Rayak Air Base

Rayak Air Base
IATA: none ICAO: OLRA
Summary
Airport type	Military
Owner	Lebanese Armed Forces
Operator	Lebanese Air Force
Location	Rayak, Lebanon
Opened	1914
Elevation AMSL	2,953 ft (900 m)
Coordinates	33°51′08″N 35°59′25″E
Interactive map of Rayak Air Base
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 04 3,039 9,970 Concrete 22 2,969 9,740 Concrete
Home of first Squadron, Eighth squadron and Fifteenth Squadron

Hawker Hurricane fighters from No. 451 Squadron RAAF at Rayak in 1942

An Australian soldier (Clive H. Roughley) standing in the cockpit of a French Bloch MB.200 at Rayak in 1941

Rayak Air Base (Arabic: قاعدة رياق الجوية | Kaidat Rayak al-jawiya) (ICAO: OLRA) is Lebanon's first air base and the place where the Lebanese Air Force was born on June 1, 1949. In the 1950s, the RAF sent its own instructors to help the Lebanese Air Force. British families accompanied instructors. The base had connections with Air Force bases in Cyprus. It was an idyllic location situated very close to a vineyard which now supplies wines throughout Europe, including London. Located in the middle of the Bekaa Valley to the east, between the towns of Zahlé and Anjar, it symbolizes the Lebanese Air Force, and is home for most of the aircraft types that have seen service and the final resting place for almost all retiring planes.

The airfield has been in use since 1914 by various foreign forces such as German, Ottoman, British and French.