Frequently Asked Questions

What is the “History of 15 Wing Moose Jaw?”

• Built in 1940.
• Officially opened 1 January 1941.
• Wartime site of #32 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
• 32SFTS trained pilots from Canada, Britain, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, France, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, the U.S., and Holland.
• Pilots were trained on Harvard aircraft, and later, on Oxfords, Ansons and various other aircraft.
• School disbanded on October 17th, 1944 and the base closed.
• July 1952, the airfield resumed military operations, as Station Moose Jaw.
• June 22nd, 1953 2 Flying Training School was transferred from the Royal Canadian Air Force Station in Gimli, Manitoba.
• Initially, all training in Moose Jaw was conducted on Harvards.
• 1962 it was decided to replace the piston engine Harvard with the Tutor jet.
• Between 1962 and 1964 the standard pattern triangle configured runways were changed to dual parallel runways.
• 3 March 1964, the first Tutor arrived in Moose Jaw.
• September 1964, 41 T-33s arrived from Portage la Prairie.
• Basic training on Tutor jets.
• Advanced training to Wings standard on the T-33.
• 1968 Royal Canadian Air Force Station Moose Jaw was designated Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw.
• 1973 Department of National Defence retired the T-33 as a jet trainer.
• Since 1973 all pilots selected to fly helicopter or multi-engine aircraft complete their training at Southport, Manitoba.
• 1 April 1993, Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw was re-designated 15 Wing Moose Jaw.
• 2000, the beginning of the phase-out of the CT-114 Tutor as a trainer.
• 15 Wing Moose Jaw is home to the NATO Flying Training in Canada program and 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, “The Canadian Forces Snowbirds.

”What is the History of “Canada’s Aviation Training Experience?”

• Dates back to 1917 when the United Kingdom and the United States began training pilots and observers in Canada.
• 1940 to 1945, over 130,000 Commonwealth and allied aircrew were trained in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
• 1950 to 1959 Canada hosted the NATO Air Training Plan.
• During that period, Canada trained about 4,000 pilots and navigators from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
• In the late fifties, the NATO Air Training Plan evolved into four bilateral training agreements. The longest of these bilateral training agreements ended in 1983, when the last Dutch students graduated from pilot training. 
• Since 1964 Canada has operated a Military Assistance Training Plan that provides subsidized military training to developing nations.
• Canada has provided multi-engine pilot training for the Royal Air Force and the German Air Force, rotary wing pilot training for the German Navy and navigator training for the Republic of Singapore Air Force.