 The first official landing ground at Sale was based at the Sale Common. This involved filling in a large depression and building a bank to divert floodwaters. Sale's first aerodrome was opened in 1933. The opening of the aerodrome was a spectacular event which included examples of in-flight ground message retrieval in a Westland Wapiti and an aerobatic display in an aero club Moth. Unfortunately, the aerodrome was not a success with floods in 1935 causing it to be declared unsafe.
In 1937 a new site was selected for the building of another areodrome at West Sale, however it was not made serviceable until World War II. In 1941 Sale was declared the location for a Bombing and Gunnery school based initially at West Sale Aerodrome.
A second airfield was established at East Sale in 1943. The new military airfields at Sale increased the population dramatically, adding around 1500 people between 1940 and 1945. During the war, over 3000 servicemen were trained at Sale.
In 1945, after the war had ended, it was declared that East Sale Air Force base would remain a permanent establishment. East Sale became the training base for four schools; School of Air Navigation (1946), Central Flying School (1947), School of Photography (1952) and School of Air Traffic Control (1957).
 In 1962 a disaster occurred when the Red Sales aerobatic team crashed, killing all six people in the four Vampire aircraft. Replacing the Red Sales aerobatic team were the Telstars in 1963 using Macchi aircraft. The Telstars continued to be the aerobatic team until 1968. The Roulette aerobatic team formed in 1970 and residents of Sale continue to regularly see aerobatic displays as the team practice over the town.
In 1947 part of the West Sale aerodrome was taken over by Civil Aviation. 1980 saw the remainder of West Sale Aerodrome occupied by the National Safety Council of Australia (NSCA). The NSCA was shut down in 1989. The East Gippsland Community College of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) took up residence of the NSCA buildings in 1992.
West Sale is used primarily for Civil Aviation today, it is the home of several charter businesses and flying schools and from time to time airline connecting flights to Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmania have been conducted out of West Sale.
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