by Phil Egan
Mary Alice Moon had already lost two sons to the war. She was determined not to lose a third.
The Edmonton mother had seen sons Kris, John and William answer the call to King and Country by enlisting in the RCAF in World War II. When John and Kris were killed in action, she pleaded with her remaining son’s commanding officer not to allow the war to endanger her third son. The CO agreed, and Bill Moon spent the balance of the war years as a bomber instructor.
Following the war, employment was readily available for returning soldiers, sailors and airmen, and government funding was possible for further education. William Moon enrolled in a watch-making course, which led to a job offer from Young’s Jewellers in Sarnia.
Moon was surprised to find that there was no airport in Sarnia when he arrived to take up his new duties with Young’s. Indeed, Sarnia was one of the few Ontario cities its size that didn’t have one. Chatham and Leamington both had airports but, despite Sarnia’s growing industrial base, it had nothing.
Most Sarnians had seen their first aeroplane at the 1911 Sarnia Fall Fair; a biplane owned by William J. Constable, manager of the Point Edward ore docks. Almost two decades later, in 1929, an airstrip had opened in today’s Finch and London Road area. Thousands had turned out on weekends to watch demonstrations of parachuting and aerobatics, and some commercial aviation had been conducted from here as both Imperial Oil and Atlantic & Pacific had flown company aircraft from here. Fire in 1932 wiped out a hangar and the existing aircraft, and nothing had happened in the ensuing two decades.
As a licensed flight instructor, William Moon had ambitions to start a flying school using J3 Cubs. He was also qualified as a commercial pilot, and could see the potential of a Sarnia-based charter service that could possibly serve the burgeoning Chemical Valley as well as travellers wishing to connect to Trans-Canada Airlines flights departing from London. Moon began searching for a suitable site, and on August, 21, 1951 chose the present location of what would later become Chris Hadfield Airport, a 210 acre parcel of land that was, at the time, occupied by three farms.
Moon began to look for ways to raise the money to purchase the land. An approval licence was issued by the Department of Transport (DOT) after an inspection to ensure that the location was suitable.
On November 7, 1954, Moon made application to the DOT for a Class 7 Charter License. The plan called for a 3,300 foot NE/SW grass runway and a 60 foot by 40 foot hangar, flanked on either side by a shop and office. Meanwhile, he began purchasing the land from local farmers, and by the summer of 1955, it was his.
Sarnia Airport was about to be born.