F 9 Säve

Air Force Wing
emblem=
officialname=Kungliga Göta Flygflottilj
locatedin=Säve,
Gothenburg Municipality
founded=1936
closed=1969
wingcommander=Magnus Bång(1940-1948)
Arthur Åhmansson(1948-1959)
Åke Mangård(1959-1960)
Ulf Cappelen-Smith(1960-1969)
typesofaircraft=Fighter
maintypes=J 8, J 11, J 21, J 22, J 28B, J 29, J 34
othertypes=
other=

F 9 Säve, Göta Flygflottilj, "Göta Air Force Wing", or simply "F 9", is a former Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located near Gothenburg in south-west Sweden.

History of the airbase

The decision to set up the air wing was made in 1936 to defend the import/export harbours on the west coast. The wing itself was not commissioned until October 1 1940 and the airfield took until 1941 to complete.

Initially, two squadrons of J 8 fighters were commissioned in 1940, but they were quickly replaced by three squadrons of J 11s.

In 1942 hangars and some of the base command were relocated inside large shelters blasted out of the rocks. Initially the shelter area was only 8,000 m^2 (72,000 sq ft.) but it was later extended to 22,000 m^2 (200,000 sq ft.) 30 m (100 ft) below ground level.

During 1943, the J 11s were replaced by J 22s and subsequently by J 21s in 1946. The J 21s served for only three years until 1949 when they were replaced by the J 28B.

After yet only two years the J 28Bs were in turn replaced by the J 29. The 29 Tunnan did serve for over ten years until they were finally replaced by the J 34 where some units came from F 8 Barkarby and F 18 Tullinge.

The squadrons were gradually decommissioned one per year 1967-1969 until the wing itself was decommissioned on June 30 1969.

Current use

The airfield is currently operated as Gothenburg City Airport airport codes|GSE|ESGP

The old rock shelters house the Aeroseum - a museum of flight and event centre.

References

[http://www.canit.se/~griffon/aviation/text/fv26-.html Webpage listing all air force squadrons in Sweden]

[http://www.aeroseum.se/english/index.html Aeroseum flight museum inside the old base shelter]

See also

* Swedish Armed Forces
* Swedish Air Force
* List of military aircraft of Sweden