Departure
86%
vs 95% ▼ 10
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Persan-Beaumont Airfield lies beside the village of Bernes-sur-Oise, some 35 kilometres north of Paris, on the site of a former French and later American military airfield with a long wartime history. Today it is a busy general aviation field offering light aircraft, ultralight, helicopter and parasailing activity on a mix of grass and hard runways.
Persan-Beaumont Airfield (ICAO: LFPA) sits at Bernes-sur-Oise in the Val-d'Oise department of Ile-de-France, about 35 kilometres north of Paris. Once a French Air Force base and, briefly, a major American bomber airfield during the liberation of France, it is now a civilian general aviation field managed by Aeroports de Paris. For the visiting sim pilot it offers an interesting mix of grass and hard-surfaced runways set within a landscape still marked by its military past, and it remains a lively centre for light aviation, ultralights, helicopters and parasailing.
The airfield is located at Bernes-sur-Oise in the Val-d'Oise, within the Ile-de-France region, roughly 35 kilometres north of the centre of Paris. It sits close to the Oise river valley in an area of dense general aviation activity to the north of the French capital.
Persan-Beaumont has three physical runways. Runway 05/23 is a grass strip, lit, with 05 at 2874 feet and 23 at 3174 feet. Runway 10/28 is a hard-surfaced runway, lit, at around 2456 to 2725 feet depending on direction. Runway 10R/28L is a grass runway, lit, at around 2533 to 2885 feet depending on direction. Field elevation is 131 feet, and there is no ILS approach.
The airfield operates on a common traffic advisory frequency of 119.5 MHz under the callsign Persan-Beaumont, used for self-announced traffic information rather than a full air traffic control service. No published instrument approach or ILS is available at the field.
Persan-Beaumont airfield was built in the 1930s for the French Air Force as part of the Paris air defence sector, and before the Second World War it was home to Groupe de Bombardement II/12, flying Lioré et Olivier LeO 451 medium bombers. Following the German occupation from September 1940, the Luftwaffe used the site, known as Flugplatz Beaumont, constructing two hard runways and dispersal areas; a glider unit, Luftlandegeschwader 1, operated Hs126 and Do17 tugs for DFS230 gliders there in 1943, and Focke-Wulf 190 ground-attack aircraft of Schlachtgeschwader 4 followed by the end of that year. The airfield was repeatedly attacked by the US 8th Air Force and IX Bomber Command during 1943 and 1944; one raid destroyed some 95 percent of the nearby village of Bernes-sur-Oise, since the Germans had built aircraft shelters within the village itself. German forces abandoned the airfield on 28 August 1944, and it was liberated by Allied ground forces about five days later. The US Army Air Force's IX Engineering Command, through the 818th Engineer Aviation Battalion, cleared mines and wreckage, and the site became Ninth Air Force combat airfield A-60. The 386th Bombardment Group flew B-26 Marauders from the field between October 1944 and April 1945, completing 107 missions, before being replaced by the A-26 Invaders of the 410th Bombardment Group until June 1945. Full control returned to French authorities on 17 July 1945. From early 1946 the site became Base Aerienne 218, home to ELA 1/56 'Vaucluse', which flew a succession of types including the Morane-Saulnier MS.500, Junkers Ju-52, Caudron Goeland, Martin Baltimore, Fairey Barracuda, C-47 Dakota, Siebel 204, Broussard and Nord Noratlas before the base closed on 31 October 1967. A civilian airfield had already been established a short distance south of the east-west runway, using much of the former air base infrastructure, and flying there continued without interruption through the base's closure.
Persan-Beaumont is managed by Aeroports de Paris and remains an active general aviation field, hosting light aircraft flying, ultralights, helicopter operations, parasailing and powered paragliding, as well as radio-controlled model aircraft activity. Much of the historic airfield infrastructure survives, including former taxiways now used as local roads and at least one hangar remaining on the old Air Force site to the northwest of the current runways.