Museo del Aire - Cuatro Vientos,  18 October 2008

After a good night rest we started the last day of our tour around Madrid at Cuatro Vientos Air Base. We hoped to be able to take some shots of the aircraft parked at the ramps from the civil side of the airfield. Unfortunately when we walked to the fence the airport security came out of their office and asked what we were doing. We told them we were watching the aircraft. They believed us, but we were kindly asked to leave.

We did manage to read a new Cougar which we didn't see there two days before. Around 9 o'clock we decided to drive towards the Museo del Aire which is located very close to the military air base. We arrived here within fifteen minutes, so we had to wait for another 45 minutes before the gates of the museum opened. Unfortunately the weather was very bad during the morning and we even had some heavy rain showers. Luckily the museum has a few hangars where aircraft are parked inside, so we went inside every time the rain came down. We were surprised by a Spanish Navy Sea King which came almost overhead the museum, but we didn't succeed in reading this helicopter. 

History of Cuatro Vientos

On 11 January 1911, a military commission proposed to the War Ministry that it acquires land at Cuatro Vientos to set up a school for pilots. On 8 February the first troops arrived, installing themselves in tents, the chiefs and officers installed themselves in a temporary cabin. Two mobile hangars arrived from France to house the first aircraft: two Henri Farman biplanes, with a 70 HP Gnome engine, and a Maurice Farman, also a biplane, with an 80 HP Renault engine. On 12 March, the first aero plane from Ciudad Lineal landed at Cuatro Vientos. In the winter of 1911, construction work began on different buildings in the aerodrome, concluding in March 1912 with the installation of another hangar, barracks for the troops, a garage and a building for the guard corps. In 1914, construction started on the control tower, the oldest in Spain.

In 1918, construction began on the Aerodynamics Laboratory. The aerodynamic tunnel came into service in 1926 and was the most important of those in existence at the time. From 1920, the Mechanics School started operating at Cuatro Vientos and, as from 1925, the Classification School, which moved to Guadalajara in 1927. In 1928, the Advanced Aerotechnical School opened on adjoining land. In February 1936, Cuatro Vientos was authorized as an alternative airport to Barajas and began to operate as a national airport for all purposes.

During the civil war, the aerodrome was used as a base for the fighter and bomber squadrons of the republican government. After the war was over, the Section of Studies and Experiences remained at Cuatro Vientos and was absorbed into the National Institute of Technical Aerospace (INTA) at the end of the 1940's. The Advanced Aerotechnical School became the Military Academy of Aeronautical Engineers and, years later, the Transmission School. 

Loring, a private aerodrome, had been set up in 1929 to the east of and bordering Cuatro Vientos aerodrome. In November 1947, The Real Aero Club de España, RACE, was established here and was given the facilities. In 1952, free use was granted of the airfield that bordered the military airfield to the west and which had a 600-metre runway, which was shared. In March 1961, a new delimitation was established between the civil area (the paved runway and south area of the airdrome) and the military area (north zone of the paved runway). In September 1965, it officially became Madrid - Cuatro Vientos airport and, in 1967 it was classified as cat. 2.

At the start of the 1970's, the airport had a 10-28 runway (1,200 meters long and 30 wide), a parallel taxiway and another parallel runway of compacted land, 1,650 meters by 75. In July 1971, Madrid - Cuatro Vientos was opened to domestic and international passenger traffic, under VFR flight conditions. In December 1975, the runway was extended by 300 meters, taking it to 1,500 meters. Moreover, work began on the new control tower and small terminal building. The airfield is thus formed by a paved runway with a 10-28 orientation, 1,500 meters long and 30 wide. Besides, there is also a non-paved earth runway, which is for exclusive use and rights of the air base.

Nowadays the airbase houses the 402 Esc which operates the Super Puma and Cougar helicopters and the 803 Esc which operates the Super Puma, C-212 and CN-235. This last squadron is mainly used for Search and Rescue. Besides these two squadrons also the Centro Cartográfico y Fotográfico is stationed at Cuatro Vientos, equipped with C-212s and Ce560s. Also a lot of stored aircraft can be found here. Some C-212s can be found on both military aprons and also six Caribou's are dumped at the civil side.

History of Museo del Aire

In December 1948 the first studies were done to see whether a museum could be created in de new building of the Ministry of Aviation. Finally after years of considering the Museo de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica was created on 16 June 1966. When the museum got several donations including a series of historic airplanes as the Vilanova I Sour, Spanish version of the Bleriot XI, the Heinkel  111, DC-3, Junkers-52, etc., in 1969 they had a huge problem as they didn’t  have room for these aircraft. They needed a bigger area and the aircraft needed their own building. However they still didn’t have the exact location where to establish the museum.

Finally in 1975 ,the airfield of Cuatro Vientos, the airfield where Spanish Aviation started, came out as the best option. On 24 May 1981 the Museo del Aire opened its doors to the public for the first time. Throughout the years the museum increased enormously and the collection of airplanes had to be parked inside several hangars and outdoors as well. Nowadays the museum has more than 100 different airplanes, a huge collection of motors, armament, uniforms, photographs, books and historic documents.

sources: Ejército del Aire & wikipedia

Last part of our Madrid Area Tour

Around 12.30h we left the museum and drove towards Madrid-Barajas to return our car. a few minutes before six o'clock we arrived at Charleroi Airport which ended our tour around Madrid. After all, we can look back at very nice trip in which almost all our goal were achieved. Unfortunately we weren't able to take good shots of the helicopters at Colmenar Viejo, and this was one of our main goals. I would like to thank my travel mates, Mark, Mike and Niels for their nice company.