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Griesheim Airport

Griesheim Airport
Fliegerhorst Darmstadt-Griesheim
Advanced Landing Ground Y-76
Darmstadt Army Airfield
Summary
Airport type Private
Operator Technische Universität Darmstadt
Location Griesheim, Germany
Elevation AMSL 525 ft / 160 m
Coordinates 49°51′15″N 08°35′19″E / 49.85417°N 8.58861°E / 49.85417; 8.58861
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
07/25 1,688 5,571 Asphalt

Griesheim Airport (IATA: ZCSICAO: EDES) is a private airfield in Germany, located 1-mile (1.6 km) southwest of Griesheim (Hessen); approximately 270 miles (430 km) southwest of Berlin.

Formerly a NATO military airfield, it was closed in 1992. In 1996, a large part of the airfield site was placed under the control of Technische Universität Darmstadt, where a variety of disciplines carry out experiments and operate several small aircraft.

Griesheim was originally part of an Imperial German Army (Reichsheer) military artillery firing range in 1874, an airfield was established on the site in 1908, being Germany's first airfield and flight school. During World War I it was used as a Prisoner of War Camp. Re-established as an airfield in 1930, the German Research Institute for Gliding was established on the site. After 1939, the Luftwaffe established a military presence at the airfield, and after World War II, it was a United States Army Airfield (Darmstadt Army Airfield) until the end of the Cold War, jointly used in the late 1980s as civil airport for light aircraft and sailplanes (Griesheim Airport).

In 1874, the area south of Griesheim was established as a German Army artillery firing range. In 1908, August Euler recognized the suitability of the site as an airfield, and conducted the first glider flights at the location of the current airfield in December 1908. Afterward, he presented to the German government a request to lease a portion of the site (380 acres) for use as an airfield. Early in 1909 the lease was completed. In February, August Euler erected a building on the site, which he relocated from Mainz castle, costing him 2,400 Marks. In that building he began aircraft production. On 31 December 1909, he earned the first civil pilot's license in Germany. Between 1909 and 1911 in Griesheim Euler trained 74 pilots. The most famous student pilot was Prince Henry of Prussia, the brother of the German Emperor.


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