Manises Air Base ( es, Base Aérea de Manises) is a defunct Spanish Air Force base. It was located in

Manises Manises (, ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Horta Oest in the Valencian Community, Spain. Located in the province of Valencia, it had 30,693 inhabitants in 2018 (NSI) and is famous for its pottery and being the location of Valencia Airp ...

Valencia Airport Valencia Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Valencia, ca-valencia, Aeroport de València) , also known as ''Manises Airport'', is the tenth-busiest Spanish airport in terms of passengers and second in the region after Alicante. It is situated west of ...

, the civilian airport for the city and metropolitan area of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Spain.

Units

The air base housed the following units in the past: *24th Fighter Group (''24º grupo de caza'') with

FARE A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various pa ...

Polikarpov I-15 The Polikarpov I-15 (russian: И-15) was a Soviet biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s. Nicknamed ''Chaika'' (''russian: Чайка'', "Seagull") because of its gulled upper wings,Gunston 1995, p. 299.Green and Swanborough 1979, p. 10. it was ...

bis *1st Wing (''Ala nº 1'') with F-86F Sabre, with Spanish Air Force denomination C.5 (1955–1970) *11th Wing (''Ala nº 11'') **30

Mirage III The Dassault Mirage III () is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizonta ...

(24 EE and 6 DE, with Spanish Air Force denomination C.11/CE.11) which were bought from France on 20 June 1970 and which stayed at Manises until they were phased out. **

Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the popular Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would ...

(11 EDA and 2 DDA) which were transferred to Los Llanos Air Base in

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...

when Manises Air Base closed.Julián Oller and Luis Utrilla, ''Colección “Historia”''

History

During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

Manises airfield became a Spanish Republican Air Force base for the military planes that took part in the

Battle of Teruel The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War between December 1937 and February 1938, during the worst Spanish winter in 20 years.Hugh Purcell, p. 95. The battle was one of the bloodiest actions of ...

. In 1944 the air base was reopened as the seat of a Spanish Air Force fighter wing. The first modern fighters arriving to the base were the F-86 Sabre of which there were 123 units at a certain point. The Sabre were replaced by Mirage III in 1970. The decision to close the base was taken in 1997. It was officially dismantled on 31 July 1999 when the military installations were taken over by AENA, the Spanish Airports Authority. The equipment and the aircraft were transferred to Los Llanos Air Base, Albacete, and the military command was taken over by

Zaragoza Air Base Zaragoza Air Base is a base of the Spanish Air and Space Force located near Zaragoza, Spain. It is located west of Zaragoza, west of Barcelona, and northeast of Madrid. It shares infrastructure with the Zaragoza Airport. in the past, Zaragoza ...

. Currently the airport complex is exclusively for civilian use.

References

External links

Amigos de la Mili - Base Aérea de Manises (Valencia)
{{authority control Manises Defunct airports in Spain Air force installations of Spain Airports established in 1944 Airports disestablished in 1999