Santa Cruz Air Force Base – ALA12 is a base of the Brazilian Air Force, located in the district of Santa Cruz in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

History

The base was originally called Bartolomeu de Gusmão Airport and it was constructed to handle the operations with the rigid airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg. Between 1931 and 1937, Deutsche Luft Hansa had regular flights between Germany and Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro as final stop. For this reason Luftschiffbau Zeppelin decided to construct a dedicated facility and move its operations from Campo dos Afonsos Airport. The airport was inaugurated on 26 December 1936. The whole complex consisted of an airfield, the hangar, a hydrogen factory and a branch-line connecting the complex to the main railway line to downtown Rio de Janeiro 54 km away among other structures. Some of the buildings are still in use, particularly the hangar which was built to accommodate the rigid airships. Because it is the only original surviving hangar built for rigid airships in the world, on 14 March 1999, it was listed as a National Heritage Site. As a consequence to the Hindenburg disaster on 6 May 1937 at Lakehurst Air Naval Station in New Jersey, US, the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin requested to the Brazilian Government on 17 June 1937 the suspension of services. Since then no more civil operations were handled at this facility. On 12 February 1942, six months before Brazil declaring war against the Axis, the airport was commissioned as a base of the Brazilian Air Force. The name of the facility was changed to Santa Cruz Air Force Base on 16 January 1943, even though, according to a law prescribing rules for the naming of airports of July 21, 1953, the name of the facility could officially and exceptionally be maintained as Bartolomeu de Gusmão Airport.

Units

The following units are based at Santa Cruz Air Force Base:

Accidents and incidents

Access

The base is located 54 km from Rio de Janeiro downtown in the district of Santa Cruz.

Gallery

This gallery displays aircraft that are or have been based at Santa Cruz. The gallery is not comprehensive.

Present aircraft

Retired aircraft