CFB Rockcliffe - RCAF Station Rockcliffe

RCAF Station Rockcliffe

In 1922 the civilian components of the Air Board began to consolidate into the Canadian Air Force, which became part of the newly-established Department of National Defence the following year and was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1924. Thus the facility gained the second-longest association with the nation's air defence after RCAF Station Borden. After a few name changes, the facility took the name RCAF Station Ottawa in 1936. In 1940, this name would change again to RCAF Station Rockcliffe.

On March 12, 1930, Canadian World War I flying ace William George Barker crashed into the Ottawa River and died during an aerial demonstration over the field. In July 1931, Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh visited the airport during their northern surveying tour.

The airfield's runways were paved in 1939 in preparation for operations during World War II. RCAF Station Rockliffe participated in the British Commonwealth Air Training Program and — as the nearest airport to the centre of the capital — was involved in many other kinds of testing, training, and transport operations, including the transport of mail to Europe using B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. Immediately after the war, in September 1945, RCAF Station Rockcliffe was the site of the first jet aircraft demonstration in Canada.

In 1957, the military's main flight testing and development operations moved to RCAF Station Uplands (now located at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport). In 1964 the RCAF ceased flying operations at the base however it saw continued use as an administrative and logistics base. The airfield passed back into civilian control and the Rockcliffe Flying Club began using the field.