Visibility: limited only by the imagination
Temperature: 28°C
Location: EDOR (Stölln)
Equipment: DDR-SEG, Iljuschin Il-62 “Lady Agnes”

The Village of Stölln, north of the big city, has the oldest air filed in the world. Did you know that? I did not!

The German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal came here on a fairly regular basis for training. And it is here that he managed to take-off, fly a controlled turn and land at the same point he started. And by the definition of the good people of Stölln, this makes the site the first air field of all time. Hard to argue with this!

The other great thing about Stölln is the “Lady Agnes”. She is an Iljusihin IL-62 jet liner. She was operated by the east German airline Interflug and ferried to Stölln as a museum piece after she was retired in 1989. The most significant thing about this is, that she was landed on the local sail plane strip – 900 meters of grass. There is quite a spectacular video of the landing available on YouTube.

Today, Lady Agnes is a quiet sight. But one that will make the aviators heart go warm.

To be continued…

 

(originally posted on September 6, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/il-62/)