Remnants of Second World War flying school in Calgary disappearing

Andy Robson, 91, holds a 1943 photo of his fellow trainees at the No. 3 Service Flying Training School at Currie Barracks. He trained to be a pilot at the Lincoln Airfield. The last of the airfield buildings including the hangar at left and the Wildrose Brewery building, on the right, are soon to be demolished. — BY TAMARA GIGNAC, CALGARY HERALD 05.05.2013: During the Second World War, hundreds of young men from as far away as Australia and New Zealand learned to fly bomber aircraft at the No. 3 Service Flying Training School in Calgary. It was an important aviation hub for pilots bound for overseas combat, although little remains today of the former British Commonwealth air training facility. But as the former Currie Barracks military base completes its transition to a trendy urban neighbourhood, some are concerned the few landmarks that remain will be lost to the sands of time. Andy Robson, 91, got his wings at the wartime school on Sept. 26, 1943. He learned to fly on a Cessna Crane and later volunteered for Bomber Command in England. “It would be really nice to see what is left preserved. A lot of pilots trained here. It has an important history,” he said. The remaining hangars from the era are slated for demolition next year to make way for the last of three development projects on the 81 hectare site. Back in 1935, the army property was in the middle of nowhere. “There wasn’t much around there. It was pretty isolated,” Robson recalled. “To get there from downtown, you took the streetcar as far as Marda Loop and then you walked across the prairie out to the airport.”

This is Andy Robson’s 1943 photo of his fellow trainees at No. 3 Service Flying Training School at Currie Barracks. Now 91, he was in his early 20s when he trained to be a pilot at the Lincoln Airfield. Construction began that year on an unpaved landing field on the southern section of Currie Barracks. Beginning in 1940, a portion of the land became the pilot training school. It closed in 1945, and the airfield was later renamed RCAF Lincoln Park, which served as a repair depot and a NATO pilot training facility until consolidation within the Canadian military closed aviation operations for good in 1964. The abandoned runways were later used as a racetrack for sports car and motorcycle racing until the early 1980s. For years, a collection of deteriorating wartime hangars and other properties remained like ghosts from a bygone era. Some of the structures have disappeared, but others carry on as film studios and even a pub. The clock is ticking, however. Many military buildings have existed on borrowed time since the mid-1990s, when the federal Liberals under Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced the closure of Currie Barracks. Canada Lands, a Crown corporation that redevelops property no longer required by the federal government, converted the site for mixed residential and retail use, starting with Garrison Woods on the east side of Crowchild Trail just south of 33rd Avenue S.W. As Canada Lands moves ahead with building on the huge tract of land that remains, including the former airfield, officials say they are committed to honouring the site’s military past. “There is a significant amount of both historical buildings and spaces that will be preserved here on Currie,” said Doug Cassidy, Canada Land’s western region vice-president. Approximately a dozen buildings are designated provincial heritage sites and will be refurbished and in some cases used as business space. The Officers Mess on Trasimene Crescent will stay, as will a formal garden behind the structure and all of the barracks buildings around Parade Square. But the remaining aircraft hangars will be demolished, including a green Quonset occupied by the Wild Rose Brewery. The building known as AF23 was used as a military clothing supply store and, more recently, a set for a Jackie Chan movie. Ultimately, AF23 was deemed not to have any heritage value. Cassidy said he understands some people are not pleased to see the hangars disappear from the former RCAF lands, given their early ties to Calgary’s wartime airfield. For now, the hangars remain. The city has yet to receive an application for demolition. That offers little comfort to Jaeson Cardiff, a longtime Calgarian with personal ties to the old RCAF Lincoln Park. He sees it as the end an era. “My grandparents lived just across the way from the old airfield. I remember as a kid, sirens would go off during practice and there would be helicopters landing there,” Cardiff said. “I always knew there was an airport there and that it played a fairly major role in Canada during the Second World War.”