Bodø Main Air Station

Bodø Main Air Station
IATA: BOO – ICAO: ENBO
Summary
Airport type		Military/Public
Operator		Royal Norwegian Air Force
Serves		Bodø
Elevation AMSL		42 ft / 13 m
Coordinates		67°16′09″N 14°21′55″E
Website		www.mil.no
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
07/25	3,394	11,136	Concrete
Source: Norwegian AIP at EUROCONTROL

Bodø Main Air Station (IATA: BOO, ICAO: ENBO) (Norwegian: Bodø hovedflystasjon is situated just outside Bodø, Norway and is the largest air station in Norway, operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The air station is home to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons of the 331st and the 332nd Squadrons, in addition to a detachment of Westland Sea King helicopters from the 330th Squadron. Bodø MAS is also the producer of the NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System). Near the air station, at Bodin, there is an air force training base. The runway is shared with the civilian Bodø Airport.

The air force base is manned by approximately 450 conscripted recruits, with 1000 employees in total. Bodø Main Air Station hosts 50% of the Norwegian jet fighter force. The main objectives are to train new pilots and to maintain two fighters at immediate readiness for NATO. The Sea Kings are used for search and rescue operations.

History

A F-5 Freedom Fighter from the Royal Norwegian Air Force, stationed at Bodø Main Air Station during the Cold War

Before the outbreak of WW II Bodø did not have an Airfield. All air communication was managed with seaplanes by the Norwegian company Widerøe.

World War II

In early 1940 two Short Sandringham flying boats flew in from the United Kingdom with engineers and their equipment to start work on a runway, and several options were studied before it was decided to build a runway at Plassmyra just outside Bodø.

On May 26, 1940, three British Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF arrived at Bodø, one of which bogged down in the mud and had to be abandoned. That day, one of the Gladiators, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Hull, damaged a Heinkel He 111 which went on to crash, shot down two Junkers Ju 52 transports, and damaged another He 111 all in one patrol.

At 08:00 the following day a force of about 14 Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers, escorted by Bf 110 heavy fighters, bombed the airfield and the town of Bodø. The two Gladiators attacked the Germans, claiming one Ju 87 each. However, they were in turn attacked by the escorting Bf 110s and Flight Lieutenant Hull was obliged to make a forced landing. The other Gladiator pilot, Lieutenant Lydekker, was wounded and, unable to land safely at Bodø due to the presence of the Bf 110s, flew to Bardufoss where he crashlanded.

The German occupying forces improved the runway with concrete surface and aircraft shelters, and a wood planked runway approximately 1,200 m (3,900 ft) long. This runway mainly served Ju-88 light bombers and a unit of Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers, and Bf 109s of Jagdgeschwader 5.

Cold War

When the war ended, the Norwegians took control of the airport. During the Cold War the station was one of the most important Norwegian bases. During the event of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and NATO, Bodø Main Air Station primary function was to contribute with fighter aircraft to open Soviet air defence systems. The plan was that when the airspace was open, B-52 bombers belonging to Strategic Air Command (SAC) were to go into the Soviet Union and drop nuclear weapons on cities and military installations. During the cold war the Norwegian Government did not allow placement of nuclear weapons in the kingdom during peace, but Bodø Main Air Station had specially built storage to receive nuclear weapons for storage in a war or during a crisis.

The airport has undergone major modernization and expansion projects, with NATO injecting vast amounts of money in 1988 to enable the airfield to handle large air forces in the event of an emergency.

No other area in the NATO alliance confronted Soviet counterparts face-to-face as frequently as the Norwegian fighter squadrons at Bodø during the Cold War. At the height of the Cold War they scrambled to the skies on a daily basis and saw up to 200 confrontations a year.

Aircraft that have been stationed at Bodø

Multiple aircraft have been stationed at Bodø, some of these are:

• Supermarine Spitfire
• De Havilland Vampire
• F-84 Thunderjet
• F-86 Sabre
• F-5 Freedom Fighter
• F-104 Starfighter
• F-16 Fighting Falcon

Accidents and incidents

Lockheed U-2 spyplanes were stationed at Bodø in 1958. On May 1, 1960 a U-2 plane piloted by Gary Powers flew from Peshawar, Pakistan to Bodø, but was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960. Several times during the 1980's and the Cold War there were emergency landings of the SR-71 since they were gathering intelligence further north, along the russian border. There where so many landings, that one of the SR-71's, got their tail fin painted "The Bodonian Express". The reason for the SR-71's landing so often was because Bodø Main Air Station was one of many emergency landing sites for the SR-71 along the coast line of Norway.

See also

• List of the largest airports in the Nordic countries

External links

• Norwegian Air Force's page on Bodø Air Force Base (Norwegian)
• Article about the No.331-332 Squadrons' 60th anniversary visit to North Weald Airfield, UK