CFS Debert - RCAF Station Debert

RCAF Station Debert

In the fall of 1938 the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) purchased land for constructing an aerodrome on the north shore of Cobequid Bay near the farming community of Debert.

Construction of the aerodrome, which would be named RCAF Station Debert, began in the fall of 1940 and was completed in April 1941, coinciding with the construction of the army's adjoining Camp Debert. The airfield itself consisted of three 5000ft runways arranged in an overlapping triangle.

RCAF Station Debert was one of several similar facilities constructed in the Maritime provinces in support of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and operational coastal patrol requirements.

Following the war, RCAF Station Debert underwent some downsizing but continued to support active flight operations as a training, refueling, and maintenance base until 1954 even though no operational squadrons were stationed there.

In 1960, the RCAF transferred its aerodrome to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) which used the facility for aircraft carrier landing practise in support of naval aviation aircraft stationed at nearby Royal Canadian Naval Air Station (RCNAS) Shearwater. Also in the 1960s, some unused hangar space at the aerodrome was used to house a medical equipment supply depot which was used by all three branches of the armed forces.

On February 1, 1968, the merger of the three service branches into the unified Canadian Forces saw the end of flight operations at the Debert aerodrome and in 1971 the Department of National Defence designated 4,800 acres (19 km2), consisting of the aerodrome and the majority of the training area used by the former Camp Debert, as surplus. The provincial government purchased this land for development into the "Debert Air Industrial Park" while the aerodrome continues to be used as a municipal airfield, known as Debert Airport.