In the fall of 1938 the Royal Air Force (RAF) purchased land for constructing an aerodrome on the north shore of Cobequid Bay near the farming community of Debert.
Construction of the aerodrome, which would be named 31 Operational Training Unit (O.T.U.), began in the fall of 1940 and was completed in April 1941, coinciding with the construction of the army's adjoining Camp Debert.