Soewondo Air Force Base
Soewondo Air Force Base The name Polonia is taken from the plantation area owned by a Pole, Baron Michalski in which it is situated. Polonia originates from the Latin name of the country of Poland. In 1872, the Baron obtained a concession from the Dutch East Indies administration for a tobacco plantation in Medan. He named the plantation after the country of his birth, which at that time wasn't an independent state. In 1879, the concession was handed over to Deli Maatschappij or NV Deli Maskapai. In 1924, Dutch KLM test pilot N. J. Thomassen x Thuessink van der Hoop planned to fly on a Fokker F.VII in a pioneering flight from the Netherlands. Therefore, Deli MIJ, who controlled that piece of land, handed it over for the land to become the 1st airstrip in Medan. By the time the news had arrived, it was too late to prepare a proper landing strip at Polonia. As a result, van der Hoop, together with Lieutenant H van Weerden Poelman of the Army Aviation Department and KLM flight engin...