Situated on the outskirts of Lillestrøm, it is 9 nautical miles (17 km; 10 mi) east northeast of Oslo, making it the aerodrome closest to the capital.

The airport is owned by the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organization, while civilian operations are carried out by Kjeller Aero Senter.

The airfield was occupied by the Luftwaffe on 10 April 1940, resulting in Junkers, Daimler-Benz, BMW and Brinker Eisenwerk establishing various maintenance facilities.

After liberation in 1945, the RNoAF converted Kjeller to a maintenance base and placed the Air Force Logistics Command there from 1952.

[2] The need for an aerodrome for the Norwegian Army Air Service arose in September 1912, after the first four pilots had been trained and the two first aircraft, Maurice Farman Longhorns, were obtained.

[3] Two of the pilots went scouting around Lillestrøm on 8 September to find a suitable location for an airfield, and settled on Kjeller after two days of reconnaissance.

[6] The first flight to another aerodrome took place on 3 October, when a plane flew to Trondheim, piloted by Einar Sem-Jacobsen, the commander at Kjeller.

[8] The army rented space at Kjeller Farm, which was owned by M. H. Brøther and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nils Claus Ihlen.

[8] Polar explorer Roald Amundsen started his flight training in 1913 and took Norway's first civilian pilot's license on 11 June 1914.

[23] The Søndenfjeldske Air Wing was formally established in 1917, but did not become operative until 1919, when it had accumulated a combined twenty Farman F.40 and Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2.

[33] The airfield owner was also concerned with floods and decided to elevate the runway by 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) by filling it up with garbage from Oslo.

A trial was run with 5,000 tonnes and described as a success by the army, proposing that a spur from the Trunk Line be built to Kjeller for all of Oslo's 15,000 cubic meters (530,000 cu ft) of garbage be disposed at the airfield.

The service was especially popular with travelers to London, as they did not have to transfer at Copenhagen, and the route saw a typical ten to twelve passengers for each of the daily departures.

[36] On the day before Operation Weserübung, which started the German occupation of Norway on 8 April 1940, warning was received by the air base commander, Harald Normann.

[41] Minister of Defense Birger Ljungberg announced at 14:07 that Oslo, including Kjeller Airfield, was regarded as lost and all units were ordered to cease fire.

[42] To support the scrambling of men at Gardermoen Air Station and Trandum, it was important to delay a German offensive across Nitelva.

It relied largely on the existing Norwegian workforce, but was forced to extensive retraining because of the advanced construction of the German aircraft.

The civilian workforce was away from work as there was a German military exercise being carried out, under supervision of General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst.

This caused the anti-aircraft guns to be loaded with blanks and that no-one suspected that it was a real attack until the bombs started raining.

[53] Both Daimler-Benz's workshop and one of the halls were destroyed, as were an estimated twelve aircraft and the rest of the buildings suffered significant damages.

[55] Twelve Norwegian were killed and the raid effectively stopped all maintenance activity at Kjeller until the end of the war.

[57] The air base had a capacity for 2,500 men at the end of the war, although the bombing and lack of subsequent repair had left the field in a dilapidated state.

It was therefore converted to a pure maintenance facility which was to serve as the main workshop for the newly established Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF).

[62] The wooden runway caused massive maintenance costs and required the entire strip to be inspected daily for loose planks.

[63] This allowed a De Havilland Vampire to land and the maintenance division could start servicing jet aircraft.

[65] With the order of new F-84 Thunderjets and F-86 Sabres, Kjeller Air Base would need significantly longer runway to take down the fighter jets.

[63] The proposal received massive local protests, as it would force the runway to cut through Storgaten, the main road to Lillestrøm, and the Trunk Line, as well as significant areas around Åråsen, reaching all the way to Leira.

[69] Construction started on 25 August and saw an upgrade to the existing runway through a 15-centimeter (5.9 in) layer of crushed stone being laid on top of the concrete.

[71] During the 1960s the Norwegian Army's direct support division for Project Nike was placed at Kjeller Air Base.

[73] The first lethal accident took place on 1 May 1917, when a Farman F.40 crashed during an attempt to reach the Scandinavian elevation record of 4,000 meters (13,000 ft).