Updates
July 2006 – The End of an Era
On July 18th, the last beams of Hangar 1 were brought down. This hangar is the last of five hangars to be demolished. The other four were dismantled in recent years. These hangars have a long history dating back to the Second World War.
In 1939, the Canadian government chose Uplands Air Base as the site of a training centre, part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. A number of airmen were trained right at this very airport. Under this program, five hangars and the Uplands Air Base were built to support training activities. At the time, flight training was done on the Harvard, an aircraft removed from the Canadian Forces inventory in 1970.
After the war, the hangars continued to serve the needs of the RCAF. The Base was quite active at that time, during the Cold War. The F86 Sabre aircraft were flown by the RCAF mainly in Europe.
More recently, following the construction of new hangars, hangars 1 to 5 were used for various purposes supporting Base operations, but not to house aircraft. Hangar 1, the last to be taken down, was used until just recently as an indoor skating rink and fitness centre. The rink was used by the City of Gloucester.
With the creation of the Airport Authority in 1997, the Department of Defence gave hangars 1 to 5 to the airport. Efforts were made to find tenants, but all in vain. And so it was with some nostalgia that we undertook their demolition to make way for new tenants.
But all is not lost. Much of the wood from these hangars will be used in the expansion of the new air terminal. In fact, the beams will be planed down at a local mill and installed on the east wall of the expansion to add a bit of warmth to the new waiting lounges. The beams, made from B.C. timber cut in 1940, will therefore be given a second life in our new terminal.