Melun-Villaroche Airport
Encyclopedia
Melun Villaroche Aerodrome is an aerodrome
located 8.5 km (8,500,000,000,000 nm) north of Melun
, a commune
in the Seine-et-Marne
department in the Île-de-France
region
in north-central France
.
The airport is located 3 miles (4.8 km) east-southeast of Moissy-Cramayel
and 21 miles (33.8 km) southeast of Paris
.
of 304 feet (93 m) above mean sea level. It has two paved runway
s: 10/28 measuring 1975 by 45 m (6,479.7 by 147.6 ) and 01/19 measuring 1300 by 30 m (4,265.1 by 98.4 ).
It supports general aviation
with no commercial airline service scheduled. The airport is equipped for VFR (visual) or IFR (instrument). Its control tower, equipped with radar, also provides air traffic control at low altitude in a large area of north-east to south-west of the Paris region. Both runways are still in use, the north-south 01/19 being reduced in length, and the east-west 10/28 extended for use by jet aircraft. Modern navigational aids are available and the facility is well maintained with a large airpark and a significant number of hangars.
The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
, the French air accident investigation agency, has facilities at Melun Aerodrome. They include hangars and protected areas with a combined total of 6000 sqm of space.
, Villaroche was used as a Luftwaffe
military airfield during the occupation. Known units assigned (all from Luftlotte 3, Fliegerkorps IV):
The airfield was attacked on 1 August 1944 by B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Eighth Air Force
398th Bombardment Group (Mission 59)
combat airfield, designated as "A-55".
Under American control, the Ninth Air Force
assigned the 416th Bombardment Group to the airport which flew B-26 Marauder
medium bombers from the airfield until February 1945. The combat unit then moved east along with the Allied lines and the airport became transport airfield and air service depot, hosting C-47 Skytrain
s of the 436th Troop Carrier Group and the Air Technical Service Command 462d Air Service Group until the summer of 1945, after end of the war.
threat of the Soviet Union
, Villaroche Airport was proposed by the United States Air Force
to become a NATO transport facility. It was proposed that the Military Air Transport Service
establish a cargo/passenger processing terminal at the airport, and also construct a large medical facility. In the ongoing negotiations, the site was ultimately rejected..
This aerodrome is best known for the numerous tests of aircraft prototypes that have occurred until the early 1980s, especially those of several military aircraft such as the Dassault Mystery; Mirage, and VTOL designs. It was also a test center for SNECMA.
Today the main users of the airfield are the Fixed Base Operator, (AFIS); the aero-club-Melun Villaroche "Constantine Rozanoff", and collectors of vintage aircraft. Business aircraft, in conjunction with area businesses use the airport daily.
Aerodrome
An aerodrome, airdrome or airfield is a term for any location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve cargo, passengers or neither...
located 8.5 km (8,500,000,000,000 nm) north of Melun
Melun
Melun is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Located in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, Melun is the capital of the department, as the seat of an arrondissement...
, a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
in the Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne is a French department, named after the Seine and Marne rivers, and located in the Île-de-France region.- History:Seine-et-Marne is one of the original 83 departments, created on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution in application of the law of December 22, 1789...
department in the Île-de-France
Île-de-France (région)
Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....
region
Régions of France
France is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...
in north-central France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
The airport is located 3 miles (4.8 km) east-southeast of Moissy-Cramayel
Moissy-Cramayel
Moissy-Cramayel is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the metropolitan area of Paris southeast from the center in the "new town" of Sénart, created in the 1970s....
and 21 miles (33.8 km) southeast of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Facilities
The airport resides at an elevationElevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
of 304 feet (93 m) above mean sea level. It has two paved runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
s: 10/28 measuring 1975 by 45 m (6,479.7 by 147.6 ) and 01/19 measuring 1300 by 30 m (4,265.1 by 98.4 ).
It supports general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
with no commercial airline service scheduled. The airport is equipped for VFR (visual) or IFR (instrument). Its control tower, equipped with radar, also provides air traffic control at low altitude in a large area of north-east to south-west of the Paris region. Both runways are still in use, the north-south 01/19 being reduced in length, and the east-west 10/28 extended for use by jet aircraft. Modern navigational aids are available and the facility is well maintained with a large airpark and a significant number of hangars.
The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those investigations. It is headquartered in Building 153 on the grounds...
, the French air accident investigation agency, has facilities at Melun Aerodrome. They include hangars and protected areas with a combined total of 6000 sqm of space.
German use during World War II
Seized by the Germans in June 1940 during the Battle of FranceBattle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
, Villaroche was used as a Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
military airfield during the occupation. Known units assigned (all from Luftlotte 3, Fliegerkorps IV):
- Kampfgeschwader 51 (KG 51) 1 August 1940-30 March 1941 Junkers Ju 88Junkers Ju 88The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...
A (Fuselage Code: 9K+) - Kampfgeschwader 30Kampfgeschwader 30-Service history:Formed on 15 November 1939 in Greifswald. I Gruppe formed 1 September, II Gruppe on 23 September and III Gruppe on 1 January 1940, based in Greifswald then Barth...
(KG 30) 2 June-4 October 1941 Junkers Ju 88Junkers Ju 88The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...
A (Fuselage Code: 4D+) - Kampfgeschwader 55 (KG 55) 1 October-30 December 1941 Heinkel He 111Heinkel He 111The Heinkel He 111 was a German aircraft designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter in the early 1930s in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Often described as a "Wolf in sheep's clothing", it masqueraded as a transport aircraft, but its purpose was to provide the Luftwaffe with a fast medium...
H (Fuselage Code: G1+) - Kampfgeschwader 2 (KG 2) 15-22 April 1942 Do 217E, Ju 188 (Fuselage Code: U5+)
- Kampfgeschwader 6 (KG 6) 4 June-10 July 1944 Junkers Ju 88Junkers Ju 88The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...
A/E, Junkers Ju 188Junkers Ju 188The Junkers Ju 188 was a German Luftwaffe high-performance medium bomber built during World War II, the planned follow-on to the famed Ju 88 with better performance and payload...
A (Fuselage Code: 3E+)
The airfield was attacked on 1 August 1944 by B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
398th Bombardment Group (Mission 59)
American use
It was liberated by Allied ground forces about 1 September 1944 during the Northern France Campaign. Almost immediately, the United States Army Air Force IX Engineer Command 830th and 833rd Engineer Aviation battalions along with the 878th Airborne Engineer Aviation Battalion cleared the airport of mines and destroyed Luftwaffe aircraft. A significant amount of battle damage was sustained, requiring repairs that included the laying of a new 5000' asphalt secondary runway. On 15 September, after about two weeks of reconstruction, Villaroche Airport became a USAAF Ninth Air ForceNinth Air Force
The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....
combat airfield, designated as "A-55".
Under American control, the Ninth Air Force
Ninth Air Force
The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....
assigned the 416th Bombardment Group to the airport which flew B-26 Marauder
B-26 Marauder
The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe....
medium bombers from the airfield until February 1945. The combat unit then moved east along with the Allied lines and the airport became transport airfield and air service depot, hosting C-47 Skytrain
C-47 Skytrain
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...
s of the 436th Troop Carrier Group and the Air Technical Service Command 462d Air Service Group until the summer of 1945, after end of the war.
Modern use
The Americans returned full control of the airport to French authorities on 8 August 1945.Postwar
After the war, much reconstruction was necessary and the entire airport was rebuilt. In 1950-1951 when as a result of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
threat of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Villaroche Airport was proposed by the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
to become a NATO transport facility. It was proposed that the Military Air Transport Service
Military Air Transport Service
The Military Air Transport Service is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy Naval Air Transport Service and the United States Air Force Air Transport Command into a single, joint, unified command...
establish a cargo/passenger processing terminal at the airport, and also construct a large medical facility. In the ongoing negotiations, the site was ultimately rejected..
This aerodrome is best known for the numerous tests of aircraft prototypes that have occurred until the early 1980s, especially those of several military aircraft such as the Dassault Mystery; Mirage, and VTOL designs. It was also a test center for SNECMA.
Today the main users of the airfield are the Fixed Base Operator, (AFIS); the aero-club-Melun Villaroche "Constantine Rozanoff", and collectors of vintage aircraft. Business aircraft, in conjunction with area businesses use the airport daily.
See also
- Advanced Landing Ground