Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Beauvechain Air Base is an active Belgian Air Force airfield in Walloon Brabant, home to the 1st Wing's A109BA helicopters and the Basic Flying Training School's SF.260 trainers. Its twin hard-surfaced runways and long wartime history as a Luftwaffe and later Allied airfield make it a distinctive military field for the sim pilot to study, though it remains firmly military territory rather than a casual VFR destination.
Beauvechain Air Base is a Belgian Air Force military airfield operated as home to the 1st Wing, which flies A109BA helicopters, and to the Basic Flying Training School, which operates SIAI Marchetti SF.260 trainer aircraft. The base also houses the Wing Meteo unit and the Air Force Band. For a simulator pilot it is notable for its pair of long, ILS-equipped concrete/asphalt runways and for a long and eventful history stretching back to the 1930s, making it an interesting study field even though it functions as an operational military base rather than a general-aviation destination.
The airfield lies about 6 km (3 nm) south of the town of Beauvechain in Walloon Brabant province, Wallonia, and roughly 32 km (20 miles) east-southeast of Brussels. It sits within Belgian military-controlled airspace appropriate to an active air force base.
Beauvechain has two parallel hard-surfaced runway pairs. The main pair, 04L/22R, is a lit runway equipped with an ILS, recorded at 8,936 ft from the 04L threshold and 7,992 ft from the 22R threshold. The second pair, 04R/22L, is also a lit hard-surfaced runway, 7,599 ft in length from each threshold, without an ILS. Field elevation is 335 ft.
Radio services at Beauvechain include a Combined Military Approach frequency on 122.5 MHz, a second Approach/GCA frequency on 122.825 MHz, a Ground Controlled Approach frequency on 123.3 MHz, Ground on 122.1 MHz and Tower also on 122.1 MHz. The 04L/22R runway is served by an ILS.
The airfield was established in 1936 as the Belgian military field 'Le Culot Airfield'. It was captured by the German Wehrmacht during the Battle of Belgium on 10 May 1940, with several Hawker Hurricane and Gloster Gladiator aircraft destroyed on the ground. Under German occupation it became a major Luftwaffe base during the Battle of France, hosting Junkers Ju 88 units of Kampfgeschwader 3 and Kampfgeschwader 30, which supported the breakthrough at Sedan before Kampfgeschwader 3 remained to take part in the Battle of Britain with a strength of 108 Ju 88 bombers, 88 of them combat ready, before moving to Poland in March 1941 ahead of Operation Barbarossa. The Germans subsequently rebuilt the site with two concrete runways, taxiways, revetments, hangars, workshops and barracks. Long-range reconnaissance units Aufklarungsgruppe 22 and later AKG 33 operated from the base over the North Sea and North Atlantic in 1941-42. From November 1943 Kampfgeschwader 6 arrived from Larissa, Greece, flying Ju 88s as part of Operation Steinbock, the night bombing campaign against southern England, and the base continued to support Steinbock raids by Lehrgeschwader 1 and Kampfgeschwader 30 until the end of July 1944. The airfield was a frequent target of USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauder raids, with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts flying fighter sweeps afterward and later escorting Eighth Air Force heavy bombers home; it was also attacked by Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses in early 1944, causing severe damage. After German forces withdrew from the area in early September 1944, No. 126 Wing RAF (part of No. 83 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force) used the base from 20 September to 1 October to provide air cover for the closing stages of Operation Market Garden, under the designation B68 ALG Le Culot. American forces took over at the end of October, redesignating it Advanced Landing Ground A-89. Engineers of the US Army Air Forces IX Engineering Command's 846th Engineer Aviation Regiment spent nearly six weeks repairing bomb damage before the field reopened on 28 October 1944. The Ninth Air Force based the 373d Fighter Group (P-47, October 1944 to March 1945), the 36th Fighter Group (P-47, October 1944 to March 1945) and the 322d Bombardment Group (B-26, March to June 1945) there. After combat ended in May 1945 the base served as a relief distribution point for food, clothing and other supplies flown into Belgium and other occupied areas. It was returned to Belgian control in December 1946 and rebuilt, since the war had left it almost completely destroyed. Belgian Spitfire squadrons formed within the RAF during the war relocated to Beauvechain, forming the 1st Fighter Wing on 1 February 1948 with four squadrons. Various units rotated through the base over the following decades, and the first F-16 Fighting Falcon arrived in January 1979. The 1st Fighter Wing was disbanded on 4 March 1996, its squadrons relocating to Florennes and Kleine Brogel Air Bases.
Beauvechain today is home to the Belgian Air Force's 1st Wing, operating A109BA helicopters, and to the Basic Flying Training School, which flies SIAI Marchetti SF.260 trainers. The base also houses the Wing Meteo unit and the Air Force Band, and is a significant employer in Walloon Brabant. As an active military airfield, access is restricted to service operations.
