Holloman Air Force Base

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The Holloman Air Force Base is a base of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in southern New Mexico, approximately 13 kilometers southwest of Alamogordo. It belongs to the Air Combat Command and hosted from 1992 to 2008 as the only basis the stealth aircraft F -117 Nighthawk. Since 2008, the base is home to the F -22 Raptor. Their relocation to Tyndall is planned, as Holloman will take over the F -16 Fighting Falcon training from Luke, which, in turn, from 2014 second F -35 Lightning II training facility is.

In addition, the Pilot training center of the German Air Force is housed there. The base has three start and runways: 04 /22 ( 3,225 m ), 07/ 25 ( 3,900 m) and 16/34 ( 3,700 m). Around 4,600 soldiers were stationed here in late 2003.

History

The base was founded on 10 June 1942 as Alamogordo Army Air Field, on January 13, 1948 it was renamed Holloman Air Force Base in honor of Colonel George V. Holloman, a rocket scientist from North Carolina.

During the Second World War bomber crews trained here with the Air Force B- 17, B -24 and B-29 for their combat missions in Europe and the Pacific. In 1947 the Air Materiel Command, the predecessor of today's Air Force Materiel Command, at the base with the development and testing of unmanned aircraft and guided missiles. Lt Col John P. Stapp reached on 10 December 1954, a rocket-powered sleigh the record speed of 1017 km / h (632 mph ); the observation aircraft of this experiment contributed Joseph Kittinger, who himself came in 1960 with a balloon flight in aviation history.

Rocket launch site

A rocket launch site located at 32 ° 53 '0 "N, 106 ° 4' 0 " W32.883333333333 - 106.066666666671248. Here numerous sounding rockets and military missiles have been launched since 1948.

Furthermore, here the world speed records for rail vehicles have been established. In October 1982, an unmanned rocket sled drove a charge of 25 pounds at a speed of 6119 mph ( 9845 km / h ). On April 30, 2003 he was on this number the current speed world record. The vehicle was also an unmanned (4 -piece ) rocket sled ( 10430 km / h ) reached a speed of 6480 mph.

German Luftwaffe in Holloman

Following the closure of George AFB in Southern California and the flight training for pilots of the German Air Force finds since 1992 held here until December 2004 F- 4 Phantom II machines, since 1996 also with Panavia Tornados.

On March 1, 1995, then " commander of the German Air Force Training Command America / Canada," Brigadier General Adam announced that from 1996, the Air Force set up their own base in Holloman and stationed warplanes will also carry the German national emblem. In addition, the Air Force could fly with its own air control and own rules of engagement. The stationed there tornadoes actually wear German markings, the Phantom, however, flew with U.S. markings.

With the reduction of the Tornado fleet and the associated decrease of required flight hours of the training center, the German air force plans since the end of 2011 to relocate the Euro Fighter Typhoon training from the airbase Laage to Holloman.

Two F- 4E Phantom II, including one from the 1st German Air Force Training Squadron and the other from the 9th Fighter Squadron of the United States in 1992

Trivia

The base was used for some scenes of the movies Transformers and Transformers - Revenge used.