YOU'LL HAVE TO WRITE your own commentary—I'm too tired!
I will say this.
Very few people know that the RCAF took on strength and operated six B-17s in bare-metal finish during WW II!
'nuff, said—
PLUS, LOTS, LOTS, MORE…
• Canadian Memorial Flight (Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane)
• Mock dogfight by World War I replica aircraft
• Aerobatic act of Bill Carter including his trademark inverted & knife edge ribbon cut (Pitts S2S)
• Salute to the British Commonwealth Training Plan by Tiger Moth, Stearman, Cornell, Finch and up to a 10-plane Harvard formation
• HEAVY BOMBER FORMATION of Lancaster, two B-17 Flying Fortresses & B-25 Mitchell
• Formation of two rare Canadian Lysanders
• Hamilton Sport Parachute Club skydivers
• Canadian Harvard Aerobatic Team
• Many rare World War II aircraft including Helldiver, P-40 Warhawk, Firefly, Corsair & P-51 Mustang
• Victoria Cross Flight (Lancaster, Canso, Corsair)
• Almost 20 additional static aircraft on ground display
• PLUS aircraft rides, flight simulators, food vendors & souvenirs available onsite
BE THERE…or BE SQUARE!
THEY FOUGHT UNDER the most horrendous conditions.
Tropical weather extremes, incredible heat, tropical disease, and against a merciless and inhumane Japanese enemy.
Many, became heroes.
Can you name any of these Canadian war heroes?
Know any of their exploits?
… that's what I thought.
Yup.
Back to sleep, Canada.
And you're still paying property taxes, to fund Canadian schools, that fail to teach significant Canadian history, because… why?
The DC-3 above carries a low visibility SEAC roundel. Canadians flew under SEAC as RCAF personnel in their own Canadian squadrons AS WELL as in RAF squadrons stationed in the same Asian area of conflict.
SEAC stands for South East Asian Command which was a joint venture of all Allied nation's fighting forces.
CANADIANS in the RCAF also flew in RAF squadrons in North Africa, and in Great Britain, as well as in their own separate RCAF squadrons fighting alongside these very RAF squadrons!
The MIGHTY, MIGHTY, LANC' flys again… but this grand, old Harvard, will never fly again.
MUSEUMS only have much money, folks. And a flying museum is expensive to run. So choices HAVE to be made. Hard ones. Spend here for this, and let that go. And so as bitter as it is… this HARVARD will not get the new $50,000 engine it needs to take to the air once more. Nope.
A 100 GRAND recently had to be spent on the MIghty, Mighty, Lanc, earlier this year… as you know, and so, this Harvard had to make the sacrifice.
And this Harvard was proud to do it, damn it!
To step up to the plate. To take the "hit" for the Lanc. It's all in the line of duty.
In the RCAF. Airman, or airplane.
Then. Now.
Old soldier, old workhorse, that she is.
So, this Harvard is done—
THIS GLORIOUS airplane that once rose to the occasion and trained hundreds of future fighter, and bomber pilots to fly, in perilous times past… and later pleased tens of thousands of both the young and old in peaceful times, at air shows annually… has reached her end of days.
'Course, if you have a Harvard engine lying around, one that you're not using, or don't want… and you have a feverishly generous soul… I'm sure the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum will thankfully take it off your hands.
Until that day… SHOULD IT EVER arrive… old valiant shall never fly again.
This will be her final, undignified state.
And here we are, in the sadness, and the quiet… just you, and me, and an ole' RCAF Harvard—
