1918–1939 Shearwater is the second-oldest military
aerodrome in Canada. In August 1918 the
US Navy established
Naval Air Station Halifax, or
NAS Halifax, at Baker Point on the shores of
Eastern Passage to conduct
anti-submarine air patrols. Lieutenant
Richard E. Byrd was Officer-in-Charge US Naval Air Force in Canada, with six
Curtiss HS-2L flying boats operating from NAS Halifax and six from
NAS Sydney. Naval air operations in Nova Scotia were intended to be taken over by the
Royal Canadian Naval Air Service (RCNAS), but the war ended before the RCNAS could train sufficient personnel. Following the end of the First World War, the United States Navy gifted its aircraft and flying facilities in Nova Scotia to the Canadian government. The six aircraft at Sydney were shipped to Halifax for storage and the buildings sold at auction. One of the five stations established by the Flying Operations Branch of the Canadian
Air Board during their first season of operations in 1920 was the
Dartmouth Air Station at the former NAS Halifax. Initially, the station's primary role was overhauling the HS-2L flying boats and dispatching them by air or rail to other stations, where they formed the backbone of civil government flying operations for several years. No. 4 Squadron was inactive from the end of the 1925 flying season, but re-opened the station in 1927 and flew more hours than any previous year. Operations for 1927 were mainly photographic surveys using a
Canadian Vickers Varuna, but also included some early experiments in
forest dusting with a
Keystone Puffer. On 1 July 1927 the RCAF's civil operations were transferred to the new Directorate of Civil Government Air Operations (CGAO), and No. 4 (Operations) Squadron again became the
Dartmouth Air Station. This directorate was nominally civilian, the director reporting directly to the Deputy Minister of National Defence, but was still staffed almost entirely by attached or seconded RCAF personnel. The following year all photographic operations were re-organized as independent detachments reporting directly to CGAO headquarters, and the Dartmouth Air Station was placed on "care and maintenance" again at the end of the 1927 season. The facilities continued to be used by mobile photographic detachments operating into the Maritimes from the
Ottawa Air Station. By January 1943 the runway information had been updated and the four runways were listed as follows:
Post-war In 1948, the
Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) took over the facility, naming it '
HMCS Shearwater''''' (after the First World War
sloop of the same name), also known as Royal Canadian Naval Air Station Shearwater (RCNAS Shearwater).{{cite book The combined land and sea-based aerodromes were used to station
carrier-based
maritime patrol and
fighter aircraft. Shearwater was also the home to early experiments with ship-borne helicopters—something which was copied by navies around the world. During the 1960s, the aerodrome at the former
RCAF Station Debert was attached to HMCS
Shearwater as a training location for carrier landings. The February 1, 1968
unification of the three service branches into the Canadian Forces saw HMCS
Shearwater change its name to Canadian Forces Base Shearwater (CFB Shearwater). Base rationalization and defence budget cutbacks for the Canadian Forces during the mid-1990s saw a largely administrative move when the formation CFB Shearwater stood down and the facilities transferred to the formation CFB Halifax and aircraft operations becoming the responsibility of newly formed 12 Wing. 12 Wing is headquartered at Shearwater and reports to
1 Canadian Air Division. ==Heliport conversion project==