Frankfurt-Hahn Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A terminal at Frankfurt-Hahn.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn
IATA: HHN - ICAO: EDFH
Summary
Airport type		public
Operator		Fraport AG
Serves		Frankfurt
Elevation AMSL		1610 ft (491 m)
Coordinates		49°56′54″N, 7°15′51″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
03/21	9,990	3,045	Asphalt

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (German: Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn) (IATA: HHN, ICAO: EDFH) is an airport located near the towns of Kirchberg (10 km) and Simmern (20 km) in the Rhein-Hunsrück district of Rhineland-Palatinate to the west of central Germany. Despite its name, the airport is situated over 130 km (by road) to the west of the city of Frankfurt.

1 Transport
2 Previous use as a U.S. Air Force base
3 Hahn Airport today
4 Technical information
5 Airlines and destinations
6 Cargo
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Transport

The airport can be easily reached by car. An hourly bus service runs from Frankfurt/Main central railway station (Hauptbahnhof) via Frankfurt International Airport Terminal 1, taking about 1.5 hours. There are also buses every two hours between Frankfurt-Hahn and the closest main railway station located in Mainz (60 km away), served by trains to and from many parts of Germany. Other buses connect Hahn to the main railway station in Cologne (Köln). There are vast parking facilities at the airport, which are linked by shuttle bus to the terminal. There is no direct railway connection to the airport.

[edit] Previous use as a U.S. Air Force base

General Dynamics F-16C Block 42D Fighting Falcons of the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing over Hahn. Serial number 88-0542 is visible in front.

Hahn Air Base was a frontline NATO facility for over 40 years during the Cold War, and was a major part of the United States Air Force close-knit, continental European air power centre. The United States' other major German air bases of Zweibrucken, Ramstein, Sembach, Bitburg and Rhein-Main were all within 100 km (60 miles) of Hahn. Beyond their location in the heart of US troop concentrations, these air bases were well situated to reach all locations within Europe and the Mediterranean region.

In 1951, occupying French forces founded an air base on the site which would become Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. In September 1952, the United States took over the installation, and began to erect the seventh largest United States Air Force base in Europe and the second largest in Germany. The initial USAF unit at Hahn was the 7356th Air Base Group, whose mission was to get the base up and running and into an operational state.

Base facilities then consisted of pre-fabricated barrack buildings, heated by coke-burning pot belly stoves, outdoor latrines, and tents for motorpool personnel to work in. An L-5B was the first aircraft assigned to Hahn to fill administrative flight requirements.

North American F-86F-30-NA Sabres of the 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron flying over Germany. Serial 52-4656 is in front.

With most of the construction completed by mid-1953, the primary mission of the Hahn Air Base was the reception of the 50th Fighter Bomber Wing. The aircraft was deployed to Hahn from Clovis AFB New Mexico during Operation Fox Able 20 on 10 August 1953. This marked the first mass flight of an entire tactical wing from the U.S. to continental Europe.

The operational squadrons of the 50th FBW were:

10th Fighter-Bomber
81st Fighter-Bomber
417th Fighter-Bomber (commanded for a time by Chuck Yeager)

The 81st flew the North American F-86F Sabre, with squadron markings of dark blue for the 10th, yellow for the 81st and red for the 417th. The wing conducted tactical operations in support of USAF, NATO, and U.S. Army forces. In the autumn of 1955, the wing was upgraded to the F-86H.

The entire wing moved to Toul-Rosieres Air Base in France starting in July 1956. The 7425th Air Base Group became the "parent" organization at Hahn, providing support for the following units:

496th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (F-102A)
38th Tactical Missile Wing
- 89th Tactical Missile Squadron
- 405th Tactical Missile Squadron
- 586th Missile Maintenance Squadron

The 496th was assigned to Hahn, but reported to the 86th Air Division at Ramstein Air Base, flying F-102A Delta Daggers The squadron remained attached to the 86th AD until it was transferred to the 50th TFW until 25 November 1968.

The 38th TMW had the distinction of maintaining two separate weapons systems by bringing the Mace "A" operational in August 1959, while maintaining the Matador combat ready until September of 1962.

The 38th TMW was composed of launch and maintenance squadrons at detached and remote installations at Sembach, Hahn, and Bitburg Air Bases. It was activated at Hahn on 18 June 1958, with its headquarters moving to Sembach on 20 August 1959.

North American F-100D-90-NA Super Sabre Serial 56-3238 of the 50th TFW (Wing Commander's Aircraft)

McDonnell Douglas F-4E-52-MC Phantomd II Serial 72-0161 of the 417th TFS. After its service at Hahn, this aircraft was flown by the ANG until its useful life ended in 1991.

In 1959 disagreements arose concerning atomic weapons storage and custody issues within NATO, resulting in a decision to remove Unied States Air Force atomic-capable units from the French soil, and it was decided to move the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing from Toul AB back to Hahn. In August 1960, a few months prior to the return of the 50th from France, the 38th Tactical Missile Wing was transferred to Sembach Air Base. Also during the same period, the 461st Tactical Fighter Squadron, a component of the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing was inactivated. On 10 December 1960, the 50 TFW redeployed back to Hahn, with the 10th, 81st and 417th Tactical Fighter Squadrons, now flying the North American F-100 Super Sabre.

The 50th TFW supported and controlled CONUS dual-based fighter squadrons at Hahn, 1969-1976, and at other collocated operating bases in West Germany and Denmark, 1976-1985. In August 1977, the wing switched to a strike-attack role, with air defence as a secondary mission.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, which began on the 22 October 1962, the 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron deployed from Morón Air Base Spain to Hahn. Although the crisis officially ended on the 26 November 1962, the 435th TFS did not return to Morón until the 11 December 1962.

On 11 March 1967 the 50th began to upgrade from the F-100s to the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

During 1968, the 417th TFS was redeployed to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, as part of project CRESTED CAP. That project provided for the redeployment of specified U.S. European Air Force units to the United States on a semi-permanent basis. Those units involved, however, were to remain an integral part of their respective USAF "parent" wings, while operating under the temporary control of the CONUS wings to which they were assigned.

Not long after leaving Europe, the 417th returned to Hahn in January 1969 to participate in Exercise CRESTED CAP I, the first in a series of exercises designed to test the mobility of NATO-committed fighter squadrons based in the U.S. under simulated wartime conditions.

Also during 1968, the 496th FIS was officially assigned to the 50th TFW under a reorganization that officially dissolved the 86th Air Division. In 1970, the 496th exchanged its F-102As aircraft for F-4E aircraft and was redesignated as a Tactical Fighter Squadron while retaining its Air Defence mission.

During the period from July to December 1969, the 8lst TFS began training for its newly assigned mission as the first "Wild Weasel" unit in USAFE. The 81st was later deployed to Zweibrucken Air Base on a permanent basis in June 1971.

General Dynamics F-16B Block 5 Fighting Falcons, serial numbers 79-0413, 0415, 416 and 417 of the 10th Tactical Fighter Squadron

The 50th was the first USAFE wing to transition to the F-16 "Fighting Falcon" aircraft, beginning 30 December 1981 with the last F-4E leaving the wing on the 21 June 1982. The base supported preparations for Ground Launched Cruise Missile activities at Wüscheim, between 1982 and 1985. It also supported the 38th Tactical Missile Wing from 1 April 1985 until August 1990.

During Operation Desert Storm, the 50th TFW provided personnel, munitions, and equipment to support the liberation of Kuwait, also deploying the 10th TFS to Al Dhafra, United Arab Emirates from December 1990 to May 1991.

At the end of the Cold War, the base supported more than 13,000 people and three squardrons of F-16 fighter jets. When the Cold War threat of an invasion of West Germany subsided, the United States was left with a huge excess capacity of expensive air fields. As a result, the on 50th TFW was inactivated on 30 September 1991 after 35 years at Hahn. On 30 January 1992 the 50th was activated as the 50th Space Wing at Falcon (later, Schriever) AFB, Colorado.

The 10th Fighter Squadron, also deactivated, was reactivated on 18 March 1994 as the 10th Flight Test Squadron at Tinker AFB Oklahoma.

On 30 September 1993, most of the facility was returned to civil German authorities, the USAF retaining a small portion as a communications site.

One of the main investors in the development of the new civil facility was Fraport AG, which primarily runs Frankfurt International Airport, the aim being to reduce the amount of traffic using that airport.

[edit] Hahn Airport today

Although its scheduled traffic is almost exclusively international flights, Hahn Airport does not carry the word "International" as part of its name — most likely in order to avoid a possible confusion with the mainland Europe's largest airport, directly serving Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt International Airport.

Hahn charges its airline operators less due to its remote location. The use of the airport has become popular with low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, which has since made Hahn Airport one of its operational hubs.

[edit] Technical information

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport can handle airplanes up to the size of an Antonov An-124 or Boeing 747 cargo jet.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Blue Air (Bucharest-Baneasa)
Iceland Express (Reykjavík)
Ryanair (Alghero, Balaton, Bari, Biarritz, Billund, Bratislava, Dublin, Fez, Gdańsk, Genoa [starts February 1, 2007], Girona, Glasgow-Prestwick, Gothenburg-City, Granada, Jerez, Kaunas, Kerry, Kraków, London-Stansted, Marrakesh, Marseille, Milan-Bergamo, Montpellier, Murcia, Nantes, Oslo Torp, Pescara, Pisa, Porto, Reus, Riga, Rome-Ciampino, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tampere, Treviso, Trieste, Valencia, Verona, Wrocław)
Wizz Air (Budapest, Katowice, Warsaw)

[edit] Cargo

Cargo airline service is offered by:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Ravenstein, Charles A., Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947-1977, Office of Air Force History, 1984

Endicott, Judy G., USAF Active Flying, Space, and Missile Squadrons as of 1 October 1995. Office of Air Force History

Fletcher, Harry R., Air Force Bases Volume II, Active Air Force Bases outside the United States of America on 17 September 1982, Office of Air Force History, 1989