Cheb Airport (in Czech ''Letiště Cheb'') (

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

: LKCB) is the oldest in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It is located 4.5 km from city of

Cheb Cheb (; german: Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Ohře. Before the 1945 Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of the German-speaking population ...

(in German ''Eger''). The airport was built during the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to serve needs of the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1918, when Czechoslovakia was created, it was the only working airport in the country. The first airplanes for the newly formed Czechoslovakian Army were obtained from the airport. Later, the army set up a pilot training center next to the airport. During

World War II 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 ...

Germans built a large aircraft factory (Eger Flugzeugwerke GmbH) next to the airport. The factory repaired and produced parts

Heinkel He 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 th ...

, Heinkel He 177, Heinkel He 219 and

Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Germa ...

. American bombing at the end of war destroyed the airport and the factory, with one of the military airfield's circular concrete dispersal areas at its periphery being the "final resting place" for the He 177 V101 four-engined prototype heavy bomber, apparently wrecked there at the war's close. In the airport is located

VOR VOR or vor may refer to: Organizations * Vale of Rheidol Railway in Wales * Voice of Russia, a radio broadcaster * Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race Science, technology and medicine * VHF omnidirectional range, a radio navigation aid used in a ...

/ DME station (

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

OKG). Airport was reopened 19 August 2010 as public domestic aerodrome and operational availability is VFR DAY. The original concrete runway 06/24 is repaired in the length of 1000 m and width of 18 m. The grass runway 05/23 is 1000 m long and 25 m wide.

Literature

* Luděk Matějíček: ''Chebská křídla'' (''Wings from Cheb''), 2006, . Extended second edition published in 2013.http://www.svetkridel.cz/index.php?id=knihydet&vtt=1379280633 (in Czech)

References

External links

Airport Cheb

Photo gallery of the airport and military barracks before the war
(descriptions in Czech)
Photo gallery of the destroyed airport in May 1945
(descriptions in Czech) {{authority control

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 surface ...