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Taipei Sungshan Airport (TSA)

The domestic Taipei Sungshan [Songshan / Siongsan] Airport was built in the 1950s, with an apron expansion in the 1970s. As of the late 1990s, the longest runway at Sungshan was reportedly 8,546 feet long. Summer convection in the afternoon plays a very important role for the occurrence of low-level wind shear near Sungshan airport, due to summer thunderstorm or typhoon.

SungShan AB is used purely for VIP transporters with Beech 1900C, Fokker 50 and the Air Force One---Boeing 737. One of the Beech 1900C usually flies down in the morning to the Kang Shan Air Force Academy for the Academy's cadets' transport training before returning at the end of the day upon completion of the training.

In early 1999 Taiwan's Civil Aviation bureau decided to reroute commercial flight paths around Sungshan Airport to avoid the hazard to be posed by the tallest building in the world, the 101-story 508 meter tall International Financial Center, which started construction in July 1999. However, in August developers agreed to scale back the project to 392 meters and 90 floors, given concerns about interference with air traffic into Sungshan Airport. The problem was resolved in December 1999, and the Taipei Financial Center Project is back on track to surpass the Petronas Towers as the world's tallest building when it is completed in 2003.

Taipei Sungshan Airport (TSA)
Click on the small image to view a larger version
NGA Tactical Pilotage Chart of Taipei Sungshan Airport and surrounding area. (Source: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)	NGA Tactical Pilotage Chart of Taipei Sungshan Airport (Source: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)
Taipei Sungshan Airport and surrounding area. (Source: Space Imaging, 13 February 2000)	Ikonos browse imagery of Taipei Sungshan Airport (Source: Space Imaging, 13 February 2000)
Taipei map	V-MAP level 0 (Source: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)
Declassified Corona Satellite imagery of Taipei. 11 February 1969 (Source: National Archives)	Declassified Corona Satellite imagery of Taipei Sungshan Airport. 11 February 1969 (Source: National Archives)
Declassified Corona Satellite imagery of Taipei. 11 February 1969 (Source: National Archives)	Declassified Corona Satellite imagery of Taipei Sungshan Airport. 11 February 1969 (Source: National Archives)
Declassified Corona Satellite imagery of Taipei. 11 February 1969 (Source: National Archives)	Declassified Corona Satellite imagery of Taipei Sungshan Airport. 11 February 1969 (Source: National Archives)