Warbird Information Exchange

Like every year, there was an open house at the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Rockliffe, near Ottawa, and I flew in for the day with my Dad in the Harvard.


Pilatus PC-12/47E C-GMPO by comiquaze, on Flickr


de Havilland Canada DHC-1B Chipmunk RCAF18028 CF-EGO by comiquaze, on Flickr


Bristol Beaufighter RD867 by comiquaze, on Flickr


Canadair DC-4M North Star by comiquaze, on Flickr


Bell CH-146 Griffon by comiquaze, on Flickr


Robinson R44 Raven II C-FARY by comiquaze, on Flickr


Lockheed CC-130J-30 Hercules by comiquaze, on Flickr


CCF Harvard Mk.4 RCAF20352 C-GBQB by comiquaze, on Flickr


Canadair CT-114 Tutor by comiquaze, on Flickr

The rest is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/comiquaze/ ... 395977502/

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Is the DC-4M Northstar going to fly?!!!

http://www.projectnorthstar.ca/canadair ... -1-st.html

As far as I know this is just a static restoration, very unique aircraft in a unique collection. Fantastic pictures Ollie, I like the camo scheme on your Harvard

Thanks Thomas!

As you said the Northstar will be a static restoration only.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Didn't I read somewhere that the Northstar is the last survivor of the type?

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

The North Star is the last of its type, hence the importance of its restoration. Here are two pictures of it I took back in September from the other side of the fence, work certainly seems to be moving fast!





The rest of my pictures from my visit

Very nice. http://www.flickr.com/photos/55244704@N ... hotostream

Can you guess the city and aircraft type for my July 1?

Great pics!

What's going on with the Beau? She's been dismantled since I saw her in '07 (although even then she was an empty shell without engines.) Is a restoration in the works, or has she simply been taken apart for storage?

SN

The Beau is the museum's current project, that's why she's dissassembled.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

That's great news..thanks! I take it the museum has been able to source the missing parts to complete the aircraft?

Speaking of Things Canadian, when we were at the Hamilton Air Show last month they began with the usual flag-bearing skydivers accompanied by the National Anthem(s). They started with the "Star Spangled Banner" in honor of us visiting 'murakins, and then the announcer said solemnly "and now the National Anthem of Canada," followed by the opening bars of "Hockey Night in Canada." After the audience had a good laugh they played a nice stirring rendition of "O Canada." Even though I'm a Yank, I have to admit that from a musical perspective I like your anthem much better than ours (I've always heard that our anthem was made by adapting Francis Scott Key's poem to the tune of a popular drinking song.)

SN

Not quite.

It was composed by us French Canadians and it was translated for the English Canadians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

I remember reading something about a unique Canadian type where the last survivor was in south America waiting to be recovered. Was that the North Star?

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

No, that was a Yukon.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Thanks, Any news on that one?

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

The last extant CC-106 Yukon was in outdoor storage in Chile; it was offered to the NMRCAF at Trenton, but ultimately it was realized it was more than the museum could chew, so to speak, and it was scrapped in Chile a couple years ago.

There were two other North Stars impounded in the Caribbean region back circa 1980, but those are also long gone. Interestingly 17515 at Rockcliffe was unwanted by what was then NAC, but a Member of Parliament strong-armed the museum into accepting the aircraft on the type's retirement from the RCAF in 1966; thanks to that MP's stubbornness the sole North Star to be preserved lives on!

That's great news about the Beau, even if it is 43 years late...! Once she's done, the question then becomes, will she go on show, or will she join CASM's other two classic Bristols, the F.2B and the Bolingbroke, in dignified oblivion in the storage building...what the former CAvM does and doesn't display confuses me sometimes. Really terrific museum though and I never tire of visiting.

And yes, "O Canada" was composed by Quebec's Calixa Lavallee...and the original French lyrics are considerably more interesting than the later English version.

S.