Shearwater Heliport Halifax/Shearwater Heliport 12 Wing Shearwater CFB Shearwater |
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Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Airport type | Military | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owner | Government of Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operator | DND | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | Shearwater, Nova Scotia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Time zone | AST (UTC−04:00) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• Summer (DST) | ADT (UTC−03:00) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 144 ft / 44 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 44°38′14″N 063°30′08″W / 44.63722°N 63.50222°WCoordinates: 44°38′14″N 063°30′08″W / 44.63722°N 63.50222°W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/12wing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location in Nova Scotia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Helipads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Canadian Forces Base Shearwater (ICAO: CYAW), commonly referred to as CFB Shearwater, is a Canadian Forces Base located in Shearwater, Nova Scotia on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Following a base rationalization program in the mid-1990s, the Canadian Forces closed CFB Shearwater as a separate formation and realigned the property's various facilities into CFB Halifax. These include:
Shearwater is the second-oldest military aerodrome in Canada. In August 1918 the US Navy established Naval Air Station Halifax on the shores of Eastern Passage to support flying boat patrol aircraft. The seaplane station was taken over by the Air Board in 1920 for civil flying operations, and later developed by the Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force. The station became known as RCAF Station Dartmouth through the Second World War.
Post-war, 1948, the Royal Canadian Navy took over the facility, naming it HMCS Shearwater, also known as Royal Canadian Naval Air Station Shearwater (RCNAS Shearwater).
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.