Vandel

55°41'47"N 009°11'52"E

Runway: 09L/27R - 0000meters/8038x147feet - concrete
Runway: 09R/27L - 0000meters/8038x75feet - asphalt

Airfield Vandel (Danish: Flyveplads Vandel, also known as Flyvestation Vandel, Vandel Air Base or Fliegerhorst Vejle, ICAO: EKVA) was a military airfield 210 kilometers west of Copenhagen.
The airfield was built between 1943 and 1945 by the Luftwaffe. To realise the construction, some 800 people had to be evicted from their homes. 1240 German soldiers were sent in to oversee and guard the airfields construction, performed by German and Danish firms under direction of 'Organization Todt'. As part of the project a railway connection was built, which was used during construction to move the daily 700 people and building materials neccesary for the project. A 2060x750meters area was cleared for the construction of a concrete runway, 10cm thick and 60 meters wide. Concrete was considered neccesary because of the planned operations with the new Me262A fighter jets. In addition to the runway 8 kilometers of taxitracks were also constructed. Prepositioned shafts to blow up the runway were made, in case the airfield had to be demolished in case of an invasion. There were not too many however, to allow the Germans to make repairs and get their own aircraft in the air.
The airfields first commander, Oberst (Lt-Col) Erich Kaus, was quite a remarkable man. Every inch a military man and fond of decorum, he refused to surrender on 4 May 1945 to the civilians of the Danish resistance. He offered to surrender the airfield to a civilian official, however, and a policeman was chosen, because policemen could wear uniforms too. The Oberst would only surrender the civilian part of the airfield though, as he intended to formally surrender the military part to the British military. Also he refused to surrender his service pistol, which he kept until much later.


Vandel photographed in 1944. Back then the runway was located at what is now the northern taxitrack (lw1944.flyfotoarkivet.dk).


In the 1950s Vandel operated a number of T-6 'Harvards' (RAF name for the T-6 Texan).

During the During the Cold War Vandel became a Danish military airfield. It underwent some major reconstruction. Marguerite dispersals, much like the ones found on NATO airfields in France and Greece, were constructed and the runways were lenghtened. The airfield became 'home plate' to a variety of aircraft types over the decades. Its last user was the Danish Army Air Service (Danish: Hærens Flyvetjeneste).
The last aircraft types on the airfield were Saab T-17 trainer aircraft, and Aerospatiale AS-550 Fennec scouting helicopters. The Hærens Flyvetjeneste used the air base from 1971 until they left in 2001.
The airfield finally closed in July 2003.


Overview of the entire air base in 2003 (Google Earth).


Hangars at the southwest dispersal of the airport in 2007.


Control tower in 2007.

The airfield was sold to Flyveplads Vandel ApS. The company runs a number of businesses at the airfield. One of those is leasing the runways and taxiways to racing car events, but the long term goal is to redevelop the airfield into a commercial business area. Reopening of the airfield is highly unlikely, as the airfield of Billund is only a few kilometers away from the former airport.
Until recently the airfield was kept intact. Since 2005 a large area of moved earth can be seen east of the tower on aerial photography (Google Earth).
The airbases' NBC bunker now hosts a small museum about the origins of the airfield.


In 2005 large X-markings had been applied onto the runway, indicating the permanent closure of the airfield (Google Earth).


Aerial view of the airfield in 2007


In 2017 a flight over the former airbase showed it had suffered the same faith as many other European air bases: it had become a solar powerplant (Magnus Emanuelsson)