Damascus former airport

[Deleted]

While trying to backdate some airports used by Air France on 1938 Far East route, I was uncertain about
their stop at Damascus.

According to Wikipedia, Damascus International Airport OSDI opened in 1973. Whereas it also relates that 'Mezzeh, a municipality of Damascus, started gaining importance when the French constructed Mazzeh (aslo spelled Mezzeh) Military Airport OS67. This was the main airport in Damascus until Damascus International Airport opened'.

Apparently the CalClassic traffic files are scheduled for using this airport. Unfortunately it's doesn't shown any buildings.

Bernard

[Dennis the menace]

Hi,

You are correct, Damascus International opened in 1973 and the old Mezza (or Al-Mezza) airport in West Damascus was the only airport serving the city. Its original terminal was supplemented in the late 1950s with a new larger international terminal building, and the small older terminal became the domestic terminal. There was also a detachment of the Syrian Air Force at the airport. After 1973 when all traffic was moved to the new airport, Mezza became strictly a military airport. It was bombed by Trump in 2017 but only after a lengthy warning was given to the Syrians and the Russians, so no casualties were caused. The only damage done was to a cafeteria at one far end of the field that was closed down anyway and was to be torn down. All of the original buildings remain and can be viewed using Google Earth or Google Maps. It is still a military airfield, but in 1962 it looked like this --

A small freight area on the left, the new international arrivals/departures terminal, to the right of that is the old terminal - now the domestic terminal, then hangars and the old tower, and more hangars.  An Iran Air Viscount is in front, with a Syrian Air DC-3 and DC-6B to the side.

I have created custom objects for every airport in Syria that had commercial traffic in 1962.  Here is Aleppo in the north -

Kamashly airport is in the far north east of Syria very close to the Turkish border and is served by Syrian Air with a DC-4 and a couple DC-3s -

The beacon is there, but the clouds hide it, you know.....  There are other airports in Syria like Lakatia, Palmyra, some others.....I basically did them all.

Go south to Jordan and you can see Amman International -

Amman was a relatively lonely place, especially for a capital airport.  It was limited by its runway and the fact it was in the middle of town.  BOAC flys into it, Air Jordan/Jordan Airways and a few others.

The most used airport in Jordan was East Jerusalem.  Most of Jerusalem's "holy sites" were located in Jordan, and their timetables boast of it.  Today the airport is intact but abandoned except for wildflowers, weeds, and wildlife.  But in 1962 it was a very different place...

Here, an MEA Viscount takes on a load of passengers.  Saudi Arabian flies into Jerusalem, as does Air Jordan, Misrair/UAA, Air Liban, Syrian Air, Trans Arabian and Kuwaiti.  The runway is not long, so a light DC-6B is about the biggest thing you can get in and out of there with.

Further south is the town of Aqaba on the gulf.  It was an old British airbase and they left a decrepit hangar and an old Quonset hut to serve as a terminal.  No restaurant, no bar, no motel, no pool, and no rent-a-car, but they do have both Avis and Herz "Rent-A-Camel" with unlimited mileage.

I did the other airports in Jordan that have commercial service in 1962.  To be honest, I did this scenery over a year ago and never released it, sort of forgot about it.  I had originally planned to add Saudi Arabia and whatever gulf airports that had not been previously done, but that is on hold for now.  So I will release this scenery as Syria and Jordan 1962.  If I ever get the energy to do Saudi Arabia then I can either add that at a later time, or release it as its own scenery.  I'm currently doing a city scenery that contains three airports, one that I mainly use, one that Tom mainly uses, and one that neither of us use.  As per me, everything I make is GMAX and for FS2004.  I have not seen it in FSX, but apparently my sceneries are not very difficult to convert from what I have heard.

So I will work on the next week putting this Syria Jordan package together, and then uploading it.  I did this so long ago that Tom had changed the AI traffic to use Mezza, but then changed it back to Damascus Intl because I had not uploaded this yet.

I also repainted a bunch of flyable planes for this scenery that also have not been uploaded and I will do them too.  Mostly Syrian or Jordan DC-3s (default), DC-6Bs, and DC-4s.  So those need to be packaged and uploaded. Instead I've been flying and fussing over weeds at the Athens airport runways/taxiways.

Anyways Bernard, you'll soon get your Mezza scenery!

Mike

[jwh]

That is beautiful work. It will really spoil us for Christmas.

I have a couple of 1976 charts for Amman if they can be of help to anyone.

John

[Dennis the menace]

What stopped this project from spilling over into Saudi Arabia and those tiny gulf states that had not been previously done was Dhahran airport. That new terminal with all those mushroom things around it....ohhhh no. And I really don't fly to there....so you know what its like to do scenery for a place you won't really use and not all that excited about. Perhaps one day I will get around to it. Somebody was planning on Iraq some time ago but I forgot who. This is Dhahran's terminal that opened in '61. Why they couldn't have made a plain box I'll never know....

Those planes I painted last year and never uploaded....I can't even remember which ones I did, so I'll have to look through my layers and see what is what.  That's the problem with letting stuff just sit around, pretty soon your FS folder ends up looking like a kitchen junk drawer!

My FS computer is off but I think these are the Syria airports: Damascus, Latakia, Aleppo, Kamashly, Deir Ezzor, and Palmyra.  For Jordan it is: Amman, Jerusalem, Aqaba, and Ma'an (serving Petra).  The only other airport of significance was Mafraq which had been turned into an air base after the 1956 war, so I didn't build it. The smaller, outlier airports have the camels, you wouldn't expect to see any in downtown Amman, Jerusalem or Damascus.....I think.

I'll have this uploaded before Christmas.

Mike

[Deleted]

Whow! Thats' look awesome, Mike. I didn't expect such nice sceneries after my rather clumsy thread. It was based on older 1962 flightplans which I use with AI Traffic Mover. 

Back to what we could see above, alone the camels will already be a further step in flight simulation! Anyway, many thanks for expanding classic world once more.  

Bernard

[jagdflieger]

I'll double WOW that. I'm looking forward to flying again in the Middle East.

[johnhinson]

I will add a thumbs-up to that too. OS67 was the first airport in FSX I dabbled into adding buildings to, earlier this year, but I only used default buildings in a basic manner just to put a bit of life into the place so the above would be extremely welcome!

Best regards,

John

[Dennis the menace]

Jerusalem is one of the most challenging airports in FS if you fly in and out of it properly. It is located not far from the border with Israel which is on almost three sides of it. Aircraft are not allowed flying over Israeli airspace or they can be shot down. You have to come in from the east using an NDB and shoot straight in. If you overfly it, have a missed approach, or on normal takeoff, you must start a sharp turn as soon as you retract the gear in order to remain in Jordanian airspace.  There are Holy sites in the city that Jordan had airspace restrictions on. Its much tighter than in and out of Berlin, where you had a 25 mile radius around Tempelhof to do your procedure turns, approaches and departures. I would compare Jerusalem more to an aircraft carrier than I would Berlin. Perhaps why no "western" carrier flew in and out of Jerusalem except a few charters. Most western carriers landed at either Cairo or Beirut (mostly), and you had to transfer into Jerusalem from there. There was a land border in Jerusalem, which was a divided and walled city, with checkpoints and border crossings, however it was a one way street so to say. You could walk across from Jordan to Israel if you had a western passport, but Jordan banned anyone except UN from crossing from Israel to Jordan. The situation with airspace was a result of the 1956 war.

Perhaps somebody has some old approach and departure plates for it. I was only able to gather what I know from the net.

Here is the state of the terminal building as of 2017:

[jwh]

Have found I had a couple of charts for Jerusalem from 1998 if they can be of use.

Sometimes I forget what I have here among my old manuals.

John

[cobar]

Jerusalem Airport late 1950’s with DC-4 JY-ABD Jordan International Airlines ex TWA.

[jwh]

Beautiful shot of the terminal and DC-4.

These are the two charts I have of Jerusalem and even though they are from 1998 not a lot seems to have changed with the airport.





May still be handy when using the new scenery.

John

[bw901]

I love these threads discussing old airports, fair play to you talented folks with the skill to recreate the airfields as they were. I've been lurking quietly in the background as I plow a more solitary furrow building the aviation world of 30-50 years ago in X-Plane. One of my associated hobbies is collecting vintage Jepps and Aerad manuals, though my interest starts with the 70s, so maybe a little after most of the inhabitants of this forum.

If it's of any help here are plates for Jerusalem for the late '70s.

And going back to the OP (though not 1938!), here's Mezze in 1969. According to my manuals the new Damascus airport was open by then as I've charts for OSDI dated December 1969..

Cheers

Jon

[jwh]

1976 scans of Amman which may be of use with the scenery.





John

[cobar]

Has the Syria Jordan scenery been released yet ?

[Dennis the menace]

Hi,

I will upload this scenery to flightsim in a couple of weeks. I need to still do some sorting out on it.

Mike