1928 - The Cape Breton Flying Club By the late 1920s the Canadian government, in hopes of building the nation's aviation sector, made it policy to encourage the establishment of local flying clubs that could lead to increased flight training and the development of community airfields across the country. An Order-in-Council was passed in September 1927 and the Controller of Civil Aviation was tasked with supporting and approving the creation of these flying clubs. Through this flying club movement the Cape Breton Flying Club was formed in 1928, and in 1929 the club opened an aerodrome on land located along Grand Lake Road, near the community of Reserve, leased from one of its members, Dan MacMillan. All work to build the club's two air strips, each initially long, was done by volunteers, with the nearby town of Glace Bay loaning bulldozers to help clear and level the land, and Mr. MacMillan loaning the club a barn to use as a hangar. The first aircraft to land at the new Cape Breton Flying Club Field was a
Buhl Airsedan, named
Bluenose, owned by Rollie D. Archibald and flown from
San Francisco by Vernon Dorell, arriving at the airfield on June 6, 1929. The flight took thirty hours to complete. The club operated the airport through the 1930s primarily for local air traffic, visiting aviators, and pilot training. From 1929 through at least to 1940 the club operated a number of different
Avro 616 Avian IVM aircraft, registrations CF-CAY, CF-CAZ, CF-CDE, CF-CDF, and CF-CDG, and at least one
De Havilland DH.60 Moth, registration CF-CED.
1937 to 1945 - RCAF Aerodrome - Sydney In 1937 the government chose a site near the Cape Breton Flying Club's air strip for a new aerodrome for the
Royal Canadian Air Force, and in 1938 began construction of the aerodrome which included three four-thousand foot runways. By December 1940, as the new airdrome was nearing completion,
No. 8 (BR) Squadron moved operations to Sydney from its former base at Kelly Beach in
North Sydney. The new airport was operated through
World War II as a RCAF Aerodrome with 8 Squadron tasked with anti-submarine duty while serving with
RCAF Eastern Air Command. The
RAF Ferry Command and the Return Ferry Service used Sydney as a staging point and as an alternate on their transatlantic operations. By 1942 all three runways had been extended to to accommodate the largest aircraft. The aerodrome was listed as
RCAF Aerodrome - Sydney, Nova Scotia at with a variation of 26 degrees west and elevation of . The field was listed as "all hard surfaced" and had three runways listed as follows: By May 1942 Sydney Airport had become a regular stop on
Trans-Canada Airlines's passenger service which was operating flights across Canada, connecting Sydney to
Moncton,
New Brunswick, and
St. John's, Newfoundland, with the cost per ticket for inter-airport flight, Sydney-Gander or Sydney-St. John's at $8.00.
Post-World War II In December 1945, with hostilities at an end, the RCAF handed control of the airport over to the
Department of Transport to develop into a civilian aerodrome. All the buildings not required by Transport were declared surplus and sold; the airport was designated as an alternate for the North Atlantic air route, and a licence was issued on March 10, 1947. By 1988 Sydney was served by Air Canada,
Canadian Airlines,
Air Nova,
Air Atlantic, and
Air Saint-Pierre. Cape Breton Flying School, Eastern Flying Services Ltd., Versatile Air Services, and Bras d'Or Construction were also based at the airport. Sydney Airport had 183,000 passengers and 17,462 aircraft movements.
2009 Renaming On July 27, 2009, the Sydney Airport was renamed after
John Alexander Douglas McCurdy, a Canadian aviation pioneer who set a series of aviation records, the first British subject to fly a heavier-than-air machine, and the first Canadian to pilot a flying machine in Canada when he flew the
Silver Dart off the ice in
Baddeck. He was also the holder of Canada's first pilot's licence. He established the first aviation school in Canada, the Curtiss Flying School, and was the first manager of
Long Branch Aerodrome, Canada's first airport. At the beginning of the Second World War, McCurdy became Assistant Director General of Aircraft Production. In 1947, McCurdy was appointed
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, a post he continued until 1952.
2024 Unusual visitor On 24 November 2024 an
Airbus A300-600ST Beluga enroute from
Terceira Island in the
Azores, to
St. John's diverted to YQY due to inclement weather in St. John's. The aircraft landed around 3 p.m. on Sunday and remained on the terminal apron for the remainder of the day. After an overnight stay, the aircraft flew out at 9 a.m. Monday, heading to
Melbourne Orlando International Airport in Florida via
Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire. ==Misidentification for Sydney, Australia==