RCAF Detachment Shepard

Military Decommissioning. The airfield was closed following the end of World War II and the subsequent winding down of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). With the cessation of hostilities, the massive demand for aircrew training ended, and facilities like Shepard, which served a specific wartime training purpose, were deemed redundant and decommissioned.

The site of the former airport has been completely redeveloped and is now unrecognizable as an airfield. It is located in what is now the major industrial hub of southeast Calgary, known as the Shepard Industrial Park. The land is occupied by large-scale industrial facilities, including warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants. A significant portion of the former airfield site is now occupied by the Canadian Pacific Railway's Calgary Intermodal Facility, a massive logistics and container terminal. There are no visible remnants of the runways, hangars, or any other airfield infrastructure. The area is characterized by heavy industrial activity, rail lines, and major roadways like 84th Street SE and 114th Avenue SE.

RCAF Detachment Shepard was a vital component of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), one of the most ambitious and successful aviation training programs in history. Specifically, it served as Relief Landing Field No. 1 (R1) for No. 3 Service Flying Training School (SFTS), which was headquartered at the main base, RCAF Station Calgary (Currie Field).

Its primary function was to provide an auxiliary airfield for trainee pilots to practice takeoffs, landings, and emergency procedures without congesting the airspace at the main base. Pilots at No. 3 SFTS were in the advanced stages of their training, flying multi-engine aircraft. The primary aircraft used for this training, and which would have frequently operated at Shepard, were the Avro Anson and the Cessna Crane. The airfield featured a standard triangular runway layout, typical of BCATP airfields, to allow for operations in various wind conditions. Its existence was crucial for increasing the throughput and safety of the pilot training program that supplied thousands of qualified aircrew to Allied forces during WWII.

There are no plans or prospects for reopening RCAF Detachment Shepard as an airport. The land has been fully and irreversibly re-purposed for high-value industrial and transportation use. The complete redevelopment of the site with permanent, large-scale infrastructure makes any return to aviation operations physically and economically impossible.