Former Raadi Military Airfield Takas
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This airfield is a former air base on the north-eastern outskirts of Tartu.
On 14 April 1912 Russian pilot Sergei Utochkin made history by completing the first motorised flight in Estonia, in a Farman biplane above Raadi Manor. Baron Liphart, the lord of the manor, had his farmland converted into a runway in summer 1914. During the interwar period of Estonian independence, the 2nd Squadron of the Aviation Regiment was stationed in Raadi. During the 1950s and 1960s the airfield was refashioned into one of the largest air bases in Eastern Europe, at which strategic long-range bombers were stationed. The last landing in Raadi is believed to have taken place in 1996. Plans for renovating the airfield were abandoned in 1999. The airfield has since been decommissioned.
It is situated next to Raadi Manor. In 1922 the Estonian National Museum was established in the manor, which had been expropriated from the Lipharts in 1919. Aerial bombings in August 1944 set fire to the manor, and it burnt down. In 2016 the new building of the Estonian National Museum was opened in Raadi, located at the end of a former runway. The building, which is 350 metres long and rises from the ground, gives the impression of being an extension of the runway.
Panaudoti šaltiniai ir literatūra:
Aircraft hangars and riding school in Raadi. Tartu City History Museums. https://linnamuuseum.tartu.ee/raadi-lennuangaarid-ja-ratsamaneez/
Mapping and functionality analysis of the architectural heritage of Estonian military history. 19th and 20th century. National Heritage Board expert evaluation. Authors: Ain Tähiste & Mart Mõniste. 2017.
https://register.muinas.ee/file/militaryheritage/323.pdf
Susijusi laiko juosta
Susijusi istorija
Aviator Utochkin's flights in Tartu
The first flights in the Estonian sky - a pilot over Utotškin Raad in 1912.
Tartu on the list of US nuclear targets in the Cold War
Raadi military airfield in Tartu was the target of a US nuclear attack during the Cold War.