Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base (located at 50°01.6′N 8°32.6′E / 50.0267°N 8.5433°E) was a U.S. Air Force / NATO military airbase near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It occupied the south side of Frankfurt International Airport.
Established in 1945 and closed in late 2005, Rhein-Main Air Base was the primary airlift and passenger hub for U.S. forces in Europe. It was billed as the "Gateway to Europe".
History
In 1909 Count von Zeppelin used Rhein-Main as a landing site for his dirigible Z-II. The facility was planned by Germany to be one of the most important European air terminals,
The base opened as a German commercial airport in 1936, with the northern part of base used as field for airplanes and the extreme southern part near Zeppelinheim serving as a base for rigid airships. That section of Rhein-Main later became port for the Graf Zeppelin, its sister ship LZ-130, and, until 6 May 1937, for the ill-fated Hindenburg.
The airships were dismantled and their huge hangars demolished on 6 May 1940 in conversion of base to military use. Luftwaffe engineers subsequently extended the single runway and erected hangars and other facilities for German military aircraft. During World War II the Luftwaffe used the field sporadically as fighter base and as experimental station for jet aircraft.
USAF Use
After the US 7th Army moved through the Frankfurt area, the 826th Engineering Aviation Batallion arrived at Rhein-Main in April 1945 to begin task of clearing rubble and reconstructing major buildings. The Army engineers also built new runways and extended and widened the existing runway, constructed aprons and hardstands as well as taxiways leading to the terminal.
Units assigned to Rhein-Main were:
- HQ, 826th Engineering Aviation Battalion, 26 Apr 1945 - 20 Nov 1945 (Facilities Reconstruction)
- 466th Air Service Group, 20 Nov 1945 - 20 Nov 1947
- 61st Troop Carrier Group 11 Feb 1947 - 21 Jul 1950
- 60th Troop Carrier Wing 2 Jun 1950 - 18 Apr 1955
- 7310th Air Base Wing 18 Apr 1955 - 1 Jul 1969
- 435th Air Base Wing 1 Jul 1969 - 1 Apr 1995
- 469th Air Base Group 1 Apr 1995 - 12 Oct 2005
The USAF Rhein-Main passenger and cargo terminal was completed in 1946, and air traffic into Rhein-Main increased after the closure of the military passenger terminal at Orly Field, Paris in October 1946.
Although origionally envisioned as a bomber base by USAFE, Rhein-Main became a principal European air transport terminal, and was the the main western base for the round-the-clock Berlin Airlift operations from June 1948 to September 1949.
USAFE turned over the northern part of the base to the German government for use as Flughafen Frankfurt am Main, the chief commercial airport for the greater Frankfurt area, in April 1959, with the remainder of the base remaining in the hands of USAFE as the principal aerial port for U.S. Forces in Germany.
On 1 July 1975, Rhein-Main Air Base was base assigned to Military Airlift Command, and under terms of an agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany, only transport aircraft have been stationed at Rhein-Main since 1 May 1975.
On January 20, 1981, the American hostages taken by the Iran hostage crisis were flown to Rhein-Main in a C-9 Nightingale aircraft. In 1990, it was the staging base for supplies and equipment heading to the Gulf War.
During it's operational lifetime few aircraft were permanently assigned to the base, however it saw a large number of C-5 Galaxy and C-141 Starlifter flights each day.
At its peak, the base had a population of 10,000. However by 1993, officials announced the intent to downsize the base by half. This was completed in 1995, and set the stage for a complete closure in 2005.
Closure
On December 23, 1999, the U.S. and German governments agreed to close the facility. The last military passenger and cargo flights took place in late September, 2005, and the base's formal closure ceremony was set to take place October 10, 2005, but the formal handover did not occur until December 30, 2005.
Ramstein Air Base, Germany, took over many of the airlift functions of Rhein-Main. The airmen and civilian staff remaining at the base will engage in the task of turning over to the German government all of the buildings. The Frankfurt Airport Authority plans on leveling the entire base to build a third passenger terminal.
See also
References
- 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
External links
- Rhein-Main Air Base - official U.S. Air Force site