HUGS, NOT HANDSHAKES — the Final Days of Charlie Fox
y name is Captain Chris Strawson and I have the privilege to explain to you the role of an Honourary Colonel in the Canadian Air Force and to discuss some of the many contributions HCol. Charley Fox made to 412 Squadron and the Canadian Forces….
IT’S A NICE DAY FOR FLYING — the Jack Lamb Story
The great sweep of the Canadian North lay largely unreachable and uninhabited up until the coming of the aeroplane. Small isolated communities clinging to existence beneath thousand foot cliffs at the very edge …
FLYING THE ARC OF HISTORY
J. A. D. McCurdy, on his February 23rd, 1909 flight, unleashed the power of man to thrill, shock, elevate and set Canadians free from the pull of gravity. He put his hand on the "Arc of History” and bent it towards a momentous day for Canadian aviation….
THE LAST FLIGHT — Of John Alexander McCurdy
After reading the Vintage Wings of Canada piece on the Silver Dart I was reminded of Douglas McCurdy and that he and I did his last flight together! McCurdy died in Montreal on June 25th, 1961 at the age of 74.
A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS ARCHIE
Archie Pennie is a man of uncommon forthrightness, who continues to share with anyone interested, the nature and the detail of his personal experiences as an instructor pilot for the BCATP and as a …
TWO WINGS & TOO LATE — THE GREGOR FDB-1
There is no doubt that Canada, pound for pound, fights above its weight when it comes to aerospace technology and contribution to modern aircraft design and propulsion systems. …
BROTHERS IN ARMS —The Power and Magic of the Group Photo
Laid across John Bennett’s dining room table, like memories strewn across the decades, are dozens of yellowed photographs, some notes written for some purpose now long forgotten and an aeronautical…
OLD WARRIORS — Louis Geoffrion and the Spitfire
We were on for a sweep and I was having an awful day. You know, when everything seems to go wrong from the start. Well there I was, doing my cockpit check and somehow I must have bumped the gun button…
A SCHOOL OF SWORDFISH
Bert Joss relates his experiences flying the Swordfish at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia during the Second World War. As we get set to bring our Fairey Swordfish to full flying status, new relationships with…
RED TAIL — Dr. Eugene Richardson at Vintage Wings
During the Second World War, would-be black aviators like 18 year-old American Eugene Richardson knew they would be called upon to fight their war on two fronts. Before they could show the world …
FISHING FOR HALIBAGS
It was three months after VE Day and the crew of an RAF Handley Page Halifax (LW170) set out on a long distance weather patrol out over the Atlantic approaches to the British Isles. Sometime during the flight, the war-weary Halifax …
HIGH FLIGHT — A Eulogy for Fred Jones
It’s 6:30 in the evening in early October of 1943. Fred is strapping himself into a de Havilland Tiger Moth sitting on the short-cropped grass outside Hangar 3 at Number 13 Elementary Flying Training School St Eugene,…
LONDON CALLING
On July 28, 1949 three passengers climbed aboard a Grumman G21A Goose at Montreal for a 19-day journey around Quebec and Labrador. The flight plan included more than a dozen stops…
POIGNANT REMINDERS — John Moffat and the Bismarck Engagement
The Vintage Wings hangar holds many treasures. When you walk into the hangar, some of these artifacts immediately catch your eye… and your imagination. The sleek and shiny Spitfire personifies airborne grace. ..
QUEEN OF THE HURRICANES — The Elsie MacGill Story
The word “unique” seems inadequate and an understatement when attached to the remarkable life of Elizabeth Muriel “Elsie” Gregory MacGill….
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Like many of the guests, I wander about, letting my feet take me where they will and find myself near the Spitfire. Very soon, I am involved in a conversation with two ladies and a gentleman, …
THE HARVARD MAN OF DRAYTON VALLEY
Drayton Valley, the town where John Bootsma brought up his family, lies atop a high plateau between the South Saskatchewan and Pembina Rivers about half way between oil rich Edmonton and …
ONE CRAZY SPITFIRE
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, during a tour of Vintage Wings of Canada or at an air show: “Whaddya call that bullseye thingamajig there?” or “How come the bullseye on the wing …
YOU’VE GOT MAIL — Katherine Stinson and the Curtiss Special
On July 9, 1918, famed American aviatrix Katherine Stinson flew a mailbag containing 259 letters from Calgary to Edmonton in western Canada’s first air mail delivery. Eighty-eight years later, on July 9, 2006, …
ME AND THE “B”
A classic warbird not in the VWC collection (yet?) is the B-25 "Mitchell". It served impressively in more theatres of war than any other aircraft in WWII. Not only was it flown by RCAF pilots during the war (in RAF units), …