Waldau Army Airfield
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The former airport Kassel -Waldau was in the district of Kassel Waldau four kilometers south of the city center of Kassel in Hessen, Germany. Flight operations was set with the opening of the airport Kassel- Calden is 11 July 1970. Today is located on the site of the industrial park of Kassel -Waldau.
History
The site of the former military training and parade ground in Waldau, lying on the territory of the municipality Lochmaben at that time, was used at the beginning of the 1920s as an airfield. The first airfield buildings were built in 1924 and on 24 August 1924, the airport Kassel -Waldau was officially opened. He was entertained at the expense of the city.
The work of Dietrich- Kassel Gobiet aircraft AG ( DGF ) produced 1923/24, the successful sport aircraft Dietrich DP IIa, so that Antonius Raab was brought in as chief pilot to Kassel. Raab, in turn, founded in 1925 due to bankruptcy of the DGF with Kurt Katzenstein in Kassel Raab - Katzenstein - Flugzeugwerke GmbH ( Raka ), which used the airfield as a base for a factory flying school.
Cassel was performed Aviation AG in the route network of the Junkers as early as 1925. Also founded in 1926, Lufthansa band- Waldau in their scheduled air services a. With Prague and Amsterdam, there were at this time even international connections. The scheduled air traffic of Lufthansa was subsidized directly. In the spring of 1926 Gerhard Fieseler came from Eschweiler first as a flight instructor Raka Waldau. He used the airfield from 1927 as a basis for his aerobatic career and later for its aircraft plants.
On March 15, 1927, Raab - Katzenstein - Flugzeugwerke GmbH led by the world's first successful glider towing at the airport Kassel -Waldau. Pilot in the tow plane was Kurt Katzenstein, the towed glider RC 7 butterfly was flown by Antonius Raab.
During the economic crisis in 1930 the city was running out of funds for the airport and the line traffic was stopped. The place went to the Lower Hessian Association for aviation and was kept open for general aviation. Among other things, a visit to the airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin on September 3, 1930, an attraction that drew more than 100,000 spectators.
In 1930 the airfield for flight day events and as a factory airfield was used by the Fieseler aircraft. The so-called Fieseler plant III standing right at the airport, another plant was located about two kilometers east of the square. Among others, the first flights of the Fieseler Storch and his successor model Fieseler Fi 256 were carried out on the court. During the Second World War, the airstrip was designed as a 800 m long concrete runway.
On 4 April 1945, damaged by bomb attacks the airfield was captured by the U.S. forces and performed as Airfield Kassel -Waldau Y -96 from April 5. After repair work by U.S. engineer units he was from April 17 to 29 base of operations for the P -47 Thunderbolts of the 48th Fighter Group. Thereafter, the court Technical Air Depot (TAD ) of the 10th Air Depot Group. Until April 29, 1955, the court therefore remained closed for the civilian air traffic.
After that was the general interest, to expand the airfield, low, especially Kassel was connected with good transport on iron and highways. It was feared also that an extension could harm the image of the city as a cultural city. In the early 1960s it became clear that an airfield expansion at the site Waldau with the proposed urban development was not compatible. At the insistence of Kassel industry and the mayor Lauritz Lauritzen, the new airport Kassel- Calden was after years of neglect of air transport then in July 1970, put into operation.
The airport Kassel -Waldau was closed and rezoned the industrial area, the runway was built back from 1985. The Falderbaumstraße, Gobietstrasse, Antonius Raab Road in the industrial area reminiscent of the former use of the land as airfield.