Recently I had the opportunity to scan some of the slides that I took at Twenthe Airbase in the nineties and the beginning of the new Milennium. Looking at those pictures brings back nice memories, so why not share those pictures as well.
1996 Open House
The Open House usually brought many nice visitors to Twenthe and 1996 was no exception.
PC-7 L-04 of the EMVO taxiing in for the static display
2003 Open House
The 2003 Open House was a great success, but it was also the last Open House for Twenthe Airbase. The day after the show, Defence Minister Kamp announced that Twenthe would be closed because of budget cuts.
Members of the Airmobile Brigade are being dropped off by a Hercules during the 2003 Open House.
General Visitors
Over the course of the years, Twenthe was visited by many aircraft. Some were spectacular and unique, some a bit less.
This Sukhoi 22 was temporarily based at Hopsten and flew missions to HSA in Hengelo. This was done to test the HSA’s new SMART-L radar. After one of those flights, a fly-by was made at Twenthe.
Tornado F.3s from 25 Sqn were regular visitors.
Normally they came over for a week to have some dogfights against the F-16s
When taxiing back to the flightline, nice pictures could be made.
Alouettes were very regular visitors.
When parked at the civilian platform, pictures were possible though.
This Bo-105CB in UN colours visited Twenthe for a career day.
A Venezuelan Hercules in 1998. This aircraft visited Twenthe to pick up goods from HSA in Hengelo.
In August 2001 two French Mirage 2000s visited Twenthe for some training.
Unfortunately one of the Mirages broke down.
Fortunately for us, a Nord 262 was sent in with technicians and spare parts.
A PD-808GE during Falcon Nut
An Italian AMX during Falcon Nut
This Bulgarian Tupolev 134 was used to fly some soldiers to The Netherlands
A Hungarian MiG-29 together with a 313 Sqn F-16
A Hercules from 334 Squadron sporting special anniversary colours
A Belgian Hercules on Runway 24
This Belgian Airbus 310 was used to ferry the ground crew back from Amendola.
A Danish Hercules was not so common at Twenthe
A Greek Hercules in absolutely appaling weather
Transalls became regular visitors when the neighbours from Hopsten deployed their Phantoms to Twenthe because of runway maintenance.
The German Transalls were used to ferry the German Phantoms and their equipment to Decimomannu
One of the few white C.160Ds
An Italian Hercules supporting a Starfighter detachment during Ample Train.
German Phantoms were regular visitors, but this WTD61 example was quite unique.
A German Tornado taxiing towards Runway 06.
A Luftwaffe Challenger that brought a German minister to Twenthe.
When the F-16’s from Twenthe were deployed to Villafranca and later Amendola, freuquent visits were made my Belgian Hercules aircraft. Together with the Dutch transport fleet they supported the Belgian/Dutch F-16 deployments.
Night Flying
One of the things F-16 pilots had to practice was flying by night. This video shows some take-offs in the beginning of the evening, during the final months of Twenthe’s active period.
F-16AM J-141 deploying the dragchute. This dragchute helps the F-16 to stop at a shorter stretch of runway.
