Troll Airfield

Infobox Airport
name = Troll airfield
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IATA =
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type = Private
owner = Norwegian Polar Institute
operator =
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location =
elevation-f =
elevation-m = ≈1270
coordinates = coord|71|57|20|S|2|27|20|E|type:airport|display=inline,title
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r1-length-f =
r1-length-m = ≈3000
r1-surface = Ice
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Troll airfield is a 3 km air strip located 6.8 km NNW of the Norwegian Troll Antarctic research station. It was constructed on the Antarctic ice sheet and opened for service February 2005 to facilitate logistics for the research in the area.

The Norwegian Polar Institute has invited 11 countries opertaing on Queen Maud Land into a cooperation on Dronning Maud Land Air Network Project (DROMLAN). Troll Airfield is a part of an air network with Cape Town in South Africa and the Russian Novolazarevskaya Station 354 km ENE of Troll. Passengers are flown in from the main land and then distributed by smaller aircraft on to their final destination.

The air strip has proven popular with its users helping to cut costs on Antarctic research. C-130 Hercules, P-3 Orion [ [http://www.mil.no/luft/start/nyheter/article.jhtml?articleID=133117 Forsvarsnett: Landet trygt i Antarktis ] ] and similar long range aircraft have regular flights. The runway does not limit the size of visiting aircraft. Troll airfield is only open to traffic associated with research. Commercial traffic is not served.

February 12 2005 a C-130H of the Norwegian 335 Squadron brought Queen Sonja of Norway to the Troll research station, landing at Troll airfield, making Queen Sonja the first queen to ever set foot on Antarctica [http://www.nilu.no/print.cfm?ac=nilu&folder_id=4339&text_id=14411&view=text&lan_id=3] .

References