KITTYHAWK DISCOVERY — Found after 70 years
Some time in 1942, a lone Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk bearing the 260 Squadron “HS” squadron code and the aircraft letter “B” settled down over a wide and remote expanse of North African sand desert called Al Wadi al Jadid…
GLASGOW’S OWN — Honouring Harry Hannah
Harry Hannah, is a friend of mine. He was a Spitfire pilot flying for 602 City of Glasgow Squadron, one of the most vaunted and storied fighter squadrons of the Second World War. Some of the greatest and most highly decorated aces…
CLUB RUN TO MALTA
Leaning against the merchantman’s railing near the aft 4-inch gun emplacement, 23 year-old Sergeant Pilot Calvin Taylor and his travel mate were taking in the late spring ocean air and enjoying the sea voyage to Gibraltar…
HERO — A Flying Tribute to a Missing Aviator
Vintage Wings of Canada's core program called In His Name dedicates each of the eighteen aircraft of the collection to a Canadian veteran, famous or otherwise, native or foreign born, who had an association with …
THE ART OF WAR
It began on 29 June 1962, as I stood before the main gates to the entrance of the Canadian Army's Currie Barracks, in Calgary, Alberta. To the guard, I uttered the simple words "I want to join the Canadian Army…
PAYING IT FORWARD
When I was eleven years old, there existed a holiday in my hometown that, for me, rivaled Christmas or Halloween or Firecracker Day, which is what we called Victoria Day. This holiday, this special day…
LUNCH AT THE EAGLE
There are places in this world that are imbued with a spiritual power beyond their utility. Most are grand. Westminster Abbey for instance contains the…
MANUFACTURING VICTORY
Despite researching material over the past five years for the nearly three hundred stories, albums, features and missives of Vintage News, I am still in awe of the historical, emotional and visual matrix that is…
CIRCLE OF SORROW
The Alberta landscape is one of undulating and verdant beauty in the spring. To the west, on the distant horizon, stands the saw-toothed, snow-capped permanence of…
A NORTHERN LIGHT
The Canadian North is not for everyone. With its hard winters and boondocks spirit, it is a place that can easily break a soft, city-dwelling, smart-phone addicted metrosexual. It is however a place that pulls …
WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED — Canadians at the Bomber Command Memorial
Here in the United Kingdom, it has been raining for months now, after a long, dry winter. It is almost as if tears are falling in remembrance….
THE BONZO, GNATSNAPPER, ACCOUNTANT AND THE JOYS OF 1000 AIRCRAFTPHOTOS.COM
The internet changed everything. It certainly changed me. I have been writing stories about aviation history for about nine years now. It is not something I thought I would ever do, but by my estimation I am beyond 2.5 million words at the time of this writing.
WELCOME TO RCAF STATION PLAYGROUND, ONTARIO
When I was a child, we lived at the very edge of the city, the outermost ripple of the postwar suburban tract home malaise. We lived in a sweetly named, Mayberry-esque development called Elmvale Acres, a former farmer's hay field,…
ROCK OF AGES — The Rocky Robillard Story
Vintage Wings of Canada dedicates all of its aircraft to famous and no-so-famous Canadian airmen whose lives are inextricably connected to the aircraft types which bear their dedication panels. One particular aircraft,…
GHOSTS OF SASKATCHEWAN
The Second World War was a time of powerful stresses on nations, on ethnicities, on families, and on economies around the globe. Hundreds of thousands of families, in every corner of the world, would offer up, …
Warbird Relic Hunters of the Wild West
There are many things that make up the recipe for the heady cocktail that is powered or unpowered flight – history, technology, speed, brotherhood or perhaps the extreme test of human reflex …
PORTRAIT OF A LEADER
At the start of November, Vintage Wings of Canada hosted the Third Annual Members Gala. It was the best yet, and Carolyn Leslie and her crew are to be commended for an exceptional soirée enjoyed by all…
BUSY FLYING AND KEEPING WARM
I hear voices. The voices of brave men. Gentle voices, creaking with age and weariness, soft and humble after a long life. I hear voices. The flinty voices of warriors at peace with themselves….
UP THE VALLEY OF REMEMBRANCE ON YELLOW WINGS
Remembrance Day is the one day Canadians and other nations set aside to remember, with some degree of sadness and plenty of dignity, the sacrifices of our men and women and their families in conflicts from …
GODSPEED CHRIS HADFIELD
On the afternoon of 19 December 2012, Chris Hadfield, member of the Board of Directors of Vintage Wings of Canada and one of its senior Squadron Leader Fern Villeneuve Hawk One F-86 Sabre pilots, will lift off the vast, sparse …