The community of Churchill is located at the estuary of the Churchill River, 965 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay. Its history goes back to 1619, when a Danish navigator, Jans Munck, discovered the mouth of the Chuchill River. In 1717, the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post there. The Hudson Bay railway terminated in Churchill in 1929 and established the seaport for grain shipments to Europe.
Churchill's aviation history began when the first aircraft arrived from Winnipeg in 1927. By 1928, it was a regulat port of call for many pioneer airmen such as "Punch" Dickins, Pat Reid, Duke Schiller, Leigh Britnell, Dominion Explorations, Northern Aerial Mineral Explorations and Western Canada Airways (later amalgamated with Canadian Airways, which became Canadian Pacific Airlines) all operated in Churchill and beyond. Arctic Wings was another well-known operation that merged with Central Northern Airways of Winnipeg in 1955 and eventually formed TransAir.
Churchill airport was constructed in 1942 by the United States Air Force, which chose the site because of its strategic position on their intercontinental air routes. The route, sometimes known as the Crimson Route, ran from the rich industrial areas of northern California across Hudson's Bay, southern Baffin Island, Greenland, and Iceland to the United Kingdom. Even the longest flight leg would be relatively short using the great circle route. Canada displayed little enthusiasm for the project because of doubts that the route would ever be used as proposed; however, it was built nevertheless with some Canadian aid. While Canada constructed the airport at The Pas, the Americans (with Canadian approval) built the airports at Churchill, Coral Harbour, Fort Chimo, and Frobisher.
Nothing came of this venture from a purely military point of view, but the airports built in Canada played an important part during the construction of the DEW Line in 1955 and in the subsequent development of the Arctic. Despite its lack of enthusiasm for the route, Canada did not want to leave any loopholes for the American legislators to claim property or any other special rights in Canada after the war, and therefore decided at an early date to pay the US for its Canadian installations. It cost over $27 million to buy the Crimson Route facilities, but this was a comparatively small price paid to ensure Canadian sovereignty and avoid any future misunderstanding.
The US Air Force operated and maintained the airport until the end of the war. At that time, the Americans turned the base over to the Department of National Defence, which operated it until April 1, 1964 when it was taken over by the Department of Transport. After that, the airport was used for some time by the USAF Strategic Air Command. It is an excellent all-weather airport, capable of handling the largest aircraft, with good refuelling and communications facilities. The airport handled the heaviest traffic during the construction of the DEW Line, 1955-1958.
The rocket range, known as the Churchill Research Range, was constructed 16 kilometres south of Churchill Airport in 1957, and is operated under a joint Canada-United States intergovernmental agreement. Until October 1978, the range was operated by Pan American World Airways under a lease with the two countries with each sharing responsibilities and command duties. Many Canadian and international scientific organizations such as the National Research Council (NRC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and several universities conducted experimental launches from the site.
On August 4, 1958, the airport had an unusual visitor: the US Navy Airship ZPG-2, which arrived from Akron, Ohio. The airship moored at a temporary mast erected for the occasion and was handled by a crew from the US Army Test Centre at Churchill. It was en route from Weymouth, Massachusetts to Ice Island T-3 (79 N 121 W) to visit a group of scientists on an International Geophysical Year project. The airship left for Resolute on August 7 and arrived there twenty-four hours later. It left Resolute on August 9 but was unable to land at T-3, so it returned to Resolute and, on finding it still had thirty-six hours of fuel, continued to Churchill without stopping. It arrived at Churchill on August 10, forty-four hours after the original departure from Resolute, refuelled immediately and departed from Churchill at 22:30 hours on August 10 for South Weymouth, where it arrived August 12, thirty-two hours after departure.
Transportation into Churchill is by rail, sea, and air, but transportation by sea is limited to the ice-free summer months. Tri-weekly air service south to Winnipeg is provided by Canadian Airlines. Calm Air and Nunasi Northland provide scheduled flights to Rankin Inlet, Eskimo Point, Baker Lake, Coarl Harbour, Repulse Bay, and Chesterfield Inlet. Charter services are offered by several operators such as Calm Air, Nanasi Northland, and Keewatin. There is a seaplane base located at Farnsworth Lake (or, as the local inhabitants prefer to call it, Landing Lake), five kilometres south of Churchill airport. Besides Nunasi Northland and Calm Air, a number of privately owned aircraft utilize the facility.
In April 1979, the National Research Council, which is currently responsible for the operation of the rocket range, moved its headquarters to Gimli, Manitoba, and a skeleton crew was left in Churchill to oversee the reduced operation.
The role of Transport Canada at Churchill Airport has broadened considerably since the original takeover of the airport facilities from the Department of National Defence in 1964. Churchill Airport is the centre of a complex consisting of airports at Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour, Eskimo Point, Rankin Inlet, Hall Beach, and White Cove. Tradesmen are dispatched to these sites to make the necessary repairs to the facilities as required.
The original radio range and communications equipment was installed in 1942 by the USAF and operated by Canadian radio operators employed by the Derpartment of Transport. When the United States withdrew their personnel, the Department took over the complete operation of the station and all its facilities. In February 1949, the telecommunications operations building was completely destroyed by fire, making it necessary to move the radio range site until new facilities could be provided.
The present telecommunications establishment is a combined flight service station and Coast Guard radio station, which includes three operating positions for domestic aviation, international aviation, and marine operations facilities. The low-frequency range was converted to a non-directional beacon in 1966. At the present time, Churchill is well served by various navigational and approach aids: an Instrument Landing System (ILS), for runway 33, commisioned in 1968; VHF omni-directional range (VOR); Distance Measuring Equipment (DME); Visual Approach Slope Indicator System (VASIS); Runway Visual Range (RVR); the Yankees' Beacon ("Y"); and the Quebec Beacon ("Q"), which also serve as marine navigation beacons.
The US Air Force established the first aviation weather office at Churchill in 1942, which was turned over to the RCAF at the end of the war. The RCAF operated it with Department of Transport forecasters supplemented by air force personnel. When the department took over the operation in 1964, the Meteorological Branch assumed all the weather office duties providing services which included hourly, special and synoptic surface weather reports and upper air observations and forecasts. In 1970, the forecasters left Churchill and were replaced by weather briefers.
The aircraft manoeuvring surfaces of Churchill Airport consist of runways 15-33 and 07-25, taxiways A, B and F, which are presently in use, and aprons one and four. Runway 15-33 has an asphalt surface and is 2,804 by 49 metres with a 305 metre overshoot at the souteast end. This runway is lighted with high-intensity runway, threshold and approach lights, as well as VASIS and strobe lights. Runway 07-25 is 1,524 by 61 metres. Runway and threshold lighting is medium intensity with two bar VASIS on both ends, and strobe lighting. The taxiway is lit with blue marker lights with side lights on apron 4.
A combined terminal-hangar building is the main airport facility. A large hangar area provides storage and aircraft maintenance space. Two-storey lean-tos run the full length of the building on both the north and south sides. The upper level of the north side houses the telecommunication offices, while the lower level includes the mechanical room, store-rooms, Shell Oil dispatch and general offices and Calm Air mechanical room. On the south side, the upper level houses the atmospheric environment offices, Calm Air Offices, flights services station, and the airport management offices. On the lower level are the cafeteria, public waiting room, Canadian Airlines and Calm Air ticket offices and baggage room.
The present airport manager is Tony Van Eindhoven. Doug Walsh, Ron Nair and Phil Nicholas were previous managers.
Updated: December 18, 2004