History
In 1941 the United States obtained rights to construct a United States Army Air Forces base in the St. George's Bay area of Newfoundland. The U.S. 76th Congress approved the 99 year lease and in April 1941, construction began.
The USAAF base was originally referred to as Stephenville Air Base. However after the USAAF became the United States Air Force in 1947, it was renamed Ernest Harmon Air Force Base on June 23, 1948, in honour of Captain Ernest Emery Harmon. Harmon was a US Army Air Corps ace who was killed in an air crash in 1933.
On September 1, 1943, the Newfoundland Base Command transferred control of Harmon Field to the North Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command. The base became a part of the Northeast Air Command in October, 1950. Then in April 1957, the Strategic Air Command assumed control.
The mandate of the base was to maintain a tanker alert force and its capability to meet and refuel Strategic Air Command jet bombers en route to targets. The KC-97 Stratotanker was employed in this task.
The base was also used as a refueling stop for transatlantic military flights. In addition, Harmon supported three Air Defense Command units. In 1957, the Canadian Department of Transportation constructed an airport terminal to accommodate Trans-Canada Air Lines (now Air Canada). 1966 saw the closure of the U.S. Air Force Base in Stephenville.
The airport is now owned and operated by the local Airport Authority, the Stephenville Airport Corporation Inc. Stephenville Airport was officially designated as an alternate in the Trans Oceanic Plane Stop (TOPS) program on 23 July 1970.
Since the late 1990s, Stephenville has been designated as one of five Canadian airports suitable as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.
On 1 April 1990 the airport was further designated for alternate use, fueling only, by international scheduled air transport and for international general aviation regular use.
Read more about this topic: Stephenville International Airport
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—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
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