ( bg, Крайовска спогодба, Krayovska spogodba; ro, Tratatul de la Craiova) was signed on 7 September 1940 and ratified on 13 September 1940 by the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under its te ...

in 1940,

Southern Dobruja Southern Dobruja, South Dobruja or Quadrilateral ( Bulgarian: Южна Добруджа, ''Yuzhna Dobrudzha'' or simply Добруджа, ''Dobrudzha''; ro, Dobrogea de Sud, or ) is an area of northeastern Bulgaria comprising Dobrich and Silist ...

was returned to Bulgaria. The departing Romanian authorities had practically destroyed everything related to the airfield - the equipment had been removed, the windows were broken or the buildings half-destroyed, the water wells blocked. Even the runway was ploughed across. The following year, the Bulgarian government approved plans by the defence ministry to use the airfield for military purposes.

Military air base

The first military aircraft based on Balchik airfield were in fact several aircraft of types

Heinkel 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after the ...

and

Junkers 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called ''Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast f ...

of the German ''

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-Fliegerabt ...

'', mainly for reconnaissance flights during

World War Two World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The ''Luftwaffe'' also rebuilt the airfield. With the German invasion of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

on 22 June 1941, this small German military unit left the borders of Bulgaria. * The first Bulgarian aviation formation was the Air Gunnery School, stationed on 24 May 1941 and operating until 9 September 1944. * On 4 August 1941 Balchik airfield was home to 5 Czechoslovak-built Letov-Šmolik Š-328 aircraft, sold to Bulgaria by Germany after its annexation of Czechoslovakia and its industry. The aircraft, assigned to the Bulgarian 2nd Air Regiment, provided

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

defence for German ship transports travelling in the Black Sea from Constanţa to the

Bosphorus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...

. * On 1 October 1941, the Galata Fighter

Wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...

was formed on the basis of and in pursuance of a confidential decree No. I-2733 of the Bulgarian Air Force Headquarters. The Bulgarian 682nd Fighter Squadron of the 6th Fighter Regiment was based at Balchik airfield with a complement of German

Messerschmitt Bf 109E Due to the Messerschmitt Bf 109's versatility and time in service with the German and foreign air forces, numerous variants were produced in Germany to serve for over eight years with the Luftwaffe. Additional variants were produced abroad tota ...

aircraft and is considered the birth date of Balchik military airbase. * From May 1945 to September 1946, in connection with a re-armament, almost all Bulgarian fighter pilots underwent training on the Soviet

Yakovlev Yak-9 The Yakovlev Yak-9 (russian: Яковлев Як-9) is a single-engine, single-seat multipurpose fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union and its allies during World War II and the early Cold War. It was a development of the robust and succes ...

fighter plane, using the base at Balchik airfield. * In September 1947 the formation of a Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment began, and in 1951 the regiment grew into the 3rd Bomber Air Division. On 13 April 1955, the division was disbanded. * On 18 October 1955, the 27th Fighter Regiment transferred from

Bezmer Air Base Bezmer Air Base is an air base for the Bulgarian Air Force. The base is situated in the eastern part of the Upper Thracian Lowland, in Yambol Oblast (Region), 10 km west of the city of Yambol and 30 km southeast of the city of Sliven, ...

to Balchik air base, marking the beginning of the fighter regiment's home base. The 27th Fighter Regiment disbanded and ceased to exist in the air force on 1 May 1963. * After a reorganization, the 3rd Fighter Squadron was stationed at Balchik airbase armed with the

MiG-17F The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 ...

aircraft, as part of the 15th Fighter Regiment located at

Ravnets Air Base Ravnets Air Base ( bg, Авиобаза Равнец) , also known as 5th Fighter Air Base, is a former Bulgarian Air Force base near Ravnets, Bulgaria, located on the Black Sea coast, 20 km west of Bourgas. Built in 1950, the base was home ...

. In 1970 the Balchik squadron changed its numbering and became the 2nd Fighter Squadron.

References

External links

Photo of Bulgaria Air Force helicopters (Mil Mi-24V Hind E) at Balchik Airbase
{{authority control Airports in Bulgaria

Description

History

Military air base

See also

References

External links