The nearly 3-km runway, spacious airspace and secure facilities surrounding the airport are used by a variety of aerospace, defense and unmanned research companies.
Twente Airport is part of Technology Base and is the ideal shielded location for testing new developments and technologies.
The nearly 3-km runway, spacious airspace and secure facilities surrounding the airport are used by a variety of aerospace, defense and unmanned research companies.
The runway is nearly 3 km long and 45 meters wide and is located southwest/northeast, ideal with respect to the wind directions most common in the Netherlands.
The long runway gives Twente Airport specific value for globally operating companies in Twente, which use the runway for their key business operations. Europe and the rest of the world are thus very easily accessible for international business.
NLR and Space53, also based at Twente Airport, regularly use the runway for testing manned and unmanned systems.
At Twente Airport it is possible to flood part of the runway for braking and water absorption tests for certification. Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR) and Airbus conducted braking tests with the A400M.
The amount of water in this bin corresponds to what can occur on a runway during heavy rainfall. The purpose of these tests is to see what the braking performance of the aircraft is under these extreme conditions. The knowledge gained from this is used to further improve regulations, which in turn improves safety.
Twente Airport is part of Technology Base, the former military airbase. The site of over 200 hectares is fully fenced off and only accessible through the controlled access gate. Twente Airport knows the safety rules of a civilian airport and, together with Technology Base, is a unique location where safety and discretion for conducting high-risk and competition-sensitive activities, tests, trainings and simulations are guaranteed. The various indoor and outdoor areas are shielded and are used, for example, for testing technology under extreme (weather) conditions, testing unmanned systems or training large groups of people.
Twente Airport is a unique location for carrying out high-risk activities. Conducting tests, trainings and simulations that literally and figuratively need space, because it is still a prototype, for example.
Safety is guaranteed because the entire site is completely enclosed. During opening hours, of course, sufficient airport-certified firefighters and equipment are present to ensure safe flights and testing.