Warbird Information Exchange

Hey,

so I just got back from a trip to Toronto where my girlfriend was doing a fitness competition. To make things fair she agreed to let me take her along to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mt. Hope (Hamilton, ON) and then to the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Downsview.

This was quite a fun trip considering we had just arrived into Toronto at 6:17am after a red-eye flight (and now I know why they're called that). Once we got to our hotel in Oshawa we drove fast to the CWH, where we spent some time there oggling at all of the beautifully maintained airplanes and chatting with some great volunteers. We then jetted back towards our hotel with a stop at the Canadian Air and Space Museum where we got to see the only full size replica of the Avro Arrow, as well as the Avro Lancaster that they are restoring.

Below are pictures from those two visits.

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
http://www.warplane.com/



Wall of remembrance (hand painted portraits of all the fallen Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan; more to be added)


Dam Buster replica


For Fleet16B (where's the magneto indicator?)


B-25 Mitchell


PBY-5A Canso


PBY-5A Canso


Fairey Firefly


Fairchild Cornell


Westland Lysander


Hawker Hurricane (Replica/rebuild)


C-47 Dakota


CF-101 Voodoo, CF-104 Starfighter, CF-5 Freedom Fighter, & Grumman Tracker


Educational Flight Simulator (one of 4)


Bolingbroke restoration project


TBM Avenger restoration project



Canadian Air and Space Musuem:
http://www.casmuseum.org/

This was a nice little museum with a lot of history to share. The museum is actually housed in the same building that was used as a factory during WWII to build de Havilland Mosquitos. The Downsview Airport was also the birthplace of the DHC-1 Chipmunk, DHC-2 Beaver, DHC-6 Twin Otter, Dash-8, Buffalo, etc. And most notoriously, the CF-105 Avro Arrow!

CASM exterior


unusual unmanned aircraft (does anybody know what this is? I didn't have time to ask)


DH-82C Tigermoth


Ornithopter Project (it worked!)


Silver Dart (Replica)


Original factory display


Factory layout display during DH98 Mosquito construction


Dash 8 cockpit prototype




CF-105 Avro Arrow (full size replica)
















Avro Jetliner (Another notorious loss to the Canadian aviation industry)



Avro Lancaster restoration project














Capt. David "Crash" McIntosh at the controls of a CF-101 Voodoo


All-in-all, I had a great time at both of those air museums and made some good connections with people who may be able to help my museum with education and membership programs.

Peace,

David M

Great set of shots. Lots of cool stuff to see out there. That last one is hilarious!

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-Al Sauer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spookythecat

What? No pictures from your girlfriend's fitness competition

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A man's got to know his limitations.

My thoughts exactly...I was looking forward to the competition photos....

M

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Mark Morris

Nice to see the two museums again. That Arrow's tall, isn't it? Even I can walk under it.

I think I've met that Voodoo pilot in the airshow pigpen once or twice.


I think Daveymac would rather hang onto the girl than indulge the dubious pleasures of a bunch of hairy airplane freaks...

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Davey,
looks like you had an awsome time! I tried to get you on here but I was too late. Could have gotten you the personal tour at Oshawa but not enough time.. next time...?

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Cheers,
Peter

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Great shots. Love the way the Lysander looks.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Great pics! Looks like they've made a fair bit of progress on the Lanc since I visited three years ago.

SN

eh, nice pics.

is the lanc to be restored to fly?

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All I did was press this red button here...

My understanding is that the Lancaster is going to be a strictly static example. The cost of restoring to airworthy, and flying a Lanc is well beyond most organizations. Don't take my word though as I didn't ask that question, nor did they tell me when we conversed, but I'm assuming a static restoration is the end goal.

And as for pictures of my girlfriend... well... maybe.

Peace,

David

Yep, that's correct, it will be restored to strictly static condition.

Nice pictures BTW!

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Ryan Orshinsky
Windsor, ON
CH2A - Engineering
rorshinsky@ch2a.ca
http://www.ch2a.ca

I understand this was another Lanc that spent many years "onna stick" (or "plinth," as I believe you Brits say) and like the Windsor Lanc, she had her belly chopped out with torches. Rebuilding that structure to make her flyable would be a hugely expensive proposition. I understand they have enough parts to fix her up for static display, but they came from a wreck on a gunnery range, and are in very rough condition.

SN

Hmm always thought they were going to ground run her when she was done. They have used alot of useable materiala from the wreck of Fm118 to rebuild the torched out floor. She will regain much of her originality back by doing so rather than manufacturing parts from new such as Calgary and Windsor. It is a shame someone could not have come up with a mounting means similiar to FM213 and mount them at the jacking points...

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Cheers,
Peter

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I live in Goderich where FM213 was on display my uncle was directly responsible for the way she was mounted on jacking points he told me when they were putting it up back in the sixty,s that someone some day someone would want to fly it again one day thank god they had the sense back then to save it. On a offnote he also started a bushplane museum in Sault Ste Marie not warbirds but worth a look [url]www.bushplane.com

I visited the Bushplane Museum a few years ago. A magnificent collection and a magnificent facility! I can't recommend it highly enough!

SN