Since it is on the shore of the Ottawa river and the runways were connected to the riverfront by a road, it was one of very few airports capable of handling and transferring floatplanes on both land and water.

On March 12, 1930, Canadian World War I flying ace William George Barker crashed into the Ottawa River and died during an aerial demonstration over the field.

During the 1970s, the airport was also used for scheduled short takeoff and landing (STOL) commercial flights to the short-lived Victoria STOLport near downtown Montreal.

[3] The objective was to demonstrate Twin Otter STOL aircraft in downtown areas and avoid longer drives to the Ottawa and Montreal airports.

The military left the airport completely in 1994, but their aircraft collection remained to form the nucleus of the Canada Aviation Museum.