Vyazma Airport

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Vyazma
IATA: - ICAO:
Summary
Airport type		joint
Operator		unknown
Serves		Vyazma
Elevation AMSL		794 ft (242 m)
Coordinates		55°8′54″N, 034°23′0″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
	6562	2000	Concrete

Vyazma Airport (also Vyaz'ma) is an airport in Russia located 9 km southeast of Vyazma. It currently serves general aviation.

During the Cold War it was a Soviet Anti-Air Defense base and was home to 45 IAP (45th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying MiG-23P interceptor aircraft. The unit was decommissioned sometime in the 1990s due to cutbacks in defense spending.

An Air Forces Monthly article in January 1997, written following a visit to the airfield, said that it had housed a DOSAAF training regiment up until about 1980, flying some 80 MiG-17s and two MiG-15UTIs. From 1980 the unit converted to the L-29 Delfin and then the L-39C Albatros, with around 70 aircraft on strength. When AFM visited, all the now-ROSTO aircraft, roughly 40 L-29s and 30 L-39Cs, were parked in a small area of the airfield, as there were no hangers.

Also at the airfield when AFM visited were a large number of Mi-24D/V/Ks and Mi-8TV/MT/MTVs of 440 OVP (Separate Helicopter Regiment) relocated from Stendal in Germany. A small group of Mi-8PPAs and Mi-8SMVs, AFM said, were probably formerly flown by the 292 OVP at Cochstedt in Germany. 440 OVP's crews and families, the magazine said, have been housed in newly-built homes paid for by the German government.

[edit] Sources and References

• Hugo Mambour, 'Vjasma Aero Club,' Air Forces Monthly, January 1997, p.40-42