Rabassa

38°23'04"N 000°30'47"W

runway: ../.. - ...x..m - dirt/gravel

Rabassa airfield (Spanish: Aeródromo de Rabassa, also known as Rabasa, La Rabassa Alicante-Rabassa and Alicante-Rabassa airport) was an airfield 355kilmoeters southwest of Madrid on the coast of Spain.
The airfield first opened in February 1919.
Two Salmson 2A2 biplanes landed at the airfield, en-route from Toulouse in France to Casablanca in Morocco.
This first airfield remained in use for Lignes Aériennes G. Latécoère line until 1927.
That year the service was taken over by the Aèropostale, who needed a larger airfield, which they found at the newly opened El Altet, todays Alicante Airport.
The airfield was then closed.





The first international airline to fly to Allicante near the end of the war was Air France in 1944 (alicantevivo.org).

 

The airfield was reopened in 1936 by the Aviación de la República (Spanish Republican Air Force).
It hosted and was integrated with the 4ª Región Aérea (4th Air Region) and received the name Rabassa.
During the Spanish Civil War the airfield was responsible for the air defense of Alicante, equipped with Polikarpov I-15 'Chato'.
During this time it was bombed several times by the Italian Air Force.
In October 1939, after the creation of the Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) Rabassa again became an air base.
It continued to fly the Polikarpovs, designated 32 Regimiento de Asalto (32 Assault Regiment).






The first international airline to fly to Allicante near the end of the war was Air France in 1944 (alicantevivo.org).






A trio of Polikarpovs overflyingRabassa in 1950 elhangardetj.blogspot.com).






A Bloch 161 Languedoc of Aviacion y Comercio (Aviaco) at Rabassa, ca. 1953 (network54.com)


Spain managed to stay out of World War II, although its sympathies clearly lay with the Axis.
In March 1952 the airfield was equipped with CASA C-352L (license built Ju-52/3m) and CASA-131 (Bucker 131 'Jungmann') in addition to the Polikarpovs.
The air groups were withdrawn in 1956 and removal of materials from the civil war and withdrawal of all military activity continued until 1960.
On February 28, 1959, the City of Alicante agreed to submit a project to renovate the Rabassa aerodrome to the Department of Airports.
The department agreed to the renovation provided some necessary conditions were met.
The General Directorate required the demolition of the parish church of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Our Lady of the Angels), located in the flight line to approach.
Additionally it required limiting the height of surrounding buildings in the neighborhood and some resolving problems that were difficult to resolve.
This led to the decision to create a new major international airport at El Altet.
Parts of the airfield were then transferred to the Centro de Estudios Universitarios, predecessor of Alicante University.
The newly created Rabasa Aeroclub de Alicante settled at the airfield in 1964 and remained at the airfield until it was closed in 1978.






A Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero at Rabassa in 1954 (collection Francisco Andreu, on aviationcorner.net).






A former Condor Legion He-111E-3 at Rabassa as Ejército del Aire 15-10 of Regimiento nº15 in 1954 (collection Francisco Andreu, on aviationcorner.net).






The tower and platform of Rabassa in the 1970s with a healthy amount of GA aircraft.






The airfield with the Centro de Estudios Universitarios immediately to the north in 1978 (ua.es).


After the airfield closed the University expanded onto the airfield.
Today the skeleton of the hangar remains on the site, serving as a palmetum, a subtropical garden dedicated to palm trees.
The University has retained the original tower of Rabassa, built in the early 40's.
Three former barracks buildings were converted for use by the university.





The old aerodrome hangar, built in the 1930s, was used as a bus garage for some time (ua.es).






In the mid-1080s it and the control tower were still standing in the middle of the University grounds (ua.es).







By June 1988 is had been converted into a pergola for a palmetum (ua.es).






The location of the former airport in 2007 (Google Earth)