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By: - 6th February 2011 at 16:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I cannot answer your question other than to surmise that there are hundreds in the UK, which is my home territory. The Airfield Information Exchange here does a terrific job on old and abandoned airfields and airfield archaeology.
By: - 6th February 2011 at 17:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Well there have been probably well over 1000 airfields in the UK if you count all the WW1 strips, WW2 ALG/ELG/RLGs etc.
I started out just over 10 years ago just covering all aeronautical sites in Hampshire, Dorset, Isle of Wight and (later )Devon and the total number for those counties alone (excluding modern strips /helipads etc ) comes to well over 100 active or non- active locations.
Just keeping that up-to-date is quite time consuming .
Good luck - the site looks good.
By: - 6th February 2011 at 18:23 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Aeronautical, does that include radar and air defense missile sites? Because unless there once was an airfield on to the site, I have no intention to inclode those. Still, over 1000 is double the amount I thought I would see in the UK. Oh well, that'll keep me off the streets for a while ;)
I still don't have any clue about the other European countries. Would France for instance come in at about the same amount of Germany? They're roughly equal in size and military history over the past 100 years or so.
By: - 6th February 2011 at 18:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
How soon is your list for France coming onto your website?
By: - 6th February 2011 at 18:57 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
How soon is your list for France coming onto your website?
I plan to begin on France by March. I know I will not have Germany complete by then, but my aim is not completeness yet. I just want to make an enjoyable site.
Are you looking for any specific area? At the moment I just have some airfields along the Belgian border in my sights.
By: - 6th February 2011 at 19:11 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Re France - you need to have a look at the Anciens Aerodromes website , altho' right now the site seems to be having problems.
http://www.anciens-aerodromes.org/
Aeronautical, does that include radar and air defense missile sites?
No - just locations where at some time during the last 200 years or so, intrepid and often foolhardy aviators have leapt fearlessly into the air!...in other words ...Aerodromes both land and water,airfields, airstrips, private strips, helipads, heliports, balloon sites and airship sites.
By: - 6th February 2011 at 19:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Re France - you need to have a look at the Anciens Aerodromes website , altho' right now the site seems to be having problems.
http://www.anciens-aerodromes.org/
Ah, thanks, that will be a helpful one. :)
No - just locations where at some time during the last 200 years or so, intrepid and often foolhardy aviators have leapt fearlessly into the air!...in other words ...Aerodromes both land and water,airfields, airstrips, private strips, helipads, heliports, balloon sites and airship sites.
With the exclusion of helipads and balloon sites (there are simply too many) that is about my list of interest. I might add them at a later time, but for now I think I have my hands full with the 'restricted' list I'm working on already. :)
By: - 6th February 2011 at 19:45 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
That will grow into a very interesting site, Ronald, keep going with it!
By: - 6th February 2011 at 20:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Very interesting site and not over technical, I look forward to watching the progress of this site growing.
Well done
Chris Davies
By: - 6th February 2011 at 20:25 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thank you all for the complliments, they're a great motivator! :)
By: - 7th February 2011 at 17:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
If you ever come to the point in covering Estonia: During our holiday (2010) I visited the once very, very secret Raadi Airbase north of Tartu and took some pictures there. Some runway pics and some of the old revetments. Also the Control tower.
PM me your email and I can mail them to you if you like.
Tillerman.
By: - 7th February 2011 at 19:16 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When you do get to East Europe and the Baltic state have a look at AiX/Overseas Airfields/Airfields of Europe ...on about 3 pages back you'll find downloadable KMZ (Google Earth ) files for the Baltic States ,Poland,Czech, Slovak and some Russian fields that I placed there .
By: - 8th February 2011 at 23:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
If you ever come to the point in covering Estonia: During our holiday (2010) I visited the once very, very secret Raadi Airbase north of Tartu and took some pictures there. Some runway pics and some of the old revetments. Also the Control tower.PM me your email and I can mail them to you if you like.
Tillerman.
That would be great, thank you. PM is on i's way :)
By: - 8th February 2011 at 23:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When you do get to East Europe and the Baltic state have a look at AiX/Overseas Airfields/Airfields of Europe ...on about 3 pages back you'll find downloadable KMZ (Google Earth ) files for the Baltic States ,Poland,Czech, Slovak and some Russian fields that I placed there .
Thanks, I will certainly do that!
By: - 13th February 2011 at 20:03 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I was bored today, so I opted to take a small country, and add all their airfields (safe for the international airport). I think I have Malta complete now. :)
By: - 18th February 2011 at 22:10 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Progress update: the site has now officially passed 200 airfields! :D
By: - 20th March 2011 at 22:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Another progress update: over 250 airfields now, including some former USAF airfields in France!
By: - 22nd March 2011 at 08:44 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Excellent website....very interesting reading
By: - 22nd March 2011 at 08:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Very interesting website - glad you get bored now and then.;)
By: - 22nd March 2011 at 09:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Ronald, I have no idea of the actual numbers but France is well known as an aviation friendly country. That combined with the fact that every town, village, and hamlet seems to have its own airfield I would say you'll be looking at as many if not more than Germany
Posts: 87
By: RonaldV - 6th February 2011 at 16:48
Last november, out of sheer boredom, I began building a website on my home webserver (see the link in my signature) about abandoned and lesser known airfields in Europe, much like the one by Paul Freeman in the US. In the past 3 months I've made good progress (if I may say so myself) reaching 180 until this afternoon.
I'm getting a bit worried though. I knew in advance there would be a lot of airfields in Germany (I'm currently counting close to 500), and I know there's at least that amount in the UK. I'm fine with that idea, and I know it took Paul a decade to get where he is now, so I have plenty of time. But today I realised: I have not even begun to look in other large European countries, like France, Spain, Italy, Poland and the former Soviet states.
Can anyone give me an educated guess on what is still ahead of me?