SECRET TORONTO::: Me. 262, WHERE Are You?

THIS WAR PRIZE (as they were called, back then) Messerschmitt Me.262A-1a Schwalde (Swallow) is shown in a hangar at RCAF Station: Downsview, in 1952.

This Leslie Corness photo appears in the incredible CANAV book by Larry Milberry entitled, "The Leslie Corness Propliner Collection".

A fantastic airplane photobook spanning almost five decades, featuring photographs taken by RCAF chaplain Rev. Leslie Corness. (of course, I own a copy!)

This photo of Me.262A-1a, Luftwaffe 500210, in the CANAV book states that this Me.262 was posing for pics in Aylmer, Ontario.

Nope.

Notice the De Havilland Vampires in the background?

There weren't any in Aylmer, but there were lots in Toronto. RCAF 400 Squadron based out of Toronto, had oodles of Vamps.

That Me.262 is sitting right where the Canadian De Havilland Mosquito manufacturing line was during WW II! Right there in Downsview, right there in Toronto. Note the Junkers Jumo 004 B-1 turbojet on the ground underneath the 262's nose. Also note the RAF tail marking, RAF serial no. VH509 and the Air Ministry no. 52.

This 262 was flight tested in Britain by the Royal Aeronautical Establishment…but was never flown in Canada. However, it was, for sure, fired up a coupla' times at Downsview.

Two Me.262s were shipped to Canada for the National Research Council and for the RCAF.

War prizes.

One went to Aylmer, Ontario (near London) RCAF Station: Aylmer…and was scrapped there in 1950!

That historical Me.262, had been flown by Oblt. Fritz Stehle who had recorded the LAST KILL of the Luftwaffe during WW II! Stehle took off from Zatec (Czechoslovakia) on May 8, 1945 and en route shot down a Soviet P-39, after which he landed in Fassberg, and immediately surrendered to the British forces there!

And yes, Stehle's historical jet fighter was scrapped, right here…in Ontario!

Right after the CO of RCAF Station: Aylmer, had downed an entire bottle of stupid pills.

Our other war prize Me.262 went to RCAF Station: Downsview…AND never left!

Well, where is it then, since it's not in CASM's collection?

IT IS BURIED somewhere on the Bombardier Aerospace airport grounds which are located at Downsview, the site of the former De Havilland Aircraft of Canada manufacturing facility, and of former CFB Downsview.

Just so you know, the Canadian Air and Space Museum (also at Downsview, and is home of the TAM Arrow) has been SECRETLY looking for that Me.262…for TWO YEARS!!

Got any idea where on the grounds it was buried, Torontonians????

All four Jumo engines from these two Me.262A aircraft are in the Canadian Aviation Museum's collection, in Rockcliffe, Ontario…so a remnant of Stehl's historical Luftwaffe jet-fighter, indeed, remains.

1,400 Me262s were produced. Only a small portion of that quantity ever saw action since fuel was scarce. One hundred Me.262s were lost in combat, while they were able to shoot down 150 Allied aircraft. So the Me.262 had little effect on the outcome of the war, but it would greatly effect the post-war period.

The Allies were absolutely mesmerized with the Me. 262.

Its design was far ahead of anything the Allies had produced, or had on their drawing boards. This German aircraft would greatly influence the early jet age.

:::Miss Orenda Aerospace 2010 ::…

… well, not really.

But in a perfect world ~

(sigh)

Toronto Argonaut cheerleader, member of the BLUE THUNDER.

::: HAS THE Royal Canadian Navy DIRIGIBLE, HMCD Samuel de Champlain…FINALLY, finally, been found? ::

On MARCH 31, 1930, at 23:56 pm, a large airship, the Royal Canadian Navy dirigible, known as the HMCD Samuel de Champlain, which had been made in Friedrichshafen, Germany, by the Zeppelin Company, disappeared without a trace…and was never heard from again.

32 lives lost.

At the time it was Canada's largest air disaster.

Oh, they looked for her. For months afterwards. Crisscrossing northern Quebec, in vain, in vain, I tell ya!

Fast forward to 2009.

Well, the Samuel de Champlain has been lost for nigh of 80 years.

But has she NOW been found?

HAS THE Royal Canadian Navy dirigible HMCD Samuel de Champlain FINALLY been found?

AND CAN Vintage Wings of Canada rebuild her?

Well, we're getting ahead of ourselves, here.

Remember those bad storms that happened mostly throughout Quebec, and the Eastern provinces? The very one that caused only a few inconveniences around Ontario, but power was down everywhere else, about 10 years ago?

You remember that storm?

C'mon…you know the one that Mel Lastman, then Mayor of Toronto, called in the Canadian Armed Forces to restore…order in Toronto?

Well no, not actually, order…he called them in, to remove snow! S N O W !!

The Canadian Armed Forces!?!?

I can see my American friends rolling their eyes.

We have a lot of whackjobs up here, in Canada, folks.

'nuff, said!

Now, think 1930.

Same whip-snap cold…and the same, merciless, snow storms.

Montreal Canadiens star player Howie Morenz, the singer La Bolduc (the Celine Dionne of her day) and Guy Lombardo, bandleader, of "The Royal Canadians" on March 27, 1930 go missing in their Ford Trimotor while on a goodwill tour of mining sites in northern Quebec!

In those days that was pretty much ALL THE TALENT we had in Canada, folks!

Now, lost.

The Prime Minister of Canada was immediately alarmed.

William Lyon Mackenzie King commanded the RCAF and the Royal Canadian Navy to quit playin' around, and find those damn stars!

The RCAF started looking immediately.

The Royal Canadian Navy joined the search two days later…with the arrival of the behemoth airship, the HMCD Samuel de Champlain. Crew of 2…with 30 observers for every porthole in the light deck (passenger basket under the airship).

If you can't find a missing airplane with 30 trained observers looking… that airplane can't be found. Even in stormy weather.

And WHO was the captain of that dirigible?

Commodore Morris S. Crosby.

Crosby, Crosby, Crosby…where have I heard that name before?

Oh, yeah…Sidney Crosby…Canada's winning overtime goal…for Men's Hockey GOLD in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Are they related?

Yup. Commodore Morris Crosby is hockey legend Sidney's great grandfather.

Commodore Crosby's last words at four minutes to midnight were,

"... weighed down. Men in panic. Seven lost at 1032 hrs... less than fifty feet... God help us live through...".

The HMCD Samuel de Champlain's last transmission was received both at Matagami, and Ste. Couche Tard.

And then for 80 years nothing.

And the search vessel, HMCD Samuel de Champlain was presumed lost.

Well there were apparitions. Crosby's grandfather and two guides have appeared to many folk. Several hunters have gone mad from these ghostly appearances.

Rogue, repeated, rough, HMCD Samuel de Champlain mayday transmissions…occurred through the years…years after the horrific event.

And what of the lost sports and entertainment stars?

When the storm lifted, they were found 30 miles from Matagami, safe and sound.

In 2009, two kayakers near Strutton Islands in James Bay found an old Inuit hunting blind that had been long abandoned. Strange cloth and framework construction thought the two kayakers. They took pics and showed them to the RCMP.

The RCMP is presently in lockdown mode around the issue. But it is believed the hunting blind is constructed from material that was found in the crew quarters of HMCD Samuel de Champlain.

THIS JUNE, Vintage Wings of Canada is returning to the crash site and hopes to be able to find the whole damn, dirigible.

And they hope to reconstruct her!

Don't laugh.

See what Vintage Wings of Canada has done thus far:
www.vintagewings.ca/page?s=63&lang=en-CA

If anyone can do it, they can!




This was a Vintage Wings of Canada, APRIL FOOL'S joke!

I HAD LEFT MY flash card at home…so my iPhone took-over camera duty with this leftside pic.

Not great, but not half bad as pictures go.

Actually this house (not shown) is for lease, and not for sale. What you're looking' at in the newer photo shows exactly where the underside of Flight 621's starboard DC-8 wing came to rest, 40 years ago, this July. The wing was nestled in between the sign, and the electrical box, spookily enough, back in the day.

The David Davies photo shows the burnt DC-8 wing, and members of the jury who were local professionals, from all walks of life, called upon to assist with the crash. The jury were to observe and review each aspect of the crash, in order to later assist in compiling a crash report for the province of Ontario's, Ministry of Transport.

By the time this large piece of the wing hit the ground, Air Canada Flight 621 was corkscrewing through her final airborne stage and would soon slam into the ground, nose first, at over 400 mph!

BEFORE HOMES were built in this newer development of Castlemore, and while the land was still a farmer's field, I found an old discarded "stubby" beer bottle on site. Remember those??

CAROL PARR, eye witness to the air disaster told me the OPP officers who were assigned to guard the DC-8 wing on that smidgeon of their 140 acres of property, sat in a lone chair just off to the side of the burnt wing. Day and night these officers dutifully kept watch, and enjoyed a beer or two, while on assignment. She could see the wing and the officers from the back of her house.

The current lot owners know nothing of the historical significance of their Upper Ridge Crescent property, in Castlemore, and its ancient connection with ill-fated Air Canada flight. The real-estate agent Devinder Kumar expressed shock when I relayed the sobering details. And the 109 deaths. The home is 3530 feet from Flight 621's point of impact, or two thirds of a mile away.

Ironically, the other part of the Air Canada Stretch 8's starboard wing, the top part, tore away, only a quarter mile away. That other part of the DC-8's wing went crashing through the roof of Carol's parent's bungalow, before coming to rest on the lawn in her parent's backyard.

Carol's parent's who happened to be outside at 8:08 am, on that bright, sunny, and horrific, Sunday morn…were not amused when the separated wing piece came crashing down! As early risers however, they were quite relieved that they weren't still sleeping in their bed on that tragic morning.

:::: The Winds, Have Changed :::.:.

ATTENTION… My Aviator Friends… you may want to pass over this post!

You have been WARNED.


FROM THE ALBUM… "The Winds Have Changed" comes the perfectly rendered, hidden hymn, "Here, I Am."

There remains to this day, a rumour.

It is a rumour amongst angels…

A rumour that God, sat up, and took notice of this song, when it was sung for the very first time.

There was a distinct feeling of being noticed by the transcendent One. And of noticing, an Other.

For nary a nanosecond, God was caught off guard, his guard dropped, and His presence was detected.

And then, the awareness was gone.

Folks, this hasn't happened since the days of King David.

When David's music pleased the Lord.

Eric Genuis, the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, and Ann Marie Boskovich have gathered to give the world a momentous album. But the world is not ready.

That world takes no notice.

And so the album never makes the hit parade.

And Mr Genuis (pronounced GEEN•us) resumes to flying below the radar.

In this touring rendition of, "Here, I Am" … American, Caroline Brooks, provides the stunning vocals.

And no… she does not falter.

THEY SAY THIS WOMAN is an angel. And I believe it!

Sensational album.

Did I already say that?

But the world is not ready.

No major label is promoting Eric. And Caroline remains, unsigned.

And so, in perfect pathetic fallacy, the moon should careen into the Earth. Now.

Really.

THERE IS a sliver of hope, yet.

Not, all, it seems, is lost.

Some of Eric's songs can be found on iTunes.

Yes. And, this one.

But there still remains Eric's forgotten album of the early 90s. Last in Line.

Eric's songs. Eric's vocals. Eric on piano. Eric's masterpiece.

I know one Catholic priest, in Hamilton, who has a copy. Father K. And that's it!

So good luck in finding that gem!

I think there may be another hidden copy in Stoney Creek. But you'd need an airplane to find it.

No. Catholic. Inspirational. Collection. Is. Complete. Without. Both. Of. These. Albums.

But this exceedingly rare album is truly only for Christians—

Sorry, paganos.

I really don't know how a pagan would relate to it. How could they? Or the busy, unreflective, secular, humanoid?

Or, one of Hitchy's shallow cracklings.

Better not to try—

"I passed this way in silence. For I had hoped to pass this way, unnoticed."

And some have no religious stirrings, at all.

Sad, really.

::: 1ST FLIGHT ::: AVRO ARROW :: March 25, 1958

… and REMEMBER folks, the Avro Arrow went straight from the drawing board to production aircraft.

There were NO PROTOTYPES made. Not one! No experimental airplanes were subjected to testing. None to work out those challenging "kink"s which must always accompany an undertaking of this size!

That traditional process step was simply eliminated…

Just another way, AVRO CANADA did things… a wee bit differently~



© 1958 CBC (movie clip)

ORENDA IROQUOIS: Diefenbaker DIDN'T get it.

It was NEVER JUST ABOUT the Arrow… it was also about the Orenda Iroquois…

It was ALSO about NATIONAL PRIDE in superb AERONAUTICAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Funded by Canada, and produced by Canadians.

And when SOMEONE tells you that Canada couldn't have sold Arrows worldwide, there was no market, just think about all those "Made in France" Dassault Mirages THAT WERE sold to various countries worldwide.

Then ask yourself why Avro Canada couldn't have stolen that market?

Well… WE would' have—

But Canadian agriculture was all Diefenbaker understood.

TECHNOLOGY was beyond his simple boyhood experiences in Saskatchewan.

Combine and hay bales, for miles.

No jet fighters.

Anywhere.

Conclusion: jet fighters are unimportant.

And like the caveman that he was, Diefenbaker killed the Arrow, and the Iroquois.

But Canada, in the 50s, was big enough to be the breadbasket of the world, AND to market her aeronautical offerings of intercepter and jet engines.

But not with a dummy at the helm.

In the fifties, CANADA needed a visionary for a prime minister.

F***, we elected a farmer.



(from Wikipedia)

The ORENDA IROQUOIS

FOR THE CF-105 Arrow project, Avro Canada had originally intended to use one of three different engines, all UK designs: Rolls-Royce RB.106, the Bristol B.0L.4 Olympus, or a license-built version of the Olympus, the Curtiss-Wright J67.

The RB.106 and J67 were selected as the primary and backup engines for the new design. However, both the RB.106 and J67 were cancelled during the Arrow's design phase, too far into the program to select the Olympus.

Orenda Engines quickly responded with the PS.13 Iroquois design.
The Iroquois design was based on simplicity and lightness.

With this in mind, Orenda pioneered work in the use of titanium in engines, with 20% by weight of the Iroquois (mainly the compressor rotor blades) consisting of this metal. Titanium has light weight, high strength and good temperature and corrosion resistance. It was estimated that the engine would be 850 pounds (386 kg) lighter than if steel had been used. During the early 1950s, this material was in short supply, and the lack of knowledge of its physical properties and fabrication techniques created problems which had to be overcome. It was also very expensive relative to the more common materials such as steel and aluminum.

It was recognized that if the engine parts could be designed with titanium, then the supporting structure could also be lightened due to reduced forces within the engine, with an overall saving in weight. Other parts, such as gearbox casings were made with a magnesium alloy. Inconel was used to make the blades in the low pressure turbine assembly and the metal insulation blanket found at the rear of the engine. This heat resistant nickel-chrome alloy retains its strength at high temperatures and resists oxidation and corrosion. The primary reason for using these advanced metals was to save weight and improve performance, creating an engine with a 5:1 thrust to weight ratio that could produce a sea level dry thrust of 19,250 lb (26,000 lb with afterburner).

The design, development and manufacture of such an advanced jet engine was accomplished in an incredibly short time by the Orenda team.

The detailed design was completed in May 1954, and the first run was achieved in December 1954.

The earlier Orenda 9 had more parts but produced less power. For example, the Orenda 9 weighed 2,560 lb (1,160 kg) and produced 6,355 lb (2,883 kg) static thrust, while the Iroquois weighed 5,900 lb. (2,675 kg) but was reported to have produced 30,000 lb (13,608 kg) static thrust with afterburner for take off. (the Orenda did not have an afterburner.)

The Iroquois was one of the most powerful jet engines in the world at its time of introduction, rated at 19,250 lbf (85.6 kN) dry, 25,000 lbf (111 kN) afterburning. It was aerodynamically matched for peak performance at 50,000 feet (15,200 m) altitude and Mach 2 speed.

CANCELLED!! The MIGHTY IROQUOIS!

COURSE, the AVRO ARROW wasn't the only casualty on BLACK FRIDAY so long ago now… on that distant 20th of February in 1959.

There was also the mighty Orenda Iroquois PS-13 supersonic jet engine programme.

It too would fall to the cutter's torch.

A stained, faded, torn, age-old ad, barely, barely… recalls the glory.

Touted as being the successor to the Orenda Jet Engine TR.5, the ORENDA IROQUOIS would never fulfil that advertised destiny.

4,000 of the original Orenda Jet Engine TR.5s were produced and when they were unleashed upon the world… those Orendas were the most powerful engines in the world.

Orenda would hold that proud title from 1949 until 1952.

The AVRO ARROW was actually, originally, set to be powered by jet engines from the UK.

But there were delays. Big delays. And because of those delays, the first Arrows ended up using American Pratt & Whitney J75s, as Avro Canada became desperate to get their Arrows into the air.

But Avro also committed themselves to their Orenda Division for a new, better, engine as Avro Aircraft of Canada Ltd. looked to their future…

And that future was wide open!

And that immediate future was to be… the Arrow Mk. II.

An improved Arrow.

And that Arrow had to have better engines than the J-75.

Loads better.

So, the challenge was on.

And, ORENDA, folks… did not disappoint.

They came up with the PS-13 design. What you're lookin' at above.

And during its' testing period, this Iroquois prototype became the most powerful jet engine in the world! Rated by pounds of thrust.

And the new Orenda also produced the loudest, man-made sound, bar none. That's THE reason it was tested hundreds of miles away, in Nobel, Ontario… far, far, from civilized man.

And suburban Toronto.

The Armée de l'Air, or the French Air Force, were mighty interested in this new, and triumphant Canadian jet engine. Dassault hoped to put it into their own evolved French interceptor, the Mirage III. The French wanted to be first in line when the Iroquois engine became available, outside of the Arrow programme.

And Dassault was actually ready, stylo in hand, to ink a 300 engine purchase deal with Avro, while the Iroquois was still only in the testing stage!

But THAT grand overture was not to be, either.

So, on February 20th, 1959, as luck finally ran out for the Arrow… luck simultaneously ran out for the Orenda Iroquois. Even though it was, and would be a record-breaking jet engine.

And Canadian Prime Minister, John G. Diefenbaker, who swung the hatchet became the all-time ninny of Canadian politics.

But, as it turned out, there was to be a third victim in this wide-sweeping fiasco.

'Course, we'll save that story… for another day—

PS - The third victim WAS NOT the B-47 that was used extensively to test the mighty Iroquois. The Iroquois DID RUIN that borrowed USAF bomber (inset ad pic) that was on loan to Avro Canada, and the RCAF, for the Orenda Iroquois' testing phase.

Significant frame damage caused by the all-powerful Iroquois being mounted on only one side of the aircraft, the starboard side, rendered the large bomber unsafe for continued use.

Yes, that B-47 was soon scraped after its quiet return to the USAF. And no, that isn't the victim I am calling to mind.

1948 Olympic Hockey Champions: RCAF FLYERS

THROWN TOGETHER at the last minute because Canada needed to field a team for the 1948 Olympics that were then being held in St Moritz, Switzerland.

But in pre-Olympic exhibition games, the RCAF Flyers hockey team was so badly thrashed, people were saying,

"And THIS is the hockey team Canada is sending to the Olympics? Pourquoi??

Well, actually, Canada was having a real problem fielding a team that met then new, and more stringent amateur guidelines set out for participants at the St. Moritz Olympic Games of 1948.

In fact, it started to look like NO Canadian team would be sent overseas for the Olympics. And that, almost made Squadron Leader A. Gardiner "Sandy" Watson lose his marbles.

Working out of RCAF Headquarters in Ottawa, Sandy immediately went to see his air force superiors. In those days the RCAF could solve anything, and often did.

Sandy convinced the "brass" that the Royal Canadian Air Force could field a good team, just by selecting the best players from RCAF Stations all over the country! Team membership would be based on an individual's current hockey stats. And this type of team formation, could all be done on a shoestring budget. That sounded good to Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Wilf Curtis, who had already been running the entire air force on a shoestring budget… because of our damnable federal government.

So Wilf gave the nod, and the Canadian Olympic hockey team of 1948, manned entirely by active airmen of the RCAF, was formed. Enter the RCAF FLYERS!.

This irregular Canadian team entry was most strange.

PREVIOUS Canadian Olympic team entries were Allan Cup, or senior league champions. You know, teams that had played together certainly for months, if not years. But the St. Moritz team's player roster was only finalized just hours before the RCAF Flyer's team's departure from New York aboard the the luxury ocean-liner, the Queen Mary.

Incidentally, this was the first time that the Royal Bank of Canada would be called upon and would answer the call to help sponsor a Canadian Olympic team to compete at the Olympics. RBC paid for the hockey team's Queen Mary ocean-liner voyage overseas. And the RBC have been helping to sponsor Canadian Olympians ever since, including the current Canadian Olympic team. But helping the RCAF Flyers was their first such Olympic venture…

HOWEVER, once the RCAF Flyers arrived in Europe, those "boys"… were on their own!

Remember those were the days of zero funding for Canadian Olympians, and it ain't a whole lot better now! But I digress…

So the RCAF Flyers soldiered on, and paid their own way.

The team began playing in exhibition games (and singing!) all across Europe… to raise money to eat, and to put a temporary roof over their heads, all the while, practising for the big day…

And their initial lacklustre progress was watched, and publicly ridiculed, back home.

But then the RCAF flyers hit the ice in St Moritz…

And Canadians weren't laughing now. Seems those RCAF Flyers just kept winning. Not whining, like Canadians do now.

And when the RCAF Flyers wrapped up by defeating the Russian Team to claim Olympic Gold for Canada, a shallow, jeering Canadian public… that had formally been entirely aloof, and unsupportive, was now awestruck.

“Canada’s Sweetheart,” Barbara Ann Scott, who also won Olympic gold for Canada at the St. Moritz games (besides being the first, and only Canadian to ever win in women's senior figure skating) also happened to be the RCAF Flyers NUMBER ONE FAN at those important games.

Miss Scott was there cheering the Canadian team on to gold, and was later then hoisted up onto the player's shoulders right after the winning game on February 8, 1948. A photograph captured that happy moment, and it became THE photo of the Games.

Canada would win hockey gold again in 1952.

But then, not again, until 2002… 50 years later!

The RCAF FLYERS won their Olympic gold back in 1948 by true grit. The team had only a couple weeks together to get it right. And they certainly did!

And yes, that is an official RCAF FLYERS '48 OLYMPIC TEAM lapel pin.

Only 20 were made at the time, and only for team members. I own one.

::: The Arrow, the Iroquois: Love, Planes… and the whole Damn Thing :::

ON THIS DAY, February 20, 1959… 51 YEARS AGO… the Prime Minister of Canada, John G. Diefenbaker cancelled the Arrow, and the Iroquois, programmes.

Back then, it was called Black Friday.

The casualty was the CF-105 Arrow Canadian Intercepter programme.

But that wasn't the day's only casualty. The incredible Orenda Iroquois jet engine that was to power the Mark II Arrows also died that day. Not tot mention the 14, 500 employees thrown out of work!

51 Years Ago Today

Black Friday - February 20, 1959

FIVE ARROWS and parts to complete a total of 37 of our All-Canadian Interceptor.

We could have had three squadrons of Arrows!

But then again, 50 years ago, today, was Black Friday.

Yes, February 20, 1959.

PM John A. Diefenbaker stood up in the House of Commons (Canadian Parliament), at 11 am, and cancelled the Avro Arrow and Orenda Iroquois Projects on this date exactly 50 years ago.

And Crawford Gordon Jr., President of A. V. Roe Canada, and not one to be outdone by anybody, especially by a mindless bureaucrat… terminated every Avro Canada employee in the afternoon.

All 14, 500 of them!

No aircraft to manufacture…no need for employees!

Canada would never recover.

The Way We Were ::: 1954 ::: CANADA

THE KEEN OBSERVER will note that the AVRO ARROW is noticeably absent from this proud 1954 achievement ad of A. V. Roe Canada (or Avro Canada Aircraft Ltd. as the company came to be known).

And that's because the Arrow was STILL on the drawing boards!

But there was already excitement within the company, as this ad hints at.

Notice, AVRO CANADA is meeting the challenge through ongoing research and development depicted by the illustration that "leaves" the boxed grid at the top of the ad, and enters the picture of the Avro Canada CF-100 flying over the Toronto plant that produced her.

If you were awake in 1954, you probably weren't, but if you were, and you were looking at this ad, you'd ask yourself… why, why, did the graphic designer alter the layout of this ad… so that the viewer's eyes are directed by the "flow" of the ad, from the TOP, and from the BOTTOM… to follow through and come to rest on the research and development illustration?

Huh, why?

What A. V. Roe CANADA Limited couldn't tell you at the time, but proudly hinted at… was Avro Canada had been secretly tendered a contract by the RCAF to build Canada an cutting edge intercepter, and work towards that end, was WELL UNDERWAY at this point…

::: The Avro Arrow: The "James Dean" of Aircraft

THE DESTRUCTION of Canada's military aviation industry (the cancelling of the Avro Arrow Interceptor and the Orenda Iroquois Engine Programs) in 1959… and the subsequent decline of Canada as a modern industrial state… go hand in hand.

THE CANCELLING of the Avro Jetliner Program, and the torching of the C-102 Jetliner prototype, which could have been wildly successful as a commercial airliner venture… an airplane that had many eager buyers worldwide, including the USAF, should have been a warning to all Canadians.

Yes, that something was not quite right, not in the business soul of the Canadian aircraft manufacturing sector… but in those program overseers, within the federal departments of the Canadian government.

Everyday folks, I get up, drag myself outta' bed, and fling the bedroom window wide open, and have a look out.

It's always the same question… that comes into my head.

"Why, why, are there no Arrows flying out there…"



…from the URBAN DICTIONARY: The Avro Arrow

The AVRO ARROW is the James Dean of the aircraft world -- "Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse". Considering that only 5 were ever flown, the Arrow has generated more books, articles, documentaries and controversy than many aircraft produced by the thousands.

60 YEARS AGO: Dow Chemical CEO, and Four Others, Perish in Fanshawe, Ontario - CONCLUSION

SEE: PART 1

SEE: PART 2

And now for the stunning conclusion!

SOME FOLK might've thought there is nothing left to be said after parts (1) and (2).

And they'd be wrong.

Dr. Willard Dow died here, in this crash, in London, Ontario. 1949.

To begin to understand the significance, in modern terms, of the personage who died in the crash and the impact on that sector of business, Dr. Dow was immersed in, we may have to transpose businesses.

So we eliminate industrial chemical… AND substitute silicon valley. Software development.

WHAT IF an airplane crashed at your community airport?

The locals would come along and have a look. The police would soon guard the crash, and the general public would be forced farther off, away from the crash site, which might affect traffic routes, etc. and the community would be abuzz with the event.

But what if it was soon discovered that Microsoft's Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda, had just died in that crash?

Let the calamity begin! In silicon valley and the stock market.

It would be the SUDDEN and unexpected end of an era.

A captain of industry would be gone.

AND the hard-fought, hard-won empire of Microsoft could actually topple in light of such an occurrence.

So Bill Gates is dead. Now what?

Hope, you're getting my drift.

To the Dow Chemical executive only a few hundred miles southwest of the border in Midland, Michigan, the shock of losing Dr. Willard Dow, the company's living icon, was immense.

Dow sent everyone north so see what the hell had happened.

Dr. Willard Dow wasn't just some high school chemistry kid tinkering with his chemistry kit he had once got as a Christmas gift! This was the man! The man who had helped the Allies win World War II with his ever most timely, and incredible… chemical discoveries!

In the world of biz, this guy was huge. Willard Dow's greatness was chronicled in Part 1, so we needn't refer to the details again here, but we do need to remind the readership of the man's stature in that far-away world of 1949.

AND IN THIS one instance, the man, his greatness, his problem-solving acumen ACTUALLY lead directly to his demise!

Dr. Willard Dow had been invited by none other than the legendary Winston Churchill, to attend the former Prime Minister of Great Britain's MIT speech in Boston. And Willard, was not going to take a pass on so grand an overture by Winnie, himself.

Not on his life!

So Willard, quite accustomed to finding solutions to emerging problems, went with the Dow Chemical's second flight crew on call, that day. Willard simply bypassed the first-up flight crew of the company Beech 18 when they refused to fly… That refusal being based on the severe weather conditions prevalent in the region at the time!

And that would be his biggest, and final, mistake!

Sure the Dow Chemical Beech 18 captain, A J Bowie, waited 'till nearly all of the bad weather cleared at his end. Trouble is the Dow Chemical aircraft's route to Boston ensured that the corporate aircraft would be FOLLOWING the storm, and soon thereafter take-off ENTERING INTO the storm!

Do the math folks.

Storm traveling east. Aircraft travelling east.

Storm travelling at 45 mph. Airplane travelling at 190 - 240 mph.

No wonder they ran into trouble so quickly after take-off, being that London, Ontario… was less than 200 miles away.

But it wouldn't have been so bad, had all six people on board the twin-engine Beech died that day.

But they didn't.

There would be one survivor.

Calvin Campbell, Dow Chemical's Vice President and general counsel, would play over, and over again, the vision of that tragic day, in his head… for the rest of his life.

That terrible, horrible, moment during the crash landing sequence when the faltering Beech 18, now on fire, finally came to a complete stop. And try as they might, with all their might… his dear, precious, precious love, his wife Alta, of so many years… couldn't unfasten her seatbelt…

It just wouldn't unclasp!!!

The end was cruel, and quick.

It couldn't have been any more than a minute after the aircraft came to a stop before Alta was entirely engulfed in flames. All this, as Calvin looked on, helpless, actually… beyond helpless, as he was finally pushed back, for further rescue attempts, by the bewildering heat and wall of flame!

Make a note of this. I have a pocketknife attached to every one of my set of keys… and so should you. Survival 101.

You never know.

Such a simple tool would have saved her life on that ill-fated morning.

Sadly, these would be her final moments.

Never the same after, Calvin would make the rest of his life's journey, alone.

Interestingly, Calvin Campbell's former Midland, Michigan home is on the National Register of Historic Homes of the United States of America. Located at 1210 W Park Dr. the house comes with its official historic plaque identifying it as such. It was actually designed by Alden Dow, Willard's architect brother!

Alden was a fraternity brother of Calvin's at the University of Michigan. It's a beautiful design, simple but lavish, 5100 square foot home sitting on almost an acre of property.

Calvin and Alta, who had a quiet and tender lover for each-other, asked Alden to design the home for them in 1939.

They would have ten gloriously happy years in that house, before tragedy struck.

AND unexpectedly…right NOW, it's for sale!

All, at the give-away price of $350,000 USD!!

In Canada, this home would be a million and a third, easily!

Check it out: www.nopatternrequired.com/?p=3152

Peruse the pics of Calvin and Alta's home, with the reverence they deserve. We all lay our plans, but…

Actually, your admiration will come quite naturally, as you review this early, modern-style home.

Both the Dows and Campbells were popular folk within the company, and throughout the community. Thousands of people, near and far, attended their funerals. The City of MIdland declared an entire month of mourning for the city, by unanimous decree, a day after the crash.

On April Fools Day, in 1949, the Bay City Times writer James Smith, stated that cause of the crash would likely never be established.

Well, that isn't true. I've told the readership what happened, already . Think of the RCAF Beech 18 that turned back from landing in London, and went back instead to RCAF Station: Centralia.

Think about the first Dow Chemical flight crew that refused to fly, and a CEO that overrode that captain's correct decision.

And finally, remember the severe weather that caused the ice-encrusted airplane to make a desperate bid to land in London, Ontario… a thousand miles away from its original destination of Boston, Mass.

Perhaps the recounting of this tragic tale should end here.

But every tale must be told in its's entirety.

And what I am about to end with, is just spooky.

Yes, spooky.

Did (and I put this forward gingerly), Dr. Willard Dow, somehow, foresee his own death?? Did he try to beat fate?

We'll never know for sure, but I'm guessing he might have.

But how do I know that?

Because Dow, had been working on an secret aircraft engine of his own design!

A fire-proof one!

Dr. William J Hale, also a world-famous chemist, and Willard's brother-in-law revealed at the time of the crash, both he and Willard, had been working together on a fire-proof engine! Hale explained to the media on the day of Dow's death, that Willard had been "secretly haunted" FOR YEARS… by the vision of death in a burning airplane!!

That's right… haunted—

Their collaborated engine design would use agricultural alcohol as its fuel, which, under normal care is virtually non-flammable. The Dow-Hale engine would produce steam to turn its' turbines, and thus remain cool during operation. Their preliminary work on the engine design had already proven its feasibility and only the previous week, Dow and Hale, had planned to resume work on the engine.

Never happened.

Hale would abandon the project, after Dow's death.

And to my knowledge, it was never made public, as to whether or not, the very expensive jewelry the Dow wives had brought aboard, on that most ill-fated aircraft flight of March 1949… if that jewelry… was ever found.



~fini~

::: The Future is Wide Open :::

You {better} believe it…

::: The MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE of ROY BROWN, WW I Canadian Ace :::

A WAR WEARY Captain Roy Brown looks at us now from eternity.

The WW I CANADIAN ACE who I now believe killed the RED BARON (although last week I thought had only assisted in the kill) is no where to be found.

Literally.

There are only so many places one can hide, when one is dead. Independent mobility becomes the issue.

After searching the Stouffville Cemetery in sub-zero weather with Barb in tow, we searched every tombstone to no avail.

He wasn't there!

A drop by the local library revealed an article that chronicled Brown's death, and noted he was intered in Aurora!

On March 16, 1944 The Stouffville Tribune listed the front page news that Captain Roy Brown had died suddenly at his farm on the 6th Concession of Whitchurch at only fifty years of age. The man who had shot down the Red Baron (Baron Manfred von Richthofen), and when upon seeing the Baron's fresh remains expressed personal sorrow, was now, sadly, gone.

Hailing originally from Carlton Place near Ottawa, the famous airman had made Stouffville his home after retiring from the aviation industry. Roy had been battling illness for some time, yet was out and about the town, on a daily basis.

Only a year previous, in 1943, Roy Brown as a Liberal Party candidate for a Toronto riding, had delivered a blistering attack on Canada's postwar treatment of war veterans:

"The postwar period is more serious than winning the war. We who served in the last war know what it is to get kicked out of the service, and then wonder where to turn, and where to go to make a living. I got back into civilian life last time with 27 fractures, and was a nervous wreck. I got no pension. That kind of thing must never happen again.

Roy's sentiments drew a groundswell of public support right across the country. From veterans, and the public, alike. This Canadian hero, who had saved many fellow Allied colleagues from being shot down, a WW I ace in his own right, and world famous for attacking and then taking out Germany's legendary Red Baron, by stats the greatest ace of WW I, noted that his country had failed him.

Nationally, it was an embarrassing moment.

Mainly, because it was true.

But I digress… presently, the article revealed to us where we had to go.

A half hour later we had arrived… at the Aurora Cemetery!

Dark now.

To search, or not to search?

A daunting task with the spectacle of thousands of plots before you, and not a single light around, save on the roadway. Oh well, that's what flashlights are for.

Hours later… nothing! NOTHING!

This isn't right.

Where is he???

As we were despairing, we noticed a car drive up to the Main Office. What luck!

After knocking on the door, and convincing the lone woman that we weren't grave robbers, she disclosed a detail she only faintly remembered. Roy Brown's family had quietly spirited the Canadian ace away, about twenty years previous.

No formal record.

Destination unknown.

I wasn't the only one who had come looking through the years, apparently. But no one has ever found out the ace's new resting spot.

If YOU know where Captain Roy Brown rests… let me know. Thanks.


DID ROY BROWN Shoot Down the RED BARON?

You betcha'

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE, shown in full, tells American ace, Oliver Colin LeBoutillier's side of the story. His recall of the event, I believe, removes all doubt!




'BROWNIE DID IT'
Eyewitness: Sopwith Camel Guns Turned The Trick

By Gene Kuhn


FIFTY-FIVE YEARS have passed since that fateful Sunday morning in April when Germany's ace of aces, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was shot down in his bright red Fokker triplane over France's Somme Valley.

In that time, hundreds of differing accounts have been written, several books have been published and, countless arguments have taken place, over one question: Who got the Red Baron?

Was it one or both of two Australian machine gunners who took the baron's low-flying plane under fire from the ground? Or was it, as the official record has it, the late Capt. Roy Brown, leader of 209 Squadron's A Flight.

The answer, supplied by Oliver Colin "Boots" LeBoutillier, a 75-year-old Las Vegas businessman, will disappoint both the Australians, who have been not at all averse to taking credit, and the Germans, who prefer to believe that nothing in the sky could match the baron.

LeBoutillier, the only American volunteer pilot in the squadron and leader of B Flight was an eye witness to the baron's downing and he insists it was indeed Brown who shot him down.

"To my dying day I'll say Brownie shot him down, Capt. Roy Brown. I'm convinced of it.

"By God, it was so evident. I saw the shots going into the cockpit. How could it be anything else?"

"There is absolutely no doubt Brownie shot him down," he repeated. "He was probably dead before he hit the ground.

"The Australians saw the red triplane and started firing like hell at him. Then when he was down they jumped in and scavenged the airplane.

"It isn't up to me to say they didn't fire at him and maybe they hit the wings. But they claimed him. The Australians will always say, 'We got him.'"

LeBoutillier said the fatal shot had to come from Brown's Sopwith Camel as he dove at a 45-degree angle on the baron's plane.

The bullet, he said, entered Richthofen's shoulder from the back and took a downward path, hitting his heart and making, its exit in the left chest area.

LeBoutillier's hands became the planes of Brown and Richthofen as he gestured to show the relative and changing positions of the aircraft in the dog fight.

His statements on the death of the legendary fighter pilot were made in an interview prior to his appearance last night as guest speaker at a dinner meeting of alumni of Fresno State University's aerospace classes.

"Would you put something in that I'm vitally interested in aerospace education programs?" he asked.

LeBoutillier said he was "just a kid" when he ran away from home to join what was then the Royal Naval Air Service in Canada.

"I had five minutes of flying in a Model B Wright airplane, "just like the Wright brothers had, at Mineola, Long Island.

"I took it off the ground, made a turn and the minute I landed I was a pilot."
LeBoutillier started as a probation flight sub-lieutenant. But promotions were rapid because of attrition, he said.

In those days Britain had two air arms, the Royal Flying Corps and the RNAS. The naval squadrons were in the 200 series, he said, and his squadron was the ninth, hence the 209th Squadron.

The squadron was assigned to patrol the Allied lines on April 21. But "the weather was bad and it finally cleared so we could get off about 9:30."

It was divided into three flights, Brown's, LeBoutillier's and C Flight with Capt. O. W. "Red" Redgate as the flight leader.

The squadron was two or three minutes from the lines when the fight with Richthofen's Flying Circus developed.

"At 12,000 feet Brownie had started to tangle with all the German triplanes, and that's when B Flight flew right into it," LeBoutillier continued.

"All you saw were Sopwiths and triplanes. all together. There were three or four red triplanes, but nobody knew Richthofen was in one of them.

"I had fired on a red triplane but missed. Then one chased me for about 20 seconds. I pulled out to see if my wings were all shot up. Then at that moment here came Roy Brown at a 45-degree angle, and I could see his tracers going into the cockpit. He pulled up and never saw the red triplane again."

But LeBoutillier did. He made a low pass over the downed plane, which he said had received damage to landing gear and right wing tip.

Brown's report of the action apparently triggered much of the controversy over the Red Baron's death.

LeBoutillier said Brown reported "the triplane went straight down." But it did not, and the Australians took it under fire.

"He (Brown) pulled up in a climbing turn to the left, and it looked to him like it was going down. He assumed when he pulled up, the plane went straight down.

"Then he later said he shouldn't have put that in the report. Your first impressions of what you saw is what they want. Once you walk away from your airplane and make your report, you can't change it."

Dale M. Titler makes a great deal out of Brown's failure to see Richthofen's plane hit the ground. In his book, "The Day the Red Baron Died," Titler is inclined to give credit to Robert Buie, one of the two Aussie gunners who opened up on Richthofen's plane.

According to Titler, Richthofen died of a bullet which entered the side of the Red Baron's chest and ranged upward—just the reverse of the bullet's course as LeBoutillier described it.

LeBoutillier's footnote to history may end the controversy over the end of the Red Baron. Maybe.

Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) - Friday, July 13, 1973

IS CODI READY FOR THIS, the 2010 Summer Blockbuster, "The Red Baron"?

THE RED BARON in theatres, June 1, 2010.

I CAN'T WAIT to see this in the theatre!

The movie is highly accurate, as it claims No. 209 Squadron's Canadian Captain Roy Brown shot down the Red Baron (Manfred von Richthofen) as Manfred closed in on inexperienced Canadian Sopwith Camel pilot, Wilfrid May. May, had just been attacking the Red Baron's inexperienced cousin, Leutnant Wolfram von Richthofen.

Brown's and the RAF's claim of taking out the Baron has been disputed for a long time now, but it seems Australian gunfire from the ground could also have brought down the Red Baron.

Certainly, ace Captain Roy Brown who was from Ontario, with nine kills to his name at the time, had played a big part in the Baron's demise on that day.

Brown was aggressively chasing the deadly German ace at the time, and likely the pressure of the fray, or was it May's insolence in attacking the Baron's own cousin that allowed the Baron's mind to wander and violate his own cardinal rule: To never chase an enemy aircraft, by yourself, into enemy territory.

Oliver "Boots" Le Boutillier, an American ace from New Jersey who flew in the same squadron as Brown, witnessed Brown's attack on the Red Baron. Brown closed in on Richthofen and was only fifty yards away when he had finished up his 7 second gunfire attack on the world famous all red Fokker Triplane. Suddenly realizing the Canadian ace's gun fire was finding its mark on his triplane, and that he was already over enemy territory, the Red Baron immediately broke off his attack of novice May. This was only May's second combat mission and already he had locked up with the greatest ace of World War I!

Le Boutillier insists that Brown did indeed shoot down the Red Baron. He saw Brown's machine guns hit their mark.

Brown's gunfire also hit an Australian mobile kitchen, on the ground, and put holes in the big stew pot as these Australian soldiers lined up for chow, and were unexpectedly treated to front row seats of the demise of the greatest ace of World War I, the Red Baron.

Manfred von Richthofen was able to land his triplane but was found dead in his cockpit.

The Baron's last words were, "Allies kaput!".

Sergeant Cedric Bassett Popkin, Australian 4th Division, could also have been the soldier who fired the shot that killed the Red Baron.

We'll never know for sure, but I think the evidence tips in favour of Brown.

Friedrich Sternberg, the fictitious Jewish pilot, and cherished friend of Manfred von Richthofen in the movie, represents the 130 Jewish Knights of the Air that fought for Germany in World War I.


The LEADING ACES of WORLD WAR I were:

1) Manfred von Richthofen (80, Germany)

2) Rene Fonck (75, France)

3) Billy Bishop (72, Canada)

4) Ernst Udet (62, Germany)

5) Raymond Collishaw (62, Canada)

6) Edward Mannock (61, England)


And CANADA… you don't even know your heroes!

Still.




© 2009 Monterey Media

::: Toronto's FIRST Airplane Crash ::.. 1911

99 years ago.

WHO IS at the controls?

J.A.D. (Douglas) McCURDY, the father of aviation in Canada! That's who!!

This McCurdy Aero Biplane crashed at the Donlands Farm in the Toronto GTA, at the hopeful International Aviation Meet of 1911.

The early days of aviation were fraught with all kinds of crashes like these… as the dynamics of powered aircraft flight, and of in-flight control (once these crates were actually aloft)… was barely understood.

Sometimes you walked away, as Douglas did here.

These pics were taken on the same day, before and after! They come to us via Jack Minor, the Silver Dart replica builder! Post-production by SPIR.

J.A.D. (Douglas) McCURDY who was schooled at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario, and was later a mechanical engineering graduate from the U of T in 1906, piloted the Silver Dart off the frozen Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia in 1909, becoming the first Canadian to fly a powered aircraft in the Dominion of Canada.

McCurdy was also the first pilot to be issued a pilot's license in Canada, in 1910.

And in 1911, he became the first person to fly from Florida to Cuba.

In 1915, Douglas established the first aviation school in Canada, in partnership with the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, at Long Branch Aerodrome, and was its' first manager. Yes, folks the Long Branch Aerodrome was Canada's FIRST AIRPORT!

Today the historical airport is no more, and Ontario Power Generation's Lakeview Generating Station sits on the former airport site.

In WW II, Douglas was the Assistant Director General of Aircraft Production in Canada, for the Allied war effort here.

He died in 1961.

J.A.D. (Douglas) McCURDY was the first inductee into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame when it was created in 1973.

IS YOUR LIFE, presently, just a FLAMEOUT?

Are you DEAD STICKING it through life?

Want HAPPINESS? Real happiness??

Then STOP being a second rate version of yourself.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In 2010, be encouraged, be challenged, and be inspired.

And, not by me, either.

Read better books, ones that challenge you to change and grow. Read daily, just a little bit.

Eat better, healthier, food. Exercise regularly, at least once a week, but don't overdo it… you ain' t a teenager anymore. And sleep regularly.

Pray daily to God, to help you become the best version of yourself that you can be. That short, daily prayer, works…even for an atheist.

Don't think it'll work? Pray it. Daily. Don't argue it ~

Spend time with your friends and family… carefree time. Throw busyness, and tasks out the window.

And pray one more prayer to God.

Pray to Him that He gives you more energy… 'cause, you're gonna need it—

"Your experience of life is only limited by the energy you have." Matthew Kelly


This is MY New Year's Resolution revolution.


PS…Good luck with yours! I pray that all my Blog readership, Flickr friends, and enemies (yes, I have a few of those) have a great 2010!

World War II: CANADIAN HERO saves the ROYAL NAVY!

On April 2, 1942 Flight Lieutenant Leonard Joseph Birchall, DFC, OBC from St Catharines, Ontario was assigned a posting to Columbo, Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Leonard and his air crew, were sent to Sri Lanka to hopefully help stem the recent tide of military disasters that had already befallen the Allies (SEAC - South East Asian Command), in the Pacific South East, since the Imperial Japanese Navy's recent attack on Pearl Harbour.

Remember, "Pearl Harbour" was less than five page flips on the calendar or, for linear thinkers… only five short months ago at this point.

The Japanese had been quite busy since.

Right after Pearl Harbour… Japan had attacked Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaya! Soon thereafter, while on the march again, they attacked Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

The Japanese war pace was swift. And successful. Honestly, the Allies were taking a beating.

British Navy ships HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales had just been sunk by the Japanese.

Thailand had fallen, and then allied itself with Japan.

Malaya soon fell.

Hong Kong finally fell. But the Canadian forces, there at least, had held back the attacking Japanese for an unbelievable 17 days!

But now, even Northern Australia, was under siege! Yikes!

Folks, in the early 40s, Japanese victories were counted in days, not weeks.

That's why Birchall's unit, 413 Squadron RCAF, had been hurriedly dispatched to Sri Lanka; to immediately bolster area surveillance for any Japanese activity, or for any incursion attempts into the remaining, and precariously held, Allied territory.

The Allies just couldn't afford any more losses in the South Pacific to the Axis!

It would be only TWO DAYS after his arrival, that Birchall's new posting, would pay off for the Allies.

Late afternoon, April 4, F/L Birchall was on long patrol.

Wait! He thought he saw a a tiny smudge over on his southeast horizon.

Better have a look, he thought. The large PBY Catalina floatplane Leonard was flying was gently coaxed to its starboard side, and was now on an intercept course with this mysterious "smudge".

As Birchall and his crew flew closer, he and his crew were all alone, should they meet up with the enemy.

Worst fears were soon confirmed! It was the Japanese!

And not just a lone ship. A task force of the Imperial Japanese Navy!

They would have to get the hell outta' there… but not before they got closer, unbelievably! Yes, CLOSER!

NUMBERS, COURSE, and SPEED of the Japanese Imperial Fleet had to be accurately determined, and radioed back to base!

As more ships kept appearing over the horizon… Birchall finally counted five aircraft carriers, four newer class battleships, attendant cruisers, and destroyers. This was a large and threatening force, Leonard noted.

WAS THIS the very fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbour five months previous?

Their RCAF Catalina was soon spotted. Birchall could see in the distance Japanese Zeros rising up from the aircraft carriers. Flying at only 2,000 feet, soon those distant Zero fighter-planes were on the attack, and all over Leonard's lumbering Catalina. All 12 of them!

But it was too late for the Japanese. Too late!!

Leonard's crew HAD sent off two encoded messages straight back to their base at Columbo.

The presence of the Japanese Imperial Fleet was now known by the Allies! This action of discovery, by Birchall and his crew, would later be praised by the then larger-than-life prime minister of Great Britain, none other than Winston Churchill, himself!

The Canadian press would refer to Birchall as the "Saviour of Ceylon".

The Royal Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet had gotten the heads up. With plenty of time to prepare, and respond. They now knew the Japanese Navy was on the way. There would be no second Pearl Harbour, this time.

It didn't end as nicely for Birchall.

Wish we could say differently—

Leonard's Catalina, now badly shot up, damaged beyond imagination, and on fire, lurched downward. Birchall skillfully piloted the gravely wounded bird down, until it's flight controls no longer responded!

… and thus it finally crash landed on the seas below.

Once down the Catalina was quickly evacuated. The severely wounded of Birchall's crew were fitted with life jackets, and pushed out, and away, from the sinking floatplane.

UNBELIEVABLY, the Zeros continued their attack! The defenceless, and helpless wounded, were fired on, and murdered! Wearing their Mae Wests, they couldn't dive to escape the Zero's strafing runs!!

Birchall, and the men of his that escaped these merciless Zeros, were soon picked up by a Japanese destroyer.

Once on board they were treated brutally. They were violently interrogated. Had they dispatched a warning message back to their home base?

Yes or No?

During their torture, Birchall encouraged his crew.

These RCAF airmen never did reveal to their torturers that messages, had indeed, been sent.

In the meantime, these Canadian heroes were housed in a small paint locker where one person could stand, two could sit, and only one could lay down. They had to sleep in turns. They received no medical attention, and very little food.

Eventually, they were transferred out, to another ship, and sent back to Japan.

The Japanese military who, by edict of the Emperor were not allowed to surrender, looked down on captured Allied personnel who allowed themselves to be taken alive. And the Japanese PoW camps were well known to harshly treat their captured, who they deemed as ethically inferior.

In spite of this, Birchall who spent almost 40 months as a PoW, and was often the most senior officer present, protested the abuse of prisoners at his camp. He stood up to his Japanese captors. And he was routinely beaten as a reward.

When Birchall's camp was finally liberated by the Allies, his acts of courage were relayed back home.


CONCLUSIONS

Was Birchall really the "Saviour of Ceylon?"

The Sri Lankans at the time certainly thought so. But we now realize that this was not the case. The Japanese only intended to raid Ceylon's two main ports, Columbo and Trincomalee.

So what did Birchall really do?

He saved the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet, that is. Birchall allowed them to get away to their secret base in Addu Atoll, 1,121 kilometres away. Upon word of Birchall's sighting, the British High Command ordered the Indian Ocean Fleet, to preserve themselves, for future operations.

Canadian F/L Leonard Joseph Birchall was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his discovery, and subsequent reporting of the position of the Imperial Japanese Navy Fleet in the South Seas. This action caused his airplane to be shot down, and his crew to be taken prisoner. This correspondence saved the Royal Navy from surprise attack in the South Pacific. Mr. Birchall was also awarded the Order of the British Empire for his courageous actions, taken to protect his fellow prisoners, while he was a PoW.

In 1950, US President Harry Truman appointed Birchall an officer of the Legion of Merit, saying: "His exploits became legendary throughout Japan and brought renewed faith and strength to many hundreds of ill and disheartened prisoners."

Air Commodore Leonard Joseph Birchall, CM, OBE, DFC, O.Ont, CD, Order of Canada became the longest serving officer in the RCAF (Air Commodore) and received a fifth bar to his CD in 1996, for six decades of military service in times of both war and peace! He died on September 10, 2004.

(PICTURED ABOVE: Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's "Catalina". Birchall's SEAC Catalina was not likely painted in the same colour scheme as this, which is David Hornell's Catalina (really Canso) flying toward us. Birchall's Catalina was mostly olive green.)

©2009 Paul Cardin - Special Projects in Research

OVER 7,500 RCAF PERSONNEL… served CANADA in the PACIFIC WAR

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!

Our MIGHTY, MIGHTY, LANC'

… comin' right at cha'.

A PICTURE… I wish I had taken…

Year in, year out… the Canadian Christmas shopping hordes make their rounds at Best Buy, Zellers, Future Shop, HMV, Canadian Tire, MALWART etc., you know, like THESE are the only stores that are out there.

Folks, this year be original. You got a few days left.

Don't get the same old tired-out predictable gifts you always buy your loved ones.

If you already did… take 'em back!

Remember why your ex-wife left you? You know some of those nasty things she said about you were true. Stop keeping' her predictions alive! She lives to mock those sweaters, scarfs, gloves, chocolate, and after-shave you always buy. Every year.

This year its gonna' be different.

Go to your local aviation museum and admit to them… you need help. Laugh about it for sure, but they'll get it.

My local museum is the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM.

The one in TO is the Canadian Air & Space Museum.

I go to both.

They got great mags, movies, models, shirts, framed art, jackets, calendars etc. Different stuff. Not what every other store is offering.

Again, wish I had taken this picture. But Rick Radell took this, and the other glorious photos inside. This pic alone makes this 2010 calendar worthwhile for me.

And if ye needs a calendar for 2010, you might want to consider this one available at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum for $20 CDN!

Yup, $20 CDN!! Cheap—

SEE: www.warplane.com/Gift-Shop/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=38&a...

::: OLYMPIC FLAME Passes Thru Brampton … December 18, 2009

… by torch relay… on its' way to VANCOUVER for the 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS .

BEFORE THE Riverboat Cafe: The PURPLE ONION, Buffy Saint-Marie, FrizzText and ME!

HAD A BIT OF CHRISTMAS shopping to do in Downtown Toronto this weekend so down we all went!

Simple, enough.

I drop my lot off at the Eaton's Centre, one of the last remaining remnants of the Eaton Company family empire, that ended with a fizzle in the early 90s.

Soon I'm flying up to Yorkville because of FrizzText, and this: www.flickr.com/photos/frizztext/4170856431/

Donovan, the folk singer who sang Universal Soldier made it a hit BUT IT WAS always Buffy's song. Thought everyone knew that. Me was wrong.

AND yes, THAT Yorkville, where the Toronto International Film Festival descends every year in a lot of puffery, and makes it's base. YO is the upscale part of TO where one can get executive gifts, and a whole lot of snobbery.

I'm here, for neither.

I get out, my vehicle not entirely stopped.

I'm on Yorkville Ave. I see a short row of low-rise buildings. One of these IS the The Purple Onion Cafe.

I approach some of the locals. "Do you know the location of the Purple Onion Cafe?"

The Purple Onion predates the Toronto's famous Riverboat Cafe era, where all the Canadian folkies used to jam during the hippy-trippy Woodstock era, so we could in trouble here, folks.

The answers are varied.

"No."

"NO!"

"Hell, no!"

Finally, I get a break—

"Hey man, that was the 60s and I lived through it! Don't remember any of it!! Wait, the Purple Onion, you say… no, I do remember it. It was on a corner somewhere."

None of the pictures I have look anything like the buildings in front of me. So, I walk down to the corner.

Yep.

Bingo, there it is, a match. The "Seen" now… but once the Purple Onion cafe.

Here, in the basement of the Purple Onion, in 1963, Buffy Saint-Marie wrote her classic anti-war song, "Universal Soldier". She was in LAX (Los Angeles airport) when she first saw wounded soldiers returning from Vietnam, and when she flew back to Toronto later that day, Saint-Marie penned her famous song. Personally, I thought her 1970 video ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wqw4OHRs0 ) was the best version of the song, but this rendering, sung from the heart, was never a success commercially.

In 1965, Donovan made a hit of it.

Universal Soldier became the anthem for the Vietnam Peace movement.

In the naive 60s, the hippies wrongly believed that if everyone would just lay down their arms, then the world would become this wondrous, peaceful place. That approach offered no real solution to those hostile types that would never lay down their arms. Those lunatics, worldwide, who forever think that America, or the Western world is responsible for their local woes.

Buffy Saint-Marie is a Canadian First Nations (Cree) singer-songwriter, guitarist and mouthbow player who shuns fame, and lives in self-imposed exile in Hawaii.

She was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. Saint-Marie wrote Up Where We Belong, Until Its Time For You to Go, Universal Soldier, He's An Indian Boy in a Rodeo, and several native songs. Buffy was probably the first artist of note to use an Apple Computer to compose, and send her songs to her producer in Europe, through an early version of the internet.



© 2009 Paul Cardin - Special Projects in Research

:::: Who can say forever? :..:::..:...

THIS IS YOUR hour, girl.

Your, springtime.

Beauty fades, and lovers leave.

And everything, everything, is unfolding as it should.

Play the hand you've been given…

60 YEARS AGO: Dow Chemical CEO, and Four Others, Perish in Fanshawe, Ontario

MARCH 31, 1949

JOHN W MCKAIG had stepped out of his house and was going up the laneway to check the mail, at roughly about 10:30 am, when he heard an airplane flying nearby. Thought nothing of it really. He lived close to the airport, and he heard twin engine airplanes, like these, all the time.

But, when he finally did look up, what he saw, startled him!

He set his eyes on a Dow Chemical Beech 18 coming from the west, and it was heading directly for his house!

His wife and the children, he thought. Have to warn them… to get out. He started running back to the house…

Good grief, the aircraft was now flying only about twelve feet off the ground! And look at how fast it was going!

Suddenly, AJ Bowie, the Dow Chemical pilot, violently swerved the company's Beech 18, just narrowly missing the occupied home. John noted that Beech 18 had already passed between the Dobinson home, and the Dobinson barn safely, when the collision course toward his homeshead been adopted.

Thankfully, the pilot had been able to make this crucial, last second, adjustment.

John watched, spellbound, as the Beech with its wheels down, dropped even lower, and continued on.

Finally, tragically, it plowed into a knoll that was on the far reaches of his property, only about a half mile away. As it hit the knoll, flash fire flames engulfed the entire cabin of the aircraft. It became a flaming streak as the plane bounced, and continued forward for another 200 feet before it heaved to a full stop.

ERNIE DOBINSON who was entering his barn when the Beech 18 flew by, watched in horror as it passed, only to crash into the knoll.

He was the first person to arrive on scene.

What he saw when he got to the flaming wreck astounded him.

Somebody, was actually, getting out of the airplane!

Soon enough, they'd learn it was Calvin Campbell. And he was trying frantically to pull something out of the wreck!

NO! Not something! Someone!!

Sadly… it was the body of his wife!

But the heat was too much, and Calvin finally stumbled backwards to safety. Momentarily. He attempted yet again to enter the burning plane, but had to fall back even more quickly. The heat was so intense. He couldn't accept it, but he knew then, that she was already gone.

Calvin, and Ernie watched helplessly now, from a much safer distance, as the inferno consumed the rest of the cabin.

The engines and the Beech undercarriage were behind the wreck! But how?

WILLIAM CORFIELD was flying overhead and was amazed at what was unfolding on the ground below him. He swung his single seater around, and immediately dropped down to the runway, which surprisingly, was almost just below him. By the time he had stopped and was out of his airplane at the other end of the runway, there was now an RCAF airport truck bearing down on him. Someone motioned him to get on, and so he, too, was on his way back to the crash.

When William got out to the crash, about a dozen folk had gathered. They were milling about the wreck. John and Ernie brought Calvin, who was now overcome with grief, over to the RCAF truck. He had to be helped aboard, he could hardly stand, and as soon as Calvin had settled in, the truck lurched forward, and left, speedily making its way to St Joseph's hospital.

Calvin couldn't understand it. How did this happen? Sure the weather had been sketchy, yet the flight crew didn't seem overly concerned. And now, everyone, was gone!

What would he tell his kids?

William walked up to the Beech 18. The onlookers were silent. Courtesies, were extended through nods. Stoic, these Ontario farming types, he thought.

The Beech 18 was not an airplane Bill liked. He wasn't impressed with it, at all. The manufacturer sung a different tune, for sure… but he had flown the "18", and he didn't like it.

As he approached charred wreckage, "– – – – – –", he thought to himself, "…the Beech's magnesium roof was gone!!"

William was absolutely shocked. Since the Beech's roof was conveniently gone, burned off, he could lean over the still mildly smouldering fuselage, and look right inside the cabin, and into the cockpit!

Like some sort of horrendously, gruesome, displayed cutaway!

Everyone was in position.

The five occupants though were burned to an unrecognizable mound, of charred, glazed flesh, and clothing materials.

Willard, and the women, or even the flight crew, hadn't had a chance to move. They were roasted alive in that final 200 foot journey inside that burning coffin!

What a horrible way for these RCAF airmen to go, William thought.

A flash fire had enveloped the Dow airplane as it struck the knoll, and that horrific fire was fed by the airplane's full to capacity fuel load.

At this point in time, no one knew that it wasn't an RCAF aircraft, as all aircraft registration and identification lettering, had been burned off the Beech's fuselage. And the RCAF had lots of Beech 18s.

No one even thought it for a moment that it could be a civilian airplane.

Clearly, it was a Beech 18, and that's all that was immediately known.

It would be later, as Calvin was checked out at the hospital, that the true identities of the airplane, its destination, and its occupants would become known.

And when that knowledge was imparted, to the people that needed to know, the crash investigation would take a whole different and more serious direction.

One toward secrecy and containment, and a need-to-know basis.

A famous person and his wife, had died, right here, in the small town of Fanshawe, near to the London airport, and no one had a clue as to why—

But the investigators were going to find out… make no mistake about that friends… and a large entourage of Dow people, American crash investigators, and Michigan police were packing their things, and getting ready to fly up to Canada, from that state, to make sure of that.

One additional, startling, revelation emerged rather quickly.

There was something missing from the airplane.

And it was something important. Something expensive…

TO BE CONTINUED… (Part 2 of 3)

Top photo: Crashed Dow Chemical Beech 18, cabin and cockpit, fore of the antenna are clearly burned out…

Bottom Photo: (left - right) DA Brown (expeditor, Dow Chemical), RW Rogers (Chief of Police - Midland), Ira Smith (Sheriff - County of Midland), Ray Rowe (Constable - Midland Police)

60 YEARS AGO: MARCH 31, 1949, Two Beech 18s Attempted to Land at London Airport, one RCAF, one Dow Chemical… One Turned Back, and One Didn't…

THIS IS THE STORY of the Beech 18 THAT didn't turn back—

WINSTON CHURCHILL had just given his famous Iron Curtain speech in America. In it, Churchill lamented the future plight of European nations which would be threatened by an ever greater Russian expansionist influence that had already begun, just after World War II. He was still in America, and now he was scheduled to give another speech in Boston. Churchill promised it would be as important as the previous Iron Curtain across Europe speech. The world would be listening on radio broadcasts all over the world. These stations would be airing his 40 minute address live.

Some would be lucky enough to attend.

Some, had received personal invitations, from Winston Churchill, himself.

One of those very few, was Dr. Willard Dow, 52 year-old president and CEO, of the industrial corporate giant, Dow Chemical Corporation of America.

Willard was somewhat of a giant himself.

His father, Canadian, Herbert Henry Dow, established the company in 1897. But it was the son who developed and expanded his father's company far beyond the original vision. Rarely does a son reproduce the success of a father. But Willard did, and he was a genius.

Not only did he carry around company's 700 chemical manufacturing formula's in his head, in 1940 he had developed a process to produce magnesium from seawater, now allowing "man to mine the oceans for metal". Dow Chemical became a strategic partner to the Allies during WW II because of this. Magnesium, which was needed in abundance, could now be had, in abundance, because of Dow's new process. Fabricating large quantities of lightweight magnesium parts for military aircraft would never be easier. And since Dow's North Carolina plant was the only plant on the east coast producing bromine, it was the one attacked by a German U-boat in 1942.

In 1943, Willard had received the Frederick Chandler Award by Columbia University for his "dynamic and successful leadership of the American Chemical industry.

Dow "always seemed able to come up with the right formula at the right time!" Chemistry became magic for him.

Sorcerer or conjurer, Willard could bend chemistry's laws to his will. And in 1943, he produced synthetic rubber and plastics for the first time. In 1944, he was honoured by the American Institute of Chemistry when they bestowed their annual Gold Award on him.

Times were never better for Willard, and his family. Youngish looking and sharp, he was known and loved by thousands of men, from his various plants all across North America. Employees, he had grown to know personally, through the years.

Maybe millions of people worldwide didn't know who Willard was, but those very millions used dozens of his products on a daily basis. Products, that had been produced, by his incredible ingenuity.

On March 31, 1949, at about 9:10 am Willard, his wife Martha, Calvin Campbell , head of Dow's legal department, Calvin's wife, AJ Bowie, the pilot and Fred Clements, the co-pilot, took off from an airport near Midland, Michigan where Dow Chemical had made its headquarters, and where they all lived.

Only one of them would ever see Midland again.

Onboard, the mood was festive. The world was waiting for Winston's latest pronouncement. And the Dow women had risen to the occasion by being decked out in their very finest. Extravagant jewellery few mortals had ever seen, let alone owned, and wore, were soon to be appreciated by Boston society's elite, and the numerous international attendees.

Yes, soon the Dow representatives would be rubbing shoulders with other dignitaries, and notables, in Boston, and there with "Winnie", reflecting on, and enjoying those recent hard won freedoms, that had emerged for the world from the bloody battlefields of World War II.

Or so they thought.

Dow chemical's Beech 18 had been flying for a little over an hour, uneventfully, and had already flown past London, Ontario, vectoring its way towards Boston, at a steady pace of 175 mph. And that's just when trouble began.

A garbled message came over the radio at the London Airport.

It was from the Dow airplane.

The Dow Chemical Corporation's Beech 18 had turned back! It was seeking the safety of London.

It was now speedily heading west, back, toward London Airport for an emergency landing!!


TO BE CONTINUED.



© 2009 Paul Cardin - Special Projects in Research