Ottawa/Rockcliffe Airport

Ottawa/Rockcliffe Airport
IATA: YRO – ICAO: CYRO
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Rockcliffe Flying Club
Location Ottawa, Ontario
Time zone EST (UTC−05:00)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC−04:00)
Elevation AMSL 188 ft / 57 m
Coordinates 45°27′37″N 075°38′46″W / 45.46028°N 75.64611°W / 45.46028; -75.64611Coordinates: 45°27′37″N 075°38′46″W / 45.46028°N 75.64611°W / 45.46028; -75.64611
Website Rockcliffe Flying Club
Map
CYRO

Location in Ontario

Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
09/27 3,300 1,006 Asphalt

Ottawa/Rockcliffe Airport or Rockcliffe Airport, (IATA: YRO, ICAO: CYRO), a former military base, is a non-towered airport located on the south shore of the Ottawa River, 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) northeast of Downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The airport is the home of the Canada Aviation Museum, which owns the field, and is used and maintained by the Rockcliffe Flying Club.

History

Main article: CFB Rockcliffe

The airport land was originally a military rifle range. In 1918, the Royal Air Force began using the field behind the range for experimental mail flights, and the airport opened officially in 1920 as the Ottawa Air Station, one of the six original airfields opened across Canada by the new Air Board. Since it is on the shore of the Ottawa river and the runways were connected to the riverfront by a road, it was one of very few airports capable of handling and transferring floatplanes on both land and water. On March 12, 1930, Canadian World War I flying ace William George Barker crashed into the Ottawa River and died during an aerial demonstration over the field. In July 1931, Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh visited the airport during their northern surveying tour. During World War II. Rockcliffe participated in the British Commonwealth Air Training Program and many other kinds of testing, training, and transport operations, including flying overseas mail to troops in Europe.

The military importance of the airport declined after World War II, since the runways were too short for typical jet operations. The armed forces shifted most operations to RCAF Station Uplands (now Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport) in 1957, and ceased flying operations at Rockcliffe in 1964, retaining the station only as an administrative base, while the Rockcliffe Flying Club began using the field for civilian flying.

During the 1970s the airport was also used for scheduled short takeoff and landing (STOL) commercial flights to the short-lived Victoria STOLport near downtown Montreal.[2] The objective was to demonstrate Twin Otter STOL aircraft in downtown areas and avoid longer drives to the Ottawa and Montreal airports. For a variety of reasons STOL operations in downtown settings have not proven successful.

The military left the airport completely in 1994, but their aircraft collection remained to form the nucleus of the Canada Aviation Museum. Only one of the former triangle of runways remains active; runways 04/22 and 10/28 were closed along with most taxiways now servicing the aviation museum.

Tenants

Aerial of the airport

Current tenants of the airport:

Former tenants:

Transportation to Airport

By car the airport can be reached by Rockcliffe Parkway.

By transit OC Transpo Route 129 provides direct access to airport or Route 7 with a short walk to the airport.[4]

Incidents

See also

References

  1. ↑ Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 15 September 2016 to 0901Z 10 November 2016
  2. ↑ "The Airtransit operation". FLIGHT International. www.flightglobal.com. 28 November 1974. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  3. ↑ http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1974/1974%20-%201919.html
  4. ↑ http://casmuseum.techno-science.ca/en/visit/directions.php
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