Pitea (Piteå)

65°23'52"N 021°15'42"E

runway: 16/34 - 2000x25m/6500x80ft - asphalt

Piteå airfield (Swedish: Fält F 48 Piteå or flygplats Piteå, also known as (Flygvapenbasen) Långnäsfältet, ICAO: ESNP) was an airfield 695kilometers north-northeast of Stockholm.
The airfield was coompleted in 1968 as a Bas60 fighter airbase for the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapen).
In 1972 the Piteå Flying Club (Piteå Flygklubb) was granted permission (albeit with severe restrictions!) to use the -then new and still very secret- airfield with their Piper Pa-22 .
A plot of land was rented immediately next to the base to build a heated hangar in 1979 (completed in 1981).
The airfield was sold off to the Piteå municipality sometime during the 1990s.
Around the same time new facilities for floatplanes were built by the flying club, allowing improved operations from the nearby river.





Undated overview of the airfield (pitea-flygklubb.se).


Today the north side of the airfield is in use as a drag strip.
The remainder of the runway is still used by the flying club.
Generally, the airfield is still in its former Cold War Bas60 lay-out.





The airfield in July 2007, clearly showing both the runway and the dragstrip (photo: Magnus Manuelsson, via e-mail).






Fält 48 Piteå in 2010 (Google Earth)