85 years of Blatchford Field/Edmonton City Centre Airport

[Tom H]

Since January we have been celebrating the 85th Anniversary of our downtown airport in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Scheduled to close in the next few years after an amazing history I thought it would be interesting to share some of the moments in time as they come up.

Here are the first (2) sections we have sent out:

A few moments in time from the Airport 1927 to 1943:

- 1927, Blatchford Field first licensed “Air Harbour” in Canada.
- 1927, Edmonton & Northern Alberta Flying Club established, oldest in Canada. (Edmonton Flying Club)
- 1928, First Air Mail service across the Prairies. Winnipeg to Edmonton
- 1929, Fort Vermillion Mercy Flight with diphtheria anti toxin halting an outbreak in the Fort Vermillion/Rainbow Lake area.
- 1929, Air mail service to Fort McMurrary established.
- 1930, Prairie scheduled air mail inaugurated Winnipeg to Edmonton with stops in between.
- 1931, Leigh Brittnell establishes MacKenzie Air service.
- 1933, Edmonton is the Canadian Passenger, Air Cargo and Air Mail leader.
- 1933, Edmonton Journal coins “Gateway to the North” of Edmonton’s Blatchford Field.
- 1936, Leigh Britnell establishes Aircraft Maintenance #1 at Blatchford Field.
- 1937, Grant McConachie established scheduled Air Mail service to Whitehorse from Edmonton.
- 1938, Trans Canada Airways* begins service to Edmonton. (*today renamed Air Canada)
- 1939, Aircraft Maintenance #1 grown to largest of facility of it’s kind in Canada.
- 1940, The Alberta Aviation Museum hangar opens as #2 Air Observers School
- 1940, Edmonton Flying Club becomes #16 Elementary Flight Training School.
- 1941, RCAF 418 City of Edmonton Squadron established.
- 1942, North West Staging Route to Alaska enters full operation.
- 1943, Busiest Airport in the World.

A few moments in time from the Edmonton City Centre Airport 1944 to 1960:

- 1944, Continues as busiest airport in the world
- 1944,British Commonwealth Air Training Plan begins to phase down in Edmonton
- 1944-1945, USAAF uses as cold weather testing for P-59 Jet Fighter
- 1944-45, USAAF bombers heading to Pacific theater use as fuel base
- 1945, RCAF Winter Experimental Establishment opens testing all RCAF aircraft (evolves to AETE in Cold Lake today)
- 1946, 418 Squadron city of Edmonton established postwar as B-25 Squadron
- 1946, RCAF Jet fighters tested in Edmonton for winter suitability (Dehavilland Vampire and Gloster Meteor)
- 1946, RCAF Survival School Established
- 1946, Post War Passenger/Cargo service to the North is booming from Edmonton
- 1947, USAAF declares housing emergency, ECCA growth causes housing boom
- 1948, Airport transferred back to City of Edmonton
- 1948, Canadian Pacific Airlines moves head office to Edmonton
- 1948, Both Canadian Pacific and TCA (Air Canada) use Edmonton as Western hub
- 1949, RCAF Search and Rescue Squadron established
- 1949-1951, Edmonton becomes “Cross Roads of the World” for International flights. Traffic booms again.
- 1951-60, Air Cargo and passenger traffic increase again as the Distant Early Warning radar line is being built.
- 1955, All RCAF/USAF operations move to the completed CFB Namao
- 1957, Edmonton Industrial Airport is self sufficient and producing a profit
- 1959, Home to North West Air Command of NORAD, joint RCAF/USAF defense
- 1960, The growth trend continues at the now Edmonton Industrial Airport

During this time the Downtown airport saw incredible types of aircraft pass through including types as diverse as the Mitsubishi Zero, Bell P-59 Aircomet, B-17s,24s, B-29s.
Commercially it was an age of change and large aircraft like the Super Connie, DC-6, DC-7 became regular visitors with major cargo types as well feeding the DEW line construction.

Unlike other Canadian Aviation Centres, Edmonton was booming through out this period and the industrial side with North West Industries has pushed Edmonton to the fore front as an Aerospace Centre.

Alberta Aviation Museum with information from our library and the Historic Impact Assessment done for the City of Edmonton by Ken Tingley.

While not the definitive list it is interesting to get a taste for all that happened here in Edmonton.

Tom

[Dan Jones]

An A6M? Really?

Had no idea it was our oldest airport. Stupid politicians...