History
Don Muang airfield was the second established in Thailand, after Sa Pathum, which is now Sa Pathum horse racing course. The first flights to Don Muang were made on March 8, 1914 and involved the transfer of aircraft of the Royal Thai Air Force. Three years earlier, Thailand had sent three army officers to France to train as pilots. On completion of their training in 1911, the pilots were authorized to purchase four Breguets and four Nieuports, which formed the basis of the Royal Thai Air Force.
In 1933, the airfield was the scene of heavy fighting between royalists and government forces during the Boworadet Rebellion.
Commercial service to Don Muang began in 1924. The first commercial flight was an arrival by KLM.
The airfield was used by the occupying Japanese during World War II, and was bombed and strafed by Allied aircraft on several occasions.
During the Vietnam War, Don Muang was a major command and logistics hub of the United States Air Force.
Read more about this topic: Don Mueang International Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (18751947)