By Gary Watson | September 17, 2013 Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 14 seconds.
Survival is a museum’s most important priority, according to Tom Hinderks, executive director of the Alberta Aviation Museum. As head of the beleaguered museum, Hinderks knows all about survival. Located on the edge of the Edmonton City Centre Airport, the museum’s home is a Second World War-era, double-wide wooden hangar. It is the last surviving building of its kind, built in the early 1940s as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program (BCATP). Designated as a municipal and provincial heritage site, it seems bizarre that the biggest obstacle to the hangar’s occupant is the City of Edmonton itself.
The museum’s hangar is located just outside the airport perimeter, but a significant number of its larger aircraft displays are partially parked on airport property. The museum has been told those aircraft must be moved by the end of September. Edmonton City Centre Airport is slated for closure on Nov. 30, 2013, with the lands being developed for, among other uses, an extensive condominium development.
The Alberta Aviation Museum’s attempt to expand into a neighbouring empty hangar has been quashed by the city, leaving the museum little choice but to move artifacts and 10 to 15 aircraft – both restored and awaiting restoration – to a yet-to-be-determined location. Among the aircraft that must be moved is a B737-200, in the original Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) paint scheme.
“If the aircraft meets Transport Canada requirements and can be signed off by the professionals who are evaluating it, it will be flown to another airport. We have reorganized the aircraft in the museum to limit its collection to those with a direct Edmonton connection, and have no intention to move those from this location,” said Hinderks.
The historical airport was once home to many aircraft operators, maintenance companies and other aviation businesses. The airport opened as Canada’s first “public air harbour” in 1926 and was named Blatchford Field after Edmonton’s aviation-minded mayor of the day. It then became known as the “gateway to the north” with many exploration and medical mercy flights originating from the airport. In the Second World War, it hosted the BCATP and served as a waypoint for U.S. aircraft headed to Alaska.
Post-war, most northern exploration and emerging airlines, such as Wardair and PWA, called the airport home. Its location, relatively close to downtown Edmonton, aided in the creation of the PWA “airbus” shuttle service between the provincial capital and Calgary, the headquarters for most Alberta-based oil and gas companies.
For more than 40 years, the City of Edmonton has been trying to close the airport. Despite this threat, it continued to flourish during the 70s and 80s, with new buildings and businesses starting up. During the past 20 years, city-imposed commercial traffic restrictions first affected scheduled flights, then charters, and finally only aircraft with less than 10 seats were allowed, along with flight training. STARS Air Ambulance and Alberta Health Services medevac flights moved from the City Centre Airport, which is close to the city’s largest hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, to the International Airport 30 kilometres away. Corporate operations shut down and maintenance operations moved to greener pastures.
On Nov. 30, 2013, after the October municipal elections, the airport will be closed and the developers will move in.
It’s a sad end for an airport that was once one of the busiest general aviation airports in Canada. In a final ironic twist, the city chose the name “Blatchford” for the new 30,000-resident condominium project.
