It is 70 years since the official opening of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, #11 Yorkton Service Flying Training School took place June 11, 1941. The ceremony was attended by 11,000 people. Construction of facilities for the training station began in the spring of 1940, on a site a few kilometres north of Yorkton, where the present day Yorkton Airport is located. Two flight training relief stations were also built at the nearby communities of Rhein and Sturdee. The station at Yorkton was an impressive complex consisting of 40 buildings, including a large mess hall, a 35-bed hospital, and hangars to shelter some 200 planes. The station created a boom for Yorkton, and brought
opportunities for the city to become closely involved with its airmen and airwomen. A hostess club was organized, with headquarters on the third floor of the old city hall, which provided a diversity of social events for military personnel and local citizens. Students came from all over Canada and the Commonwealth countries to perfect their flying skills. They flew North American Harvards and twin-engine Cessna Cranes - unfortunately not without several fatal accidents. By the end of the war in 1945, an estimated 2,000 pilots had earned their wings at the Yorkton school.
Photo: Russell Bischop Collection
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton, Box 400
37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
