Zeltweg Air Base, known in German as Fliegerhorst Hinterstoisser, is a military airfield in

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

near

Zeltweg Zeltweg () is a town in Styria, Austria. It is located in the Aichfeld basin of the Mur River in Upper Styria. Larger municipalities in the vicinity are Judenburg, Knittelfeld and Fohnsdorf. History Some farms were recorded at Zeltweg in the Du ...

. It is the main airfield of the

Austrian Air Force The Austrian Air Force () is a component part of the Austrian Armed Forces. Aircraft Current inventory History The Austrian Air Force in its current form was created in May 1955 by the victorious Allies of World War II, Allied powers ...

. It was also used as a motor racing circuit in the 1960s.

History

Zeltweg Air Base has been home to the Austrian Air Force's Surveillance Squadron since 1976, operating a variety of jet types, including Saab 35OE Draken until 2005, Northrop F-5E Tiger II, and

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Syste ...

s since 2007. It is also a base for training aircraft, such as the Saab 91 Safir (retired 1992), the Pilatus PC-7 (12 in service, since 1984) and the Diamond DA 40NG (4, since 2018).

AirPower air show

Since 1997, the AirPower show is held at Zeltweg. The 2003 and 2005 editions featured Red Bull Air Race events. The show was held in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2019. It is scheduled to be held again in 2022. Franz Hinterstoisser, after whom the airfield was named, was an early pioneer of Austrian aviation (1863-1933).

Zeltweg Military Aviation Museum

Hangar 8 of Hinterstoisser Air Base is home to the "Zeltweg Military Aviation Museum" (''Militärluftfahrtmuseum Zeltweg''), a branch of the Vienna Museum of Military History (''Heeresgeschichtliches Museum''). The collection includes over 25 historic aircraft, and associated military equipment. Aircraft on display include; *

Aérospatiale Alouette III The Aérospatiale Alouette III (, ''Lark''; company designations SA 316 and SA 319) is a single-engine, light utility helicopter developed by France, French aircraft company Sud Aviation. During its production life, it proved to be a popular ro ...

helicopter * Agusta-Bell 204 helicopter * De Havilland DH.115 Vampire * Fouga CM.170 Magister *

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-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 nicknames include: "''Balalaika''", because its planf ...

R (Yugoslav AF) * Saab J29F * Saab 35OE Draken * Saab 105 jet trainer * Short SC.7 Skyvan * Yakovlev Yak-18 - the first aircraft to enter service with the Austrian Armed Forces of the Second Republic File:J29F.jpg, Saab J29F File:Draken Austria (26621347063).jpg, Saab 35OE Draken File:MIG 21.jpg, MIG 21R File:Skyvan SC-7.jpg, Skyvan SC-7 File:Safir Austria (27258858036).jpg, Saab 91 Safir (now preserved at Zeltweg Museum) File:Luftfahrtmuseum 2.jpg, General view of museum

Motorsports

Built in 1957 in

, the idea for the track came from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's success at

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

, also built on the site of an airfield. However, the track engineers at Zeltweg failed to take into account the abrasive nature of the surface. A lone

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

World Championship Grand Prix was held in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

. The

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing series run for sports car racing, sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), from 1953 World Sportscar Championship, 1953 t ...

Zeltweg 500 Kilometres was held later, until the track was abandoned in 1969 following the construction of the purpose-built Österreichring nearby at Kattigar.

Lap records

The Formula 1 lap record on the Zeltweg Airfield circuit is 1:10.560 by

Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, engineer and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of motorspo ...

in a Brabham BT7, while the overall lap record is 1:04.820 and was set by

Jo Siffert Joseph Siffert (; 7 July 1936 – 24 October 1971) was a Swiss racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Siffert won two Formula One Grands Prix across 10 seasons. Affectionately known as "Seppi" to his family and friends, Siffert ...

in a Porsche 908 during the 1968 ''Zeltweg 500 Kilometres''. The fastest official race lap records at the Zeltweg Air Base are listed as:

Notes

References

{{Authority control Austrian Grand Prix Formula One circuits Motorsport venues in Styria Sports venues in Styria Austrian Air Force airbases