Although the museum is currently closed, there is plenty to explore in our online archive.
The American Air Museum is a charity - Find out how you can support us
Military site : airfield
Orly Airfield - 6 June 1944 Taken after to 8th Air Force bombing raids
Villeneuve-Orly Airport was opened in 1932, as a secondary airport to Le Bourget, then Paris' principal airport.
In 1940 the Luftwaffe occupied the airport and used it as a combat airfield. Until 1944 the site was regularly attacked by Allied air forces, which destroyed most of its infrastructure.
Orly entered USAAF use following the Liberation of Paris. Elements of the IX Engineering Command 826th Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived at Orly on 27 August 1944 . The two concrete runways were patched and the airfield was made operational as Advanced Landing Ground A-47 for transport units to fly Resupply and Casualty evacuation flights by the next day.
The 50th Fighter Group undertook combat operations from Orly for a week in early September 1944. The base was then used as a command and control field by Liaison units until October 1945
While Orly remained in American hands after the war, plans were made to repair most of the wartime damage and return it to use as a civilian air port. On 7 November 1947, it was returned to the French Government, it is now the site of Orly International Airport.
Not yet known
Group
Before the build-up to D-Day, the group were based in the United States as part of the Fighter School Command and the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics. In spring 1944 though, like so many other fighter and bomb groups, the 50th Fighter Group...
Military | Second Lieutenant | fighter pilot | 50th Fighter Group
DONALD A. ANGELL, Sr. 86, of The Villages, Florida passed away on January 18, 2008. He had been a resident of the Palm Beach Gardens area since 1968 after retiring from the US Air Force as a Major. He had resided at The Villages since September 2003....
| Date | Contributor | Update |
|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2019 12:05:35 | Emily | Changes to name, usaaf from date, usaaf to date, construction date, closure date and history |
| Sources | ||
| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 26 July 2015 01:35:27 | 466thHistorian | Created entry with name, number, known as, latitude, longitude, usaaf from date, usaaf to date, construction date and history |
| Sources | ||
