Szprotawa-Wiechlice Airfield is an airfield near the town of

Szprotawa Szprotawa is a town in western Poland, in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship. It has 11,820 inhabitants (2019). History The region was part of Poland after the emergence of the Piast monarchy in the 10th century. The first mention of today's Sz ...

Lubusz Voivodeship Lubusz Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in western Poland with a population of 972,140. Its regional capitals are Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra. The region is characterized by a landscape of forests, lake ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The airfield was built as Fliegerhorst Sprottau for the

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

, and was used by the Soviet Union during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. After an aviation association was formed in 2008 to reinvigorate the airfield, it was registered as a civil landing site in 2017.

History

1936–1945

The base was built in on the eastern outskirts of Sprottau, on the site of a former artillery training ground and a prisoner-of-war camp. The base was inaugurated on 1 October 1936. The runway had a concrete surface with paved taxiways. The base had one very large flight hangar, one very large repair hangar, one large hangar and three medium hangars. The base was primarily a training field for twin-engine aircraft.

Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader A Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader (EJG) were Luftwaffe replacement training units which were part of a larger operational Jagdgeschwader. The Germans were sometimes forced to undertake operations and training simultaneously. In 1944, the Luftwaffe fo ...

2 was formed at the base in November 1944.

1945–1992

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the airport was taken over by

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

units. The base was significantly enlarged with blocks of flats for soldiers' families, public facilities, aircraft garages, new ballistic warehouses and a special facility with a nuclear bunker. Bunkier atomowy

The

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

18th Fight-Bomber Aviation Regiment (later renamed the 89th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment) equipped with

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-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 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 an ...

Su-17 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32; NATO reporting name: Fitter) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter Soviet serv ...

s, then

Su-24 The Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) is a supersonic, night fighter, all-weather tactical bomber developed in the Soviet Union. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, Twinjet, twin engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for it ...

s was based here from May 1955 until July 1992. Soviet forces withdrew from the base in July 1992.

Since 1992

With the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Poland, the airport was transformed into a housing estate and an industrial zone. In 2008, the Szprotawa Aviation Association was founded. It was headed by entrepreneur Zbigniew Czmuda. The association leased the eastern part of the runway from the commune. The airport was formally registered with the Civil Aviation Office as a place adapted for take-offs and landings of light sports aircraft. As of June 10, 2024, the airfield is listed as entry 335 (of 536) in the register of Polish Civil Aviation Authority civilian landing sites. It was registered in 2017.

References

External links

*Polish Civil Aviation Authority
register of airfields
Airports in Poland Airbases of the Soviet Union Buildings and structures in Lubusz Voivodeship {{Poland-airport-stub