Lundtofte Flyveplads (Lundtofte Aerodrome) is a former airport for both military and civilian use. Currently, the

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fir ...

(DTU) is built on the site. The airport opened in 1917 and the last flight was in 1959.

History

The

navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

flying school Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a st ...

was looking for a new airfield location, since the

Kløvermarken Kløvermarken (the Clover Field) is a large green space in the Amager East district of Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally a military area, it has later been home to both Copenhagen's first air field and a camp for German refugees after World War II. ...

airfield they used at the time was to be closed soon due to the expansion of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. A suitable area of around was found at

Lundtofte Lundtofte is a neighbourhood in Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality, located north of Kongens Lyngby. The town is bordered by Nærumbanen, the Mølleåen river, the Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks T ...

. In March 1917, approval was given for the purchase of at the site and budget for construction of airfield facilities was reserved.

Inauguration and early years

The airfield was inaugurated June 22, 1917. Five aircraft would fly from the old airfield of Kløvermarken to Lundtofte and back again. Chief of the two airfields Jeff HA Hammelev was flying one of the aircraft. The flight from Kløvermarken to Lundtofte went smoothly, and festivities were held at Lundtofte. However, shortly after their landing, thunderclouds appeared, and Hammelev, who had an important meeting in Copenhagen, took off to fly back to Kløvermarken together with a mechanic, to avoid the bad weather. At Ermelunden they were caught in the bad weather and crashed. Hammelev did not survive the crash, and the mechanic was badly injured. Already two years after its inauguration, the airfield was rented out for civilian use. Air shows and aerobatics were organized on the site and planes took off from the airfield to drop flyers, display advertising banners and to distribute newspapers. In 1921 smuggling flights took off from Lundtofte, smuggling Danish silver coins to Sweden. After lawsuits, the company that exploited the airfield went bankrupt. It wasn't until 1926 that the airfield was used more intensively again, with it being used for training flights from Kløvermarken. In 1934, most training was moved to

Værløse Værløse () is a town in Furesø Municipality in the northwestern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. As of 1 January 2022, it has a population of 13,069. Situated on the west side of the Hillerød Motorway, between Farum Lake to the north and Søn ...

and Lundtofte was mainly used to practice emergency landings. In 1937 a Danish company started assembling

Piper J-3 Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

aircraft at Lundtofte, and buyers could also learn to fly the aircraft from Lundtofte.

World War II

With the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

(1939–1945) and the resulting fuel rationing, whereby most civilian activity at the airfield was discontinued. In August 1943, newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen was murdered near the airfield. In November 1944,

Holger Danske Holger may refer to: People * Holger (given name), includes name origin, plus people with the name * Hilde Holger, stage name of dancer, choreographer and dance teacher Hilde Boman-Behram (née Hilde Sofer, 1905–2001) Fictional characters * Holg ...

of the Danish resistance movement attacked the airfield with 30 people. The airfield was guarded by the SommerkorpsetSummer Corps. Within 15 minutes, all defenders were killed. All but one of the attackers managed to escape. The arrested member was sent to a concentration camp, but survived the war and returned to Denmark.

Thereafter

After World War II, the Danish Military police used the airfield for training. The last motorized flights took off in 1949. Throughout the 1950s the airfield was only used for flying

model aircraft A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models. Aircraft manufactur ...

and gliders. On September 13, 1959, the last flights, with gliders, took off from Lundtofte. In 1961, the last airfield buildings were demolished and construction of the DTU buildings started.

Remains

The central parking space at DTU is at the place of the former aerodrome buildings, and at DTU building 204 a memorial plate was erected in 1981 with the text (translated from

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

References

* * * {{authority control Defunct airports in Denmark