Supercruise Aviation - Article
Cornfield range 2008
The Cornfield Range is an aircraft gunnery range witch is situated on de island of Vlieland. This is one of the islands in the north of the Netherlands.

This range was used for the first time in 1948. The target are red rags and they were numbered from 1 to 6, and held upright between 2 sticks. Later new target were used, such as old tanks, armoured vehicles and hardboard targets.
Tower Cornfield range In the early years the observation tower was a simple brick building, on top of an old German WW II bunker. Nowadays a state of the art tower is in use. It is a big building painted in black and yellow for good visibility.

The range is not only used by the Dutch Air Force but also by the air forces of Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States.

My visit was on 14 may 2008 and it was organized by Aviation Group Leeuwarden, upon arrival at the harbor of Vlieland, the Royal Dutch Air Force sent a van to pick us up.

The first visitors of the day were Belgian and Dutch F-16's.


During this day we saw F-16’s from the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Denmark. The F-16’s from Norway and Denmark only made flyby’s at the range, returning to Leeuwarden airbase as part of an exercise.

At the end of the day a Chinook from the Dutch Air Force came in and started shooting at the old tanks and armoured vehicles with machineguns from the side -and backdoor. After the shooting they landed beside the tower, to create a photo oportunity.

After that, it was time to go home.

Text and photo’s by François van Riel