Aircraft cavern
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 M113 in Cavern Turtmann
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F-5E in Cavern
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Hawker Hunter in Cavern
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Patrouille Suisse F-5E in Cavern
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F/A-18 and F-5 Cavern Meiringen
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Aircraft cavern, a calque of the German word Flugzeugkaverne, is an underground hangar amongst others used by the Swiss Air Force.
During World War II, the neutral Swiss military airfields were for the first time equipped with simple arched concrete U-43 type shelters to protect the aircraft parked underneath. After World War II, starting in 1947, these open objects became even better protected with steel doors, thus creating the U-68 type shelter.
Shortly after World War II and the beginning of the Cold War with the possible escalation between the nuclear superpowers of the Eastern and Western blocks, the Swiss Air Force began to develop concepts for defending their neutrality in the case of a conflict. In the 1940s, the Swiss army had already built so-called retablierstollen (re-equipping caves) at some airfields. These retablierstollen consisted of 100m long straight tunnels excavated in the rock, making it possible to store and eventually re-arm small Swiss fighter aircraft such as the then used Messerschmitt BF 109. The dimensions of these tunnels are comparable to an autobahn tunnel.
The airfields chosen were Alpnach, Buochs, Meiringen, St.Stephan and Saanen, all located in the mountains with a lot of cover in the vicinity of the runway so that the aircraft could be out of sight within minutes after touchdown.
In the early 1950s, the first large-scale excavations in rock took place, creating more space in the existing caves. The expanded space created by these excavations was now used to service the aircraft and to execute some minor repairs. The first large-scale constructions inside the caves were at the airfields of Ambri, Alpnach, Buochs, Meiringen, Raron and Turtmann, starting operations from 1951-1954.
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Wikipedia