User manual

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General Information
Bergen airport, Flesland (ENBR, BGO) is located on the eastern
shoreline of Norway approximately 15km from Bergen city. The airport
is currently the second busiest airport in Norway and served over six
million passengers during 2013.
Bergen was originally only served by water aerodromes, during WWll
the Wehrmacht was looking for a suitable location to build an airstrip.
Mostly to fend off air raids performed by the British, but also to
protect shipping and interest along the coastline. They later chose
Herdla (an island to the north of Bergen) as the best alternative and
built two runways there. One of the main reasons for the choice of
that location was that earlier a Messerschmitt bomber had to do a
forced landing in that area. The aircraft was later on able to take off
without much difficulty. So in that sense they could quickly make
suitable runways without having to flatten a lot of terrain.
After the war ended talks about building an airfield to serve the
Bergen area started again. The main choice was still Herdla, mostly
due to the poor topographic terrain surrounding Bergen. But after
some back and forth Herdla was removed as an option due to the
impossibility to extend the runways beyond the initially proposed
length of 1500 meters. Another nail in the coffin for Herdla was the
lack of connection to the mainland at that time and transportation to
and from the island would have to be by ferry from Bergen.
During the 50’s funding from NATO was obtained and the Flesland
area looked like the only viable option. Construction commenced
1952 and in 1955 Flesland Airport was opened to the public, though
The Royal Norwegian Air Force had been using the airport for a couple
of years before this time and Flesland Air Station was co-located at the
aerodrome up until 1999.