Cuatro Vientos Airport
Encyclopedia
Madrid-Cuatro Vientos Airport , also known as Cuatro Vientos Airport, is the oldest Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 and one of the three civil airports of Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 along with Madrid-Barajas and Torrejón Air Base
Torrejon Air Base
Madrid-Torrejón Airport is a commercial airport in Spain. It is a joint-use facility between the Spanish Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Public Works. The civil part is dedicated primarily to executive and private aviation. The airport is located northeast of Madrid, west of Alcalá de...

.

This airport is mainly operated by general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

 aircraft, Flight Training Organizations and flying clubs. Due to the runway length and surrounding buildings it is only possible to operate helicopters, piston engine aircraft, medium size turbo-props and small business jets. Also, due to the lack of IFR facilities, but an old NDB
Non-directional beacon
A non-directional beacon is a radio transmitter at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. As the name implies, the signal transmitted does not include inherent directional information, in contrast to other navigational aids such as low frequency radio range, VHF...

 (CVT), it is only possible to operate VFR
Visual flight rules
Visual flight rules are a set of regulations which allow a pilot to operate an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minimums, as specified in the rules of the...

 flights. Nevertheless, it is the headquarters airport of several FTOs, including some of the major Spanish ones as Gestair Flying Academy, Aerotec, Aerofan and others.

Cuatro Vientos was originally an air base, which later became also a civil airport. Thus, there is a military section located on a separate apron of the airport, opposite to the civil one. It is also used as Madrid base for the Spanish Police helicopters and turbo-prop airplanes, as well as for the road traffic surveillance helicopters.

In the sector A-1, on the south side of the field, sits the Aeronautics and Astronautics Museum of Spain
Aeronautics and Astronautics Museum of Spain
The Aeronautics and Astronautics Museum of Spain, in Spanish Museo de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica o Museo del Aire, is a aviation museum located in the outskirts of Madrid at Cuatro Vientos Airport, Spain. The museum was founded in 1981 and offers 6 exhibition galleries and it has 130 aircrafts on...

 (Museo del aire), an air and space museum mainly dedicated to the Spanish Air Force.

The airport is located in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, 8 km south-west of the city down-town. The name "Cuatro Vientos" translates into English as "Four Winds."

Accidents and incidents

  • In September 1976, Douglas C-53 T.3-57 of the Ejército del Aire was involved in an accident at Cuatro Vientos AFB and subsequently withdrawn from use.

Event

The Cuatro Vientos Airport provided the location for vigil and final mass of World Youth Day 2011
World Youth Day 2011
World Youth Day 2011 was the 2011 occurrence of World Youth Day, a Catholic event held from August 16-21, 2011 in Madrid, Spain focused on youth...

.

External links

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