Events

Research Request:

I am helping an individual research his great-uncle's experience training in Canada during the Second World War.  He was stationed at #1 Air Navigation School Trenton ON (April-Sept 1942), #7 Bombing and Gunner School Paulson MB (Sept-Dec 1942), and #31 Personnel Depot Moncton NB (arrived January 1943).  Would anyone be able to provide photographs, maps, station magazines, stories, training syllabi, newspaper clippings, or other related documents and information for these schools?  Do you know anyone who was stationed at one of these bases and would like to correspond about their experience?  If so, please contact Dr Rachel Lea Heide at rl_heide@yahoo.ca.

MacRitchie Memorial Scholarship

On March 8, 2016, Centennial College held its annual Student Awards Night and an outstanding student was presented with the $500 MacRitchie Memorial Scholarship. The recipient's name is Fiona Duntsch. The picture shows Miss Duntsch with the donor, Bruce MacRitchie. The scholarship criteria is as follows: Awarded to a full-time student currently enrolled in the Aviation Technician-Aircraft Maintenance program, who best exemplifies a responsible attitude combined with acceptable academic standards.

The present funding was made possible by Bruce MacRitchie in honour of his late brother Douglas who was a great supporter and volunteer for the CAHS and who died in a plane crash in 1980. The award was started shortly there after and has been financially supported by Bruce MacRitchie and by donations from CAHS members. This is the 36th year of the award.

Last RCAF C-130 E Hercules flies into history – it will become a display at the aviation museum in Ottawa

Source: David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen

The Department of National Defence has donated the last CC-130E Hercules aircraft still in service to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. The aircraft made its last flight this morning, flying from 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron, Trenton, Ontario, to land at the museum in Ottawa, according to the RCAF.

The Hercules will become part of the museum’s permanent exhibition.

In the case of transfer of the last CC-130E Hercules in service to the museum, standard preservation procedures were applied: the fuel tanks were drained and engines disabled, the RCAF noted.

Crew with the CC-130E Hercules, ahead of its last flight (photo courtesy of RCAF)

Background from the RCAF on the C-130E model:

Although designed in the early 1950s, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules remains one of the most successful military transport airplanes ever designed. Operated in every region of the globe, this flying truck has consistently shown itself to be extremely durable, reliable, and tough. The Royal Canadian Air Force received its first Hercules in the fall of 1960. Improved versions were ordered as time went by. A new batch was in fact delivered in 2010-12 and will remain in service for years to come. The Hercules offered to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum is the oldest Canadian example of the type. It entered service in 1965 and was used as a transport airplane, a navigation training airplane, and a search and rescue airplane.

The Hercules offered to the Museum (manufacturer number 382-4041) is the third CC-130E – and the seventh CC-130 – acquired by the Canadian military. Taken on strength on February 9, 1965, the airplane received the RCAF serial number 10307 (130307 from May 1970 onward). It flew with 435 Squadron, a unit based at RCAF Station Namao (Alberta).

After approximately ten years spent at Namao, the Hercules was converted into a navigation training airplane, with the designation CC-130N / NT or Nav-Herc, and used at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Winnipeg by the Canadian Forces Air Navigation School. It was one of four Hercules so modified to train navigators who would fly aboard transport airplanes (Lockheed CC-130 Hercules) or maritime patrol airplanes (Canadair CP-107 Argus or, later, Lockheed CP-140 Aurora). The airplanes could be configured for either type of training by using removable pallet-mounted consoles made by Northwest Industries of Edmonton. Each of these consoles carried two student positions as well as an instructor position, further back. A Hercules could either carry two identical consoles, or one of each type.

With the introduction of a dedicated navigation training airplane in 1991, the Hercules offered to the Museum was transferred to 429 Squadron, a transport unit based at CFB Winnipeg. In 1993, it was converted into a search and rescue airplane, a version known informally as the CC-130E(SAR). The airplane went to 424 Squadron, a unit based at CFB Trenton (Ontario).

This Hercules is the last of the CC-130Es and the oldest Hercules still flying in Canada. There is a CC-130E Hercules (serial number 130314), very similar to the one offered to the Museum, at the National Air Force Museum of Canada, in Trenton.

^{CAHS Convention 2016}

Join us in Winnipeg and Brandon for the 53rd Convention and Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society. The Manitoba Chapter is pleased to act as your host for an exciting week of tours, speakers, and films.

Confirmed speakers include well known Canadian historian and author Ted Barris, Brigadier-General Paul Hayes, retired, CEO of Southport Aerospace Centre Peggy May, and John McNarry, president of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum. Some of the topics presented will include Magellan Aerospace's contributions to Canadian space exploration (eg, the Black Brant rocket), the CU-161 Sperwer UAV in Afghanistan, and flying commercial freight operations on the C-46 Commando in northern Manitoba.

The tentative schedule is as follows:
Wednesday 1 June - Meet and Greet at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, 7 pm to 10 pm;
Thursday 2 June - Tour of Southport Aerospace Centre in Portage la Prairie, and the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, 8:30 am to 9 pm;
Friday 3 June - speakers and annual general meeting, 9 am to 5 pm, free evening;
Saturday 4 June - speakers, 9 am to 4 pm, and awards banquet, 6 pm to 10 pm;
Sunday 5 June - Farewell breakfast, 9 am to noon.

Download the registration form here. Register before the end of April to save $25.

The venue will be the Viscount Gort hotel. Mention the CAHS convention when you book to get the special rate - 1-800-665-1122. Book before Monday 2 May, when the rooms will be released to the public.

We are seeking sponsorship for the convention. If you know of a company that might be willing to sponsor us, please let us know as soon as possible. For sponsorship information, please click here.

For more information, please contact the convention committee at cahsconvention@gmail.com.

We hope to see you in Winnipeg, recently named as one of National Geographic Traveler's Best Trips of 2016! Don’t miss the new Canadian Museum of Human Rights and the Journey to Churchill exhibit at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, among many other attractions.

The convention is sponsored by:

Air Force Heritage Fund

St Andrews Airport Authority

Winnipeg Airports Authority

Keewatin Air

Northway Aviation

Magellan Aerospace

Manitoba History Society

Manitoba Hydro

Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada

Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum

Viscount Gort Hotel

Air Classics - May Edition

The May 2016 issue of Air Classics has illustrated reports on the Essex Memorial Spitfire and the Shearwater Aviation Museum's acquisition of a Beech Expeditor, CF-SEB, which served with both the Royal Canadian Navy and the RCAF. It also has a report on the Coulson Flying Tankers Martin JRM-3 Mars C-FLYL "Hawaii Mars".

Remembering George Neal

Thanks to Bob Winson of the Toronto CAHS chapter, with files from The Ottawa Citizen, SKIES magazine, and Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.

Canada’s aviation community has lost one of its outstanding members. On April 4, 2016, George Arthur Neal died at the age of 97 at his home in North York, Ontario, where he was born and lived all his life. Less than a year ago George entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest active licensed pilot in the world.

George is shown above in June 2015 with his beautiful Chipmunk aircraft which he flew on his record-setting flight for the Guinness Records. To read more about George, click here. Photo by Rick Radell.

George, who flew over 150 types of aircraft, was big news in the August 2015 edition of COPA Flight, published by the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. To see that, click here.

We hope you enjoyed answering the Canadian Aviation Moments in March. We encourage readers to send in their responses to the Canadian Aviation Moments questions at: info@cahs.ca. Your responses will be included in the following month's newsletter. Here are the correct answers:

Question: What was the original strength of the Sea Kings? How many are left?

Answer: “As the Maritime Helicopter (MH) community reflects on 40 years of CH – 124 Sea King operational service, one sobering thought relates to the fact that only 27 of 41 original aircraft remain on the Canadian Forces inventory. Catastrophic accidents have claimed a total of 14 aircraft since the helicopter first entered military service in the mid-1960s, together with the loss of seven naval aviators. Experienced aviators understand that there seldom are new accident cause factors; simply old familiar ones forgotten through the passage of time, apathy and/or complacency. There can be little doubt that engines, transmissions and human factors shall continue to challenge future Sea King operations, thus demanding a close and continuous watch over their status on a recurring basis. Never has the demand for such oversight been greater than the present as the MH community prepares to take delivery of the more highly advanced, sophisticated and capable CH-148 Cyclones.”

Source: Page 11 – Air Force Revue – Winter 08

Question: What was the single reason, caused by bureaucracy, that limited the Short Stirling bomber to a 15,000 ft ceiling?

Answer: “It was doomed to mediocrity because of its ninety-nine foot wingspan, which was not long enough to generate sufficient lift for the aircraft’s massive fuselage. This limited the operational ceiling of early variants to around 10,000 feet, exacerbated by the initial installation of under-powered Bristol Hercules II radial engines. Although Stirlings would eventually be fitted with up rated Hercules IX power plants, nothing could be done about the short wingspan, which had been insisted on by an obtuse and myopic Air Ministry solely in order to fit the 100 foot wide hangar doors mandated by the RAF’s prewar expansion schemes.”

Source: No Prouder Place: Page 39

Question: What was the name of the WW1 equivalent to the BCATP of WW2? How many pilots were graduated and of those how many went overseas and how many fully trained observers graduated?

Robert Nash from Winnipeg sends this response:

Thank you for providing the excuse to explore an aspect of Canadian aviation history.

Answer: The Royal Flying Corps established a training organisation in Canada in 1917, to train Canadians and Americans for wartime service. RFC Canada established training operations at RFC Station Borden, RFC Station Deseronto and RFC Station North Toronto. By 11 November 1918, RFC Canada graduated 3,135 pilots and 137 observers, of which 2,539 and 85, respectively, served overseas.

The most interesting aspect of the RFC Canada programme for this writer was the reciprocal agreement that allowed RFC Canada to transfer training activities from Borden and Deseronto to Fort Worth, Texas, for the winter of 1917-1918. RFC Station North Toronto continued to operate through the winter of 1917-1918, thus proving that the Canadian winter, as experienced on the north shore of Lake Ontario, was not a barrier to aircrew training.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Source 4 | Source 5

Answer: “The RFC-Canada program graduated 3,135 pilots of whom 2,500 went over-seas and 137 fully-trained observers. In spite of the government’s original timidity, Canadians reacted positively to the plan that provided a strong outlet for the grassroots interest in aviation. Most of the students and many of the instructors were Canadian and the bases had a pronounced effect on aviation in Canada in spite of the government’s initial fear of flying."

Source: From Baddeck to the Yalu: Page 31

The Canadian Aviation Moments were submitted by Dennis Casper from the Roland Groome (Regina) Chapter of the CAHS.

The Canadian Aviation Moments questions for April are:

Question: How did the Canadian version of the CF-18 differ from its American and foreign counterparts?

Source: Windsock – June 2007 – Page 4

Question: What training aircraft did the RCAF buy in late 1941 for the BCATP from the Stearman Aircraft Company, how many were purchased, how long did they last, and why?

Source: Canadian Combat and Support Aircraft – Page 230

Question: What was the last name of the three brothers from Saskatchewan who all served on operations with Bomber Command and who all were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross? What town were they from?

Source: No Prouder Place – Page 59 and 316