Lade

63°26'37"N 010°26'47"E

runway: 12/30 - 1150x40m - concrete

Lade airfield (Norwegian: Lade flyplass, German: Flugplatz Lade) was an airfield 395 kilometers north of Oslo.
The airfield was built by the Luftwaffe in 1940.
Construction had begun on 9 April 1940, almost immediately after the German invasion of Norway.
Fully developed, the airfield included a runway, taxitracks and hangars.
By 1943, the airfield could host over 1700 men, but just under 900 were actually stationed there.
During the war, Lade was home to several Staffeln (squadrons) of Jagdgeschwader 5 (JG5) 'Eismeer'.
They operated Bf109G and FW190A fighters.






Allied intelligence map of the airfield (gyges.dk).






German map of the airfield, made after the war (strindahistorielag.no).


After the war Trøndelag Flygeselskap A/S was founded at the airfield in 1946.
It operated three aircraft on ambulance flights, taxi flights, air tours and a flight school for private pilots.
It existed until 1950.
In December 1947 the Trondheim flying club was formed.
The NTH flying club (founded in 1934) held the hangars on charge of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
In 1950, A/S Trønderfly was formed, but it went bankrupt the following year when they lost their uninsured aircraft.
Widerøes Flyveselskap was set up, remaining at the airfield until its end.
On 9 May 1952 was the first test flight for Braathens SAFE on the future Trondheim- Oslo line.
The line officially opened on 18 August 1953 and continued flying until the winter of 1956.






A Braathens SAFE DH Heron at Lade on 9 May 1952. The company operated two of these aircraft (strindahistorielag.no).

 

Ultimately the airfield closed in the autumn of 1965.
The former airfield was redeveloped for industrial and commercial purposes.
The German maintenance hangar is now owned and operated by an investament company.
Some bunkers and remains of taxitracks can still be found in the vicinty.






The maintenance hangar when it was used by Jernbeton A/S, sometime before 1985 (strindahistorielag.no).






Overview of Lade in 2008. The hangar posted above is located in the lower ricght corner (Google Earth)





A German barrack, still surviving at Lade in 2011 (by Erik Stenvik, on Flickr)






A German hangar, still surviving at Lade in March 2011 (by Erik Stenvik, on Flickr)