Where dreams take flight

Riverview

The history of flight in Riverview is being commemorated in a new plaque that will hang in the halls of École Churchill High School.

On Dec. 4, members of the Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg visited the South Osborne-based school, where Col. Jody Hanson presented the plaque to principal Georgia Wells. The plaque details aviation activity on what is now the school site (510 Hay St.) from 1920 through 1948, when the Brandon Avenue air station effectively acted as Winnipeg’s airport for both commercial and military aircraft.

“This is a living reminder that places of learning are where history takes flight,” Wells told the crowd, which included students from grades 11 and 12. “Students are challenged to think about how past decisions shape the future, and to learn from the past.”

“It’s fitting and meaningful that we are gathered today at the site in Winnipeg where aviation history first took flight,” said Hanson, who is 17 Wing commander. “The rivers of Winnipeg were the foundation of early aviation in Canada.”

“This is a perfect opportunity for students to say, there was a moment in this particular neighbourhood of Riverview, where people had to be pretty innovative, to work together, where there was the imminent threat of fascism,” said Matt Henderson, superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division. “It’s about students thinking about what does it mean to be human and what is their place within the trajectory of history.”

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg, and the presentation was one of three to take place this month commemorating the base’s history in the city. Other plaques were presented to Canadian Mennonite University, where radio operators were trained leading up to and during the Second World War, and at the Winnipeg Airport Authority, commemorating Stevenson Field, the first air field at what is now the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.

“It’s been wonderful,” Hanson said. “Highlighting these sites, that they still exist, that background history … adds to the interest level, and helps keep military history alive. This is a way of highlighting those links. Everyone has been so welcoming and excited to celebrate our history.”

The first plane landed on the Red River at the Brandon Avenue air station in October 1920 as part of a cross-country expedition. By 1925, when the Royal Canadian Air Force established its first base in Winnipeg, the air field was used for both military and commercial operations. A mural on the south side of the South Osborne Legion Branch No. 252 (426 Osborne St.) also commemorates the history of flight in the area.

“From 1920 to 1948, there were aircraft here pretty much every day, particularly in summer. Once the river was frozen, they’d operate ski planes, because there were simply no runways in Winnipeg at that time,” explained Gord Crossley, heritage officer at 17 Wing. “Small aircraft could take off on the field, but the large aircraft, and there were some really big ones, would take off on floats or skis outside the school here. There would have been lots of activity. This was Winnipeg’s airport. This is where people came to watch the planes come and go. It was a very exciting area.”

Crossley said planes were taken up from or brought down to the river where the Redboine Boat Club is currently located, at 20 Churchill Dr. (Churchill Drive itself did not exist until 1942.)

“There’s nothing physical left, but they used railway tracks back in the day to push and pull aircrafts up off and onto the water, with a small tractor pulling it,” Crossley said.

The Brandon Avenue air station shut down in 1948.

“Most of the towns they flew to had runways (by then) that could be used year-round,” Crossley said. “That was the real change.”