Establishment of Vancouver Air Station at Jericho Beach

This spot at Jericho Beach, where we are now, was once the Vancouver Air Station, one of the first Canadian air stations. The Canadian Air Board opened it, and it was one of five stations established by their Flying Operations Branch during its first summer of operations in 1920. This land, which the government owned, was declared a naval reserve back in 1859, but it had been logged and used as a golf course since 1889.

Authorization for the station happened on February 14, 1920, and construction started in June of that year. The first Curtiss HS-2L aircraft, which was shipped here by rail from the Dartmouth Air Station, was put together and test flown on September 24, 1920. That fall, they flew various survey, patrol, and transportation flights for other government departments.

In 1921, Vancouver was second only to High River in the number of hours flown among Canadian air stations. The station used several HS-2L flying boats and one Felixstowe F.3 for things like forest fire patrol, forestry surveys, anti-smuggling patrol, fisheries patrol, and transportation in remote areas. A permanent hangar and fuel tank were built here in 1922. Sadly, Major Clarence MacLaurin, who helped pick this site and was the superintendent since it opened, died in an HS-2L crash on September 11, 1922.

The station's name changed a few times. On November 25, 1922, it became CAF Unit Vancouver, and then RCAF Unit Vancouver after the Canadian Air Force got the royal prefix on March 13, 1923. It was called RCAF Station Vancouver by early October. These changes didn't really alter what the station did.

By 1923, a lot of the flying here was "preventive patrols" to stop smuggling and illegal fishing, especially rum-running after the Eighteenth Amendment in the US, and also narcotics smuggling. An HS-2L was even sent to Prince Rupert to find vessels fishing illegally for the Department of Marine and Fisheries. They also started experimental flights to collect samples of white pine blister rust for the Department of Agriculture to study how it spread. This station also became the main center for seaplane conversion training for pilots who had trained on landplanes at Camp Borden. In 1924, this station had two HS-2Ls and a Vickers Viking.