From the 1970s through the late 1980s, the Canadian Warplane Heritage sponsored an annual airshow at its Mount Hope base that provided Canadians with a surprisingly complete pageant of the military aircraft flown by their country during and after WWII. Here are some shots from the 1985 show, the first that I attended.
Fleet Fawn C-FGDM. The CWH's fleet of trainers was always a unique delight, especially when supplemented by visitors at the annual airshow.
CWH Tiger Moth 8922.
Cornell C-GCWC.
The rare and beautiful CWH Anson.
Chipmunk 18035.
Visiting Yale 3406.
The CWH's T-6 Texan and Harvard IV 20415.
One of several visiting T-6s, fresh from the Spanish air force.
The T-34 had a very short RCAF training career.
Transport and utility types were also not neglected. Here is Argus C-FGZL.
A Crane visited the show from somewhere. Anyone have an ID on this one?
CWH's wonderful C-GDAK, when acquired reputedly the second-highest-time DC-3 in the world, overtaken since then by others I would imagine.
This Stinson 105 is the most oft-forgotten of the aircraft later lost in the 1993 hangar fire.
CWH's twin Beech is now well into its third decade of service as the museum photo ship and support aircraft.
Lockheed 12A N112LH in sort-of RAF/RCAF markings.
Nice looking RAF SEAC color scheme on this L-5.
On to the heavy iron. The visiting Mustang lineup included familiar faces Bald Eagle, Double Trouble Too, Rascal, Petie 3rd, Gunfighter, and What's Up Doc. Two of these (Rascal and Gunfighter) were ex-RCAF machines.
Also an ex-RCAF airplane was CWH's own Old Boy.
Ex-RCAF Kittyhawk AK940 was a welcome sight.
And, of course, there was Hurricane 5377, still the most lamented lost warbird in Canada, even though there are a couple others now.
*Sigh*
Not all of the fighters attending had to do with Canada. Two FM-2s showed up.
Howard Pardue brought his Bearcat quite a long way from home.
And to give the cats some adversaries, a nicely maintained Tora Kate and Zeke appeared.
Canadian navy warbirds were well represented, led off by the CWH's iconic Corsair.
Visiting Sea Fury TG114 was an actual ex-RCN machine, done up at that time in sort-of RCN colours.
As for jets, a Venomous presence on the ramp was provided by ex-Swiss AF J-1730.
And the Canadian Forces sent along a noisemaker, along with the Snowbirds.
The CWH's B-25 in those days was not tarted up with as many gaudy markings as it is now.
A rare treat was "CWH West" B-25 45-8884, interestingly the very next consecutive serial number after the CWH machine. Neither one actually served with the RCAF.
They flew together with B-25 44-30456 "Silver Lady".
Finally the CWH Lancaster on static display, still with a few years of restoration ahead of it but already magnificent.
Hope these bring back memories for some of you.
August
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of the Lanc under restoration ?
