Otopeni and Clinceni airfields

Another question I have is about Otopeni and Clinceni airfields – they both seem to be close by Bucharest. Is it the same airfield or not?
Thanks!

Yes, both Otopeni and Clinceni are on same location. What I heard from someone working at Clinceni was that the germans made Clinceni and it is still functional today the way they made it then (it has very good drainage system - and it is a grass airfield). However I never met any ww2 source mentioning Clinceni airfiled.. it is still a misetry to me

Otopeni and Clinceni are two different airfields.

Gen. Dénes

Mytzu,
Otopeni is North of Bucharest, on the road to Ploiesti, while Clinceni is to the Southwest, on the road to Alexandria. They were and still are two different locations.

See: http://www.hartionline.ro/ro/harta/i7.html

Clinceni is not visible in this square, it is just beyond Bragadiru. Go West one square and you will see it next to the Arges River.

The airfield is still functional, mostly for gliders, from what I have seen there.

Otopeni, or Henri Coandă International airport (LROP) is the biggest Romanian airport, situated 16,5 km to the North of Bucharest. It's the hub of TAROM, and a part of it (South) is the airlift air base, Baza aeriana 90 Transport Aerian.

Clinceni is West of Ploieşti and is just a grass runway and some hangars.

lol - i know where Clinceni is.. I flew from it. What I said was: someone working at Clinceni said that the airfield was built by germans. What I am puzzled about it I found no references about it during ww2 like it didn't exist in ww2.. So it is still a mistery to me: did it exist during ww2 ? was it made by germans or not ? or maybe it was made by germans after ww2


Burner: Clinceni is near Bucharest not Ploiesti.

Edited 2: ahh now I see the confusion "Yes, both Otopeni and Clinceni are on same location." , what I first understood from Gazolin was if Clinceni and Otopeni retained same location today as it did during ww2 (by reading his post again now I don't now why I understood that... probably too much beers ?) so I was just trying to say "yes they are on same location (as they were before)" . Sorry for me confusing things :]

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on April 16, 2006 08:08 am

Hey, my bad. I don't know why, but I was thinking of Strejnic airfield, near Ploieşti. Sorry 'bout that.
I too heard that Clinceni was built by the Germans, but I really don't know...

Thanks for clearing this out for me, much appreciated!

For sure Otopeni airfield was made and used by germans ( big hangars and concrete airfield).
Clinceni airfield was made by local people (payed by romanians not by germans). One local guy (farmer) told me that he worked there using his horse wagon ( transporta pamant cu caruta pt a ridica si nivela terenul )

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on April 16, 2006 07:47 pm

Here's how a German document describes Clinceni airfield:

Civilian airfield, but suitable for Ju 87s.
15 km SW Bucharest
650 x 850 [m] landing field
5 buildings for airplanes and repair shops
1 massive hangar under construction, in 1942 [by the Germans?]

Gen. Dénes

Excellent news, thanks Denes ! So Clinceni was in operation during ww2. Why is it there is no info so far about Clinceni being used during ww2 (in books found on the market).

Clinceni is a small airfield not so much suitable for military purpose. In the war when the alarm was given many planes should take off at once and need more than 650 x 850 mm grass.
Small airfield are very good for military flying school. Clinceni was used after the war as a military school with planes like IAR 27, Fleet and IAR80.

That's absolutely correct. It's very hard for a real airplane to take off from a 650 x 850 mm area.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on April 16, 2006 08:18 pm

That's absolutely correct. It's very hard for a real airplane to take off from a 650 x 850 mm area.

That is also true, but maybe he meant m*m which would make it absolutely correct.

Yes Denes, it is my professional deformation. I work only with mm and microns.

But anyway 650x 850m it is also to small.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on April 16, 2006 09:11 pm