Bare air bases in Italy

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henkpm
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Bare air bases in Italy

Post by henkpm »

In the Netflix serie Gomorra The serie Season 4 an airfield is to be seen which looks very much like a former military air base.
Especially a bare base, with probably only a runway, a simple control tower and what looks at least 1 an ammunition bunker.

I am trying to find out which base it is, with no succes until now.
Additional data:
- Gomorra The serie is situated in the Naples area (but the airfield can of couse be anywhere in Italy)
- it is in a rural flat area with no hills or mountains to be seen
- searching the Naples area in Google Maps was not succesfull.

If it is really a bare base (comparable to the bare bases in Belgium and France) then there must be more than one.

Any one who has information on this ?

Henk Mulder
MaxIT
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by MaxIT »

I'm from Italy, but I must admit I've never seen Gomorra! :oops:
I made a little research about the location of the series, but without success.

But I could suggest Grazzanise airport, because in the reality there was a project to convert in civilian airport the former military base (after the withdraw of the Starfighters). It is not far from Naples area.
Today it is still an active military base, home of 9° Stormo that operates helicopters. But, thanks to this, there is no civilian traffic, little military movements, so it is quite easy to have permissions and little impediments for shooting.
It is still a simple airfield, only concrete runway and one parallel taxiway, with tower at almost the middle of the runway (could not be seen on Google Maps).
Around Naples there is also Capua airfield, but it has grass runway.
My two pence :wink:
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by Starman »

Maybe you should ask Scully?
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by Nilson »

Starman wrote:Maybe you should ask Scully?
:toppie:
life is good, but a good life is better
henkpm
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by henkpm »

MaxIT wrote:I'm from Italy, but I must admit I've never seen Gomorra! :oops:
I made a little research about the location of the series, but without success.

But I could suggest Grazzanise airport, because in the reality there was a project to convert in civilian airport the former military base (after the withdraw of the Starfighters). It is not far from Naples area.
Today it is still an active military base, home of 9° Stormo that operates helicopters. But, thanks to this, there is no civilian traffic, little military movements, so it is quite easy to have permissions and little impediments for shooting.
It is still a simple airfield, only concrete runway and one parallel taxiway, with tower at almost the middle of the runway (could not be seen on Google Maps).
Around Naples there is also Capua airfield, but it has grass runway.
My two pence :wink:
You are right: It is Grazzanise air base, I identified it by 2 parallel sheltertype sheds southwest on the field.
I did not expect buildings in such a bad shape on an active air base.......
Thank you !

BTW 1: No info on bare airbases in Italy ?

BTW 2: I recommend Gomorra strongly :-)
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by Fishbed_9307 »

henkpm wrote:
MaxIT wrote:I'm from Italy, but I must admit I've never seen Gomorra! :oops:
I made a little research about the location of the series, but without success.

But I could suggest Grazzanise airport, because in the reality there was a project to convert in civilian airport the former military base (after the withdraw of the Starfighters). It is not far from Naples area.
Today it is still an active military base, home of 9° Stormo that operates helicopters. But, thanks to this, there is no civilian traffic, little military movements, so it is quite easy to have permissions and little impediments for shooting.
It is still a simple airfield, only concrete runway and one parallel taxiway, with tower at almost the middle of the runway (could not be seen on Google Maps).
Around Naples there is also Capua airfield, but it has grass runway.
My two pence :wink:
You are right: It is Grazzanise air base, I identified it by 2 parallel sheltertype sheds southwest on the field.
I did not expect buildings in such a bad shape on an active air base.......
Thank you !

BTW 1: No info on bare airbases in Italy ?

BTW 2: I recommend Gomorra strongly :-)
I was at Ghedi-Montichiari in 1994. This was a bare base back then. A quick look at Google Earth learned me that it has been converted into a civil airport! https://goo.gl/maps/xG6bu8BcJZtWVpsRA

A rather impressive transformation!

Regards, Paul
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by MaxIT »

Fishbed_9307 wrote:
I was at Ghedi-Montichiari in 1994. This was a bare base back then. A quick look at Google Earth learned me that it has been converted into a civil airport! https://goo.gl/maps/xG6bu8BcJZtWVpsRA

A rather impressive transformation!

Regards, Paul
At Montichiari there are two airports, one is civil, nearby there is the ItAF 6th Stormo home base, with Tornado. I don't really know if civil hosted military Units in the past.
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by MaxIT »

henkpm wrote:
You are right: It is Grazzanise air base, I identified it by 2 parallel sheltertype sheds southwest on the field.
I did not expect buildings in such a bad shape on an active air base.......
Thank you !

BTW 1: No info on bare airbases in Italy ?

BTW 2: I recommend Gomorra strongly :-)
You are welcome ;-)

I don't know if you could refer to the abandoned shelters for the Starfighters, the actual 9° Stormo with helicopters is on the opposite end of the runway.

About old bases: with disbandment of fighter/bomber Units, the old bases have been converted to civil or remain active with Helicopter Units (like Cervia, Rimini, Grazzanise). Some bases are still "operative", as forward bases for interceptors, deployed weekly from their home bases in small numbers.
Only Piacenza-San Damiano seems to be a bare base, after the transfer of the last Tornado to Ghedi, but I have no direct info.

Thanks for your recommendation about Gomorra, I will do!! :worship: :wink:
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by henkpm »

MaxIT wrote:
henkpm wrote:
You are right: It is Grazzanise air base, I identified it by 2 parallel sheltertype sheds southwest on the field.
I did not expect buildings in such a bad shape on an active air base.......
Thank you !

BTW 1: No info on bare airbases in Italy ?

BTW 2: I recommend Gomorra strongly :-)
You are welcome ;-)

I don't know if you could refer to the abandoned shelters for the Starfighters, the actual 9° Stormo with helicopters is on the opposite end of the runway.

About old bases: with disbandment of fighter/bomber Units, the old bases have been converted to civil or remain active with Helicopter Units (like Cervia, Rimini, Grazzanise). Some bases are still "operative", as forward bases for interceptors, deployed weekly from their home bases in small numbers.
Only Piacenza-San Damiano seems to be a bare base, after the transfer of the last Tornado to Ghedi, but I have no direct info.

Thanks for your recommendation about Gomorra, I will do!! :worship: :wink:
Thank you !
By the way, "real" bare bases in my opinion are reserve fields built in the fifties and sixties onder a NATO program.
They have only a runway, paralel taxiway, some flightlines for parking, sometimes a small hangar and fuel storage.
They were meant for deployment of fighters from the main air bases.
As I said, there were a lot of them in France and Belgium, and 1 in the Netherlands
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by Fishbed_9307 »

henkpm wrote:
MaxIT wrote:
henkpm wrote:
You are right: It is Grazzanise air base, I identified it by 2 parallel sheltertype sheds southwest on the field.
I did not expect buildings in such a bad shape on an active air base.......
Thank you !

BTW 1: No info on bare airbases in Italy ?

BTW 2: I recommend Gomorra strongly :-)
You are welcome ;-)

I don't know if you could refer to the abandoned shelters for the Starfighters, the actual 9° Stormo with helicopters is on the opposite end of the runway.

About old bases: with disbandment of fighter/bomber Units, the old bases have been converted to civil or remain active with Helicopter Units (like Cervia, Rimini, Grazzanise). Some bases are still "operative", as forward bases for interceptors, deployed weekly from their home bases in small numbers.
Only Piacenza-San Damiano seems to be a bare base, after the transfer of the last Tornado to Ghedi, but I have no direct info.

Thanks for your recommendation about Gomorra, I will do!! :worship: :wink:
Thank you !
By the way, "real" bare bases in my opinion are reserve fields built in the fifties and sixties onder a NATO program.
They have only a runway, paralel taxiway, some flightlines for parking, sometimes a small hangar and fuel storage.
They were meant for deployment of fighters from the main air bases.
As I said, there were a lot of them in France and Belgium, and 1 in the Netherlands
Crotone was another one. Back in the 80’s the base was considered as an alternative for the 401st TFW at Torrejon. After this plan was abandoned Crotone was eventually converted into a civil airport.
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by Fishbed_9307 »

MaxIT wrote:
Fishbed_9307 wrote:
I was at Ghedi-Montichiari in 1994. This was a bare base back then. A quick look at Google Earth learned me that it has been converted into a civil airport! https://goo.gl/maps/xG6bu8BcJZtWVpsRA

A rather impressive transformation!

Regards, Paul
At Montichiari there are two airports, one is civil, nearby there is the ItAF 6th Stormo home base, with Tornado. I don't really know if civil hosted military Units in the past.
There was a taxiway between Ghedi and Montichiari so I think Montichiari was a spare runway for Ghedi. Also I recall that Montichiari housed a SAM unit which might have been 1 Stormo.
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Re: Bare air bases in Italy

Post by MaxIT »

You all are right (i.e Crotone and Montichiari :bthumb: )

It is not a real "aircraft" base, but there is a dismantled Nike missiles that can be also visited in the North:

http://www.basetuono.it/en/
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