The following is a brief summary of the history of the airport. For a complete review (albeit in german) please refer to the german page.
In
1927 Rudolf Frimel, the mayor of Bad Voeslau, had a vision: the village has
to have an airfield, east of the village of Kottingbrunn. It was the times,
when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in an almost 34 hours’ flight. Thus
inspired, the members of the Kottingbrunn and Bad Voeslau village councils,
appealed to the Austrian chancellor’s office, who granted permission for
the foundation of an airfield. ‘Flugplatz Bad Voeslau/Kottingbrunn’ was
opened with a flight-show on September 13, 1928.
It
was Franz Zuzman who already in 1929 saw a chance to turn the airfield into
a private
one. The only public airfield in the area was that at Wien Aspern, which,
since 1912, had started turning into a hub for European air traffic. His
plans came to a success in 1930 when he was granted a 30 years’ lease of
the airfield.
Though
international traffic passed the airfield some miles north at Wien-Aspern,
the development of general aviation could be well followed at the airfield,
with aircraft that slowly but steadily became more and more state of the
art.
When
the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Zuzmann’s dream was abruptly put to an
end, the ‘Deutsche Luftwaffe’ took over the airfield.
Zuzmann
was indemnified for the dispossession of the airfield which was turned into
‘Fliegerhorst Voeslau’. Squadrons from Cottbus, Stargard and
Rothwesten/Kassel were relocated to operate from ‘Fliegerhorst Voeslau’.
In
1942 the field was also heavily used for the training of pilots.
When
in August 1943 the Americans started bombing the ‘Ostmark’ and Wiener
Neustadt was heavily devastated in 26 attacks and the ‘Wiener Neustaedter
Flugzeugwerke’ (aircraft production) were destroyed, the further
production of aircraft was decentralized, and Bad Voeslau was involved in
that scheme.
So
in 1944 the airfield was also repeatedly attacked by US-bombers. The
resulting devastation was enormous and was added by the intrusion of Russian
troops and the blasting done to hangars and buildings by the retreating
Germans in the early days of April 1945.
The
airfield was then occupied by the Russians and held till 1955.
When
in 1955 Austria became free and independent again and the occupying forces
left our country, it had been the airfield of Voeslau/Kottingbrunn, that
Ing. Julius Raab, Dr. Adolf Schaerf, Ing. Leopold
Figl and Dr. Bruno Kreisky had left for Moscow, to return with a treaty that
made Austria a free country again.
After
the war the Austrian government decided to turn Zeltweg, Hoersching,
Langenlebarn, Aigen and Wiener Neustadt into military airfields, the use of
Voeslau was not considered. So Voeslau/Kottingbrunn was turned into a
private airfield and was granted permission to train glider and aircraft
pilots in 1956 and 1957 respectively.
When
in 1972 the FWB (Flughafen Wien Betriebsgesellschaft) took over the field a
new era started. This resulted in a reconstruction and further development
of the airfield. Soon after, small hangars and a terminal building were
completed, concreting works on the 850 meter long runway terminated this
phase of reconstruction. Technical state-of-the-art equipment and a tower
built in 1979 added to the standard of the airfield.
Voeslau/Kottingbrunn has turned into the biggest airfield for general aviation and since then has been used for the training of general-aviation as well as commercial and airline pilots by many clubs, stationed not only at the field itself, but also at other fields.
In 1985 Voeslau/Kottingbrunn was turned into a public airfield and since 1996 has been successfully run by MFU Flugbetriebs GmbH and in the future might and will serve many more generations of pilots.