ALL! …that remains :::...

ALL that remains…

… of our beloved Arrows.

Arrow 206.

Arrow 206 NEVER flew.

But of all the completed Arrows… she was the ONLY ONE fitted with those MIGHTY and now LEGENDARY, Canadian, ORENDA IROQUOIS engines.

And Arrow 206 was just hours away from her maiden flight when AVRO received the government’s senseless order to destroy HER and all other existing Arrows!

Just HOW MANY Arrows were scrapped?

27.

TEN complete Arrows.

Seventeen in various stages of completion, with parts in existence to complete each one.

HERE SHE IS, 206, forever perched above the admiring crowds at the Canadian Aviation Museum, formerly RCAF Station Rockcliffe (where I was born, incidentally).

A beautiful, and silent, songbird from that era in Canadian history when Canadians could achieve anything… just because we wanted to.

MADE IN TORONTO.

MADE IN CANADA.

And in 1959… there was nothin’ better.

Anywhere.

♫ ♫ LAMENT our lost Arrows ~
‘nuff said–

2 MILLION DOLLAR Giveaway!!

SPOTTED at 12:02am on Mississauga Road NEW YEARS DAY… returning from house reno.

This wrapped 2 MILLION DOLLAR wing left UNATTENDED at MHI Aerospace in Mississauga across from Microsoft Canada’s Head Office.

I thought to myself… THAT CAN’T be a wing… just left there.

It was.

As you can see…

U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e.

NOT Serni’s Forest ~

NOT Serni’s Forest ~

THERE ARE no tanks in Serni’s forest.

And there are A LOT of tanks here! From around the world. From WW I, to the present.

Where?

Major-General F.F. Worthington Memorial Park.

CFB Borden.

Worthington, “Worthy”, “FF” was Canada’s “General Patton”.

Shortly after WW I, F.F. became convinced that ARMOUR was the way to go for the Royal Canadian Army.

And he wouldn’t shut up about it.

So, finally, in 1936, F.F. was commanded to set up, organize, and command the Canadian Tank School at London, Ontario. Within two short years the whole facility was moved to Camp Borden, near Angus, Ontario. The CANADIAN ARMY needed to scale-up… as the threat to the Commonwealth, now poised by Herr Hitler and his relentless Nazism was quickly emerging on the British horizon.

So… a second command came to FF in 1940.

This time he was ordered to organize, command and TAKE OVERSEAS the 1st Army Tank Brigade and the 4th Canadian Armoured Division. No small feat, but Worthy rose to the occasion.

By 1944, FF was back at Camp Borden overseeing multitudinous base operations.

And when FF, the “Father of the Canadian Armoured Corps” died in 1967 he returned to Camp Borden one last time. To be buried.

His wife eventually joined him there.

Major-General Worthington Memorial Park, where FF and his lifelong love are entombed is indeed consecrated ground, and DND describes it as “a place for quiet reflection”.

Worthy’s son is the notable newspaper journalist, and founding editor of the Toronto Sun, Peter Worthington.

The WAR YEARS were heady days both for Major-General Worthington and my dad. One man was capping off a career, another, only beginning.

On a personal note… when I was 17, my dad took me to see the legendary Camp Borden.

It’s where he initially trained when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, way back in 1938. And so, in the late 70s, with his mind starting to fail from that affliction of Alzheimer’s, a father quietly returns, to places known, and significant, wanting to share his past with a son… while there was still time.

CAMP BORDEN will always be a wondrous, and enchanted place for me.

In 2008,

PEACE ON EARTH!! To All People of Good Will!!

Stowaway ≈

FEATURED ON the front cover of Popular Mechanics in the early 90s as the Bede BD-10.

The AFFORDABLE and PERSONAL jet was to be mass produced so everyone could afford one at $400, 000 USD.

Something went wrong.

Only 5 were made.

Three have since crashed.

Two left.

This one was/ is at the TORONTO AEROSPACE MUSEUM.

MONITOR JET of Canada bought the military rights, and this jet. It was TO BE equipped with the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT-15D engine. Note the JT-15D engine appears on an engine stand to the left of the aircraft.

PORTUGAL showed some interest in acquiring the military version of this jet.

It never went any further.

DAVID J. CARLAW of the Canadian Flying Machine Museum (Cambellford, Ontario) recently purchased this rare piece of Canadian and world aviation history.

SEE the BEDE 10 in flight: www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Q8O3B1aWM&feature=related

::: the Curse of Dave Keon..::

THE CURSE of DAVE KEON is why the Toronto Maple Leafs WILL NEVER win another Stanley Cup.

INSET CLOSE-UP: There’s “Davey” smilin’, and laughin’, lookin’ out onto the streets of Toronto from the Hockey Hall of Fame.

It's important to note that the "curse" was never pronounced onto the Toronto Maple Leafs by Dave Keon himself, but was incurred by the TLM organization through their scandalous and callous treatment of the star.

HAROLD BALLARD, then the owner of the Leafs, publicly criticized Dave's leadership in the 74/75 season and vowed never again to agree to Keon's no-trade clause. When Keon's contract came up for renewal at year's end, Ballard made it clear Keon was done as a Leaf. Ballard, who controlled Keon's NHL rights, told Keon to try to sign with another NHL team, but then set Keon's compensation price so high that no other team would sign him. Keon then jumped to the WHA to escape the wrath of Ballard.

You simply can’t mistreat a class act, like DAVE KEON gloriously was back in the day, and expect to move forward as an individual, or as an organization without incurring some sort of penalty. Offense demands recompense.

Toronto won 4 Stanley Cups because of this guy!

The LEAFS ORGANIZATION needs to satisfy, and apologize for Keon’s 1975 trade and for their shameful public and covert treatment of the Leaf's brightest star.

Dave NEVER WANTED to leave Toronto and he never should have been traded. He was always a Leaf in his heart.

Recently, sports writers and hockey fans were polled and only one question was asked.

WHO was the best Toronto Maple Leaf of all time?

The result floored even the author… who then turned the question into a book.

Dave Keon.

He was and will always be the quintessential Leaf.

SOME people think Dave "should get over it". Nope.

He's bitter because he was denied and publicly shamed. And if he had received a formal and public apology NOW from TLM… he might… MIGHT… be able to let it go…

When, or if, the Toronto Maple Leafs ever respect themselves as an organization… they'll stop with the half-way measures like those earlier this year, and give Keon what he wants.

FOR STARTERS retire NUMBER 14.

At least the Hockey Hall of Fame got it right–

I'm with ya Davey… when you left, I never watched another Leaf game again.

Long live THE CURSE!!!

The Way We Were ::: 1914 ::: CANADA

That’s the Sanyo blimp moored at Toronto Island Airport at the farthest point of the southwest side, near Hanlon’s Point.

A couple of years ago.

Not 200 feet from…THAT SPOT where once stood a baseball stadium.

AND IN 1914 when everyone was watching… BABE RUTH hit his FIRST professional HOME RUN into the waters of Lake Ontario!

The ball landed in these very waters, shown in the picture before you!!

The historical baseball WAS NEVER found.

A PLAQUE memorializes the incident on Toronto Island.

The Way We Were ::: 1940 ::: CANADA

PORTER AIRLINES and the BOMBARDIER “Mighty” Q 400 are the principal Toronto Island Airport residents today (as seen above).

But it wasn’t always so.

No?

No.

By April of 1940, the Nazis had invaded NORWAY.

Already anticipating being attacked at some point, Norway had ordered dozens of American aircraft to help in their resistance to Herr Hitler and his eventual blitzkrieg. Some of these aircraft arrived, but were in crates at a Norwegian shipyard when the Nazi onslaught began. Other aircraft were assembled, but not armed or tested.

The unfortified Royal Norwegian Air Force took to the air anyway.

Against a vastly superior German Luftwaffe, and against all odds, the Norwegians engaged their enemy in the skies above their beloved homeland. Surprisingly, the Royal Norwegian Air Force took out as many aircraft, as they initially lost to the Nazis!

But the writing was already on the wall.

And so abruptly, thereafter in June, just two months later the Norwegian royalty fled the country, and made their way safely to England.

And the Royal Norwegian Air Force, with nowhere else to go to train their countrymen, their future fighter and bomber pilots… came thus to Canada.

Toronto.

Toronto Island Airport, which had only opened in 1939 as the “forgettable” Port George VI Airfield, was now turned over to the Norwegians and the RCAF went to Camp Borden.

By November of 1940, Toronto’s “Little Norway” was opened for “business” and had dispatched its first all-Norwegian fighter squadron alongside a fully trained ground crew, to England, in June 1941.

Government of Norway aircraft orders placed with American aircraft factories such as Fairchild, Curtiss, Douglas and Northrop before the fall of Norway were immediately diverted, and delivered to Toronto Island’s newest residents.

LITTLE NORWAY turned out a steady stream of Norwegian ground and aircrews who returned to Europe to fight and successfully distinguished themselves alongside their Allied compatriots.

By 1942, a second ground crew and aircrew training camp was opened in Gravenhurst, Ontario at the Muskoka Airport to accommodate the increasing Norwegian war effort.

© 2007 Special Projects IR
© 2007 Paul Cardin

::... MUMS the Word ::..:.

CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE: One question.

Everyone wants to know.

When. Will. She. Fly?


Duane at the controls…

The Lysander, pictured above, was made in Toronto in 1942 and was one of the 225 that were made in Canada, at Malton. Only 1660 in total were built worldwide.

A LYSANDER can take-off or land in 300 feet! Very handy to drop off spies!!

The Lysander’s unique wing trailing edge flap and leading edge slat arrangement is a precursor to those highly complicated computer-controlled systems that are standard on virtually every high performance commercial and military aircraft today. At the time of its introduction, however, it was unheard of.

The camouflage paint scheme represents an aircraft of No. 400 Squadron "City of Toronto" This "Lizzie" was used as a target tug during World War II. (CWH)

© 2007 Special Projects IR
© 2007 Paul Cardin

CFL Eastern Final 2007

… this photographer gets a kiss unexpectedly from a Toronto Blue Thunder cheerleader.

CFL Eastern Final… the ONLY bright spot… the cheerleaders.

HEY TORONTO where was your running game?

… that victor's week off… killed your momentum ~

BUT AT LEAST the babes came out to support the Argoooooooosssssss!

(hey give me back my zoom)


© 2007 Special Projects IR
© 2007 Paul Cardin

PINBALL ::: The Real Mayor of Toronto

Get rid of David (dud) Miller as mayor of TO; this is the guy Torontonians SHOULD HAVE.

Pinball" has already told us he won't be a career coach for the Argos.

Pinball, it's time…

Your city needs you!

C' mon, who do you want to represent Toronto… looking forward?

Who would be THE better ambassador FOR Toronto?

Pinball… HANDS DOWN!!

© 2007 Special Projects IR
© 2007 Paul Cardin

We Are the Dead…

(published on Flickr, November 11, 2007)

WE ARE the Dead…

…short days ago…

One of the dead, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, MD.

The man.

The life.

His ultimate sacrifice.

The poem as it appeared, anonymously, in Punch, December 08, 1915.

To fill out the bottom corner of a page.

It was expected to be read and forgotten and disappear like most of Punch’s stuff…

Only it didn’t.

It “spoke” to so many… from every walk of life, all who had been touched by his words, and whose lives had already been, forever altered, by war.

So many…… never came back.

We must remember them. And thank them.

By our lives.

By the defense of our freedom and our ally’s freedom. Whenever that call comes.

Right now, Canadians are being called to support Afghanistan, in her quest to maintain her shaky democracy.

Already, seventy-one Canadians have given their lives for Afghanistan… for her to remain free.

Rest in peace, heroes… past and present.

more about… LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN McCRAE, MD
Physician, surgeon, medical author, sketch artist, WW I soldier and unlikely poet.

Even more unlikely– a Canadian.

John was not a peacekeeper.

John is forever remembered NOT for the lives he saved as a doctor and field surgeon, nor for the battles he fought as a Second Boer War and WW I soldier, BUT FOR his reflections on war and the necessity of maintaining our religious and cultural freedom, in keeping that faith, especially with those who have given their ultimate sacrifice to that very end.

Colonel John McCrae, from a WW I trench wrote, “In Flanders Fields” on a scrap of paper, upon the back of Colonel Cosgrave during a “recess” from the bombings. The inspiration for his sombre and reflective poem came after John attended the burial of a friend, and former student of his, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer.

John didn't like the poem and tossed it out. Another officer however "rescued" it and submitted it to Punch for publication. "In Flanders Fields" was published anonymously, on December 8th in 1915, about halfway through the war. McCrae's poem became famous “instantly”, and thus his identity was soon discovered.

"Demanding the highest possible standards of service to sick and wounded soldiers, McCrae insisted on living in a tent like his comrades at the front and had to be ordered to the heated huts when the winter badly affected his health. He felt the war intensely, watching its changes reflected daily in the barometer of the many casualties reaching the hospital."

SADLY John, a life-long asthma sufferer, would succumb to pneumonia while in command of No3 Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne, France only ten months before World War I would end on November 11, 1918.

"He would have broken faith had he lived while so many died."

John was happy with the poem’s success if, "the poem enabled men to see where their duty lay."

C.L.C. Allinson reported that McCrae "most unmilitarily told [me] what he thought of being transferred to the medicals and being pulled away from his "beloved" [artillery] guns. His last words to me were:

'Allinson, all the damn doctors in the world will not win this bloody war: what we need is more and more fighting men.'"

© John F. Prescott
© 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval
© 2007 Special Projects IR
© 2007 Paul Cardin

––– The Mummer's Flight ––

“Participate in and protect democracy. It does not thrive as a spectator sport.”
Loreena McKennitt,
Canadian Celtic singer

“The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days”

The Mummer's Dance, Loreena McKennitt

::: MADE IN Toronto. Again!

There’s one thing that I’ve learned about Canadians.

WE HATE losing.

In hockey… or in AVRO Arrows.

I must again lament the loss of the Arrow… because it is in so DEEPLY INGRAINED in the Canadian psyche. In the psyche of Canadians that matter, that is.

NOW CANADIANS, instead of lamenting (with Kleenex in hand) over picture books of a plane that ONCE WAS… it’s not too late to tell the story of the Arrow to your son, this time with the Arrow right behind you!

Where will you find an ARROW?

Well, at the Toronto Aerospace Museum.

Life-size, and in all its’ regalia (day-glo colour scheme) ~

But we’re Canadians, so the story can’t end there!

We need to come full-circle; we need a flying version.

So a 2/3 scale Arrow is being built, right now, in Alberta.

And so, the Arrow WILL TAKE to the skies yet again.

AND A government that tried to erase the Arrow (OUR SYMBOL of advanced technological achievement, and of a “little” country that could) from our Canadian conscience forever, ultimately, failed, In the end.

Yes, THERE WAS an Arrow, there is an Arrow… in fact, damn it… ARROWS are springing up all over the country.

‘nuff said ~


But jus’ so you don’t think the AVRO Arrow was any ole’ plane… here are:

CF-105 AVRO Arrow “FIRSTS and NOTABLES”

• First a/c designed with digital computers being used for both aerodynamic analysis and designing the structural matrix (and a whole lot more).
• First a/c design to have major components machined by CNC (computer numeric control); i.e., from electronic data which controlled the machine.
• First a/c to be developed using an early form of "computational fluid dynamics" with an integrated "lifting body" type of theory rather than the typical (and obsolete) "blade element" theory.
• First a/c to have marginal stability designed into the pitch axis for better maneuverability, speed and altitude performance.
• First a/c to have negative stability designed into the yaw axis to save weight and cut drag, also boosting performance.
• First a/c to fly on an electronic signal from the stick and pedals. i.e., first fly-by-wire a/c.
• First a/c to fly with fly by wire AND artificial feedback (feel). Not even the first F-16's had this.
• First a/c designed to be data-link flyable from the ground.
• First a/c designed with integrated navigation, weapons release, automatic search and track radar, datalink inputs, home-on-jamming, infrared detection, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures operating through a DIGITAL brain.
• First high wing jet fighter that made the entire upper surface a lifting body. The F-15, F-22, Su-27 etc., MiG-29, MiG 25 and others certainly used that idea.
• First sophisticated bleed-bypass system for both intake AND engine/exhaust. Everybody uses that now.
• First by-pass engine design. (all current fighters have by-pass engines).
• First combination of the last two points with an "ejector" nozzle that used the bypass air to create thrust at the exhaust nozzle while also improving intake flow. The F-106 didn't even have a nozzle, just a pipe.
• Use of Titanium for significant portions of the aircraft structure and engine.
• Use of composites (not the first, but they made thoughtful use of them and were researching and engineering new ones).
• Use of a drooped leading edge and aerodynamic "twist" on the wing.
• Use of engines at the rear to allow both a lighter structure and significant payload at the centre of gravity. Everybody copied that.
• Use of a LONG internal weapons bay to allow carriage of specialized, long-range standoff and cruise missiles. (not copied yet really)
• Integration of ground-mapping radar and the radar altimeter plus flight control system to allow a seriousstrike/reconnaissance role. The first to propose an aircraft be equally adept at those roles while being THE air-superiority fighter at the same time. (Few have even tried to copy that, although the F-15E is an interesting exception.)
• First missile armed a/c to have a combat weight thrust to weight ratio approaching 1 to 1. Few have been able to copy that.
• First flying 4,000 psi hydraulic system to allow lighter and smaller components.
• First oxygen-injection re-light system.
• First engine to have only two main bearing assemblies on a two-shaft design.
• First to use a variable stator on a two-shaft engine.
• First use of a trans-sonic first compressor stage on a turbojet engine.
• First "hot-streak" type of afterburner ignition.
• First engine to use only 10 compressor sections in a two-shaft design. (The competition was using 17!!)

The Avro Arrow was one of Canada's finest aviation achievements, even though it never entered service.

© www.AvroArrow.org
© www.globalaircraft.org
© Special Projects In Research

Republican IN HIDING?

< Change YOUR LOGO >

…change your luck.

And not for the better.

The "ARRRRGGGGGGOOSSSSSS!!!" suck this year.

So I thought I would show a picture of better times (2001)… although, not much better.

Yup, the Argos won THREE Grey Cups with the “Jason” logo (the bold Argonaut shielded warrior) pictured above, but this year they decided to change up.

Bad idea.

THERE IS just too much history, and success, with ole’ Jason. Everyone who matters, still remembers those Flutie years!

8-7 is a long way from 15-3 and the dominance of "Flutie Magic".

Strangely enough, the 2007 logo looks an awful lot like the Argos logo that the now head coach "Pinball" Clemons donned on his uniform, as a running back, way back when he first started with the Argos back in 1989.

That’s Jimmy Kemp running the play as QB, fillin’ in for an injured Kerwin Bell in 2001. The Argos just didn’t offer Kemp enough money to start, in 2002, so he didn’t return.

That said… we’re sure Jimmy is doin’ alright, even though he "passed" on the QB oppertunity of 2002. Jimmy's dad is none-other-than JACK KEMP, who was the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in 1996, on the Bob Dole ticket. Jack Kemp was the one who wrote that now famous memo to Ronald Reagan, back in 1980, outlining an economic plan that became the foundation for REAGANOMICS.

Before politics, Jack was also a QB (like father, like son) for the Buffalo Bills from 1963 – 1969 and was finally inducted into the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame in 1984.

Though the internet is silent… I expect Jimmy is still being mentored by his dad… and if the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree… he'll enter politics at some point.

The Way We Are ::: 2007 ::: CANADA

HERCULES practicing "touch n' goes" at an undisclosed Ontario location.

REMEMBER: Support Our Forces!

The CANADIAN FORCES / FORCES CANADIENNES are CURRENTLY serving your country, and the needs of the world community by operating in:

Afghanistan

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Darfur

Central Sudan

Golan Heights

Sinai

Jerusalem

Cyprus

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Sierra Leone

Tampa, Florida (NATO)

The Way We Were ::: 1939 ::: CANADA

The Way We Were ::: 1939 ::: CANADA

On September 3rd, Britain, France, Holland, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany.

On September 4th, Britain's Royal Air Force began its first attacks on German warships.

On September 5th, the United States of America made an announcement declaring its neutrality.

On September 9th, it was learned that two Canadian women were on the unarmed ocean liner, SS Athenia," which had been sunk by German U-boats.

On September 10th, CANADA declared war on Germany independently of the British Commonwealth declaration.

TWO INNOCENT Canadian women died… and IMMEDIATELY the whole country rallied for war.

Wow…how times have changed!

Waffle… waffle… waffle…

Afghanistan… should we stay… should we go… heck only 24 INNOCENT CANADIANS died in 9/11. Remember an Afghan Taliban government that supported al-Qaeda in those years, and also gave those murderers safe harbour!

ANYWAYS…back to 1939, when men were still men…and we didn’t have politicians like Liberal Michael Ignatieff who called the Canadian 9/11 victim’s families “a sideshow”.

Then again the Liberals are more likely to care about Taliban detainees… than about Canadian soldiers, the Canadian victims of 9/11, or furthering democracy worldwide.

CANADIAN 9/11 victim MAUREEN BASNICKI responded to “Iggy” (who never did apologize, by the way) on a talk show that aired on February 27, 2007.

“Sideshow? I was a victim of terrorism. My husband was murdered.”

Our heartfelt condolences for your loss, Maureen, and additionally our condolences for the embarrassing response of the Chrétien Liberals who were masquerading as our Federal government back then…

Again…back to 1939, when men were still men…

Well, we had to start our war somewhere back then.

So Canada, and the RCAF, started it with the Bristol Bolingbroke!

The Bristol-developed Blenheim IV was “adopted” by the RCAF for coastal reconnaissance in 1939. The "Boly" was produced, as the Bolingbroke, in Canada, until 1943, under license by Fairchild Aircraft Ltd. then located in Longueuil, Quebec.

THE FIRST BOLINGBROKE entered service with the Royal Canadian Air Force in November of 1939.

Patrols were flown on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and a Bolingbroke became involved in the first successful RCAF attack of a Japanese submarine (R032) on July 7, 1942. This Japanese sub was sunk with the assistance of the US Navy on Canada's Pacific Coast. And those BC folk thought they were so safe!

BOLINGBROKES served throughout the war as bombing and gunnery trainers, and as target tugs in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Production of this aircraft, with its then modern, stressed skin design, initially caused some difficulty for our Canadian workers, who previously had no experience with this particular type of construction.

A total of 676 Bolingbrokes were eventually built, in seven different variations.

And now, again we’re…

Going. For. Broke.

But we’re only trying to build ONE this time!

The work on this Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum Bolingbroke continues slowly. Sections of the aircraft are in various stages of completion and in particular the Museum needs engines for her “Boly” !!

Pratt & Whitney, SB-4G, R-1535, 14 cylinder twin Wasp Juniors to be exact–

Only 15 Bolingbrokes were built with these engines, and all were flown by the “City of Hamilton” Squadron.

If you have these engines, or anything Bolingbroke related, and/or a generous heart, contact the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at (905) 679-4183.

“We want our Boly… We want our Boly… We want our Boly…finished!”

Where the hell are all the corporate sponsors for this historical, and most worthy project? !!!

INSET images were taken from the 1945 movie, “Son of Lassie” starring Peter Lawford with a young June Lockhart (future Lost In Space mom)… and all are Canadian Bolingbrokes, of course!

In the middle: The Canadian Warplane Heritage "Boly" goes "visiting" on the back of a trailer.

‘nuff said.

© CAM
© CWH
© Wikipedia
© Special Projects IR
© Warner Brothers and Turner Entertainment

a NEW PUPPY for…

…Air Canada.

Only 7 months old, this is the FIRST REAL photo I've taken of Air Canada's newest "puppy".

It's BIG.

AIR CANADA is the very FIRST OPERATOR of the next generation (300 series) 777s on the North American continent.

The TWO MASSIVE GE90-115B engines which power this Air Canada "beast" are the LARGEST AIRCRAFT ENGINES in the world.

And since we're talking about Air Canada…when the Boeing Dreamliner 787 comes out in 2010, Air Canada will be the largest operator of the Dreamliner in North America with 60 on order, and the second largest operator of the Dreamliner in the world next to Qantas.

With these significant Boeing purchases, Air Canada's "love affair" with Airbus is "officially" over.

AIR CANADA has gone through different aircraft purchase stages. The DOUGLAS and Vickers stage, followed by the Airbus and Canadair stage and now the Boeing and Embraer stage.

"You and I" were meant to fly, so sings CD.


HOW TO RECOGNIZE an Air Canada 777

1) Massive size with a thin sharklike tail

2) Only in UGLY "toothpaste" livery colours

3) Two HUGE engines

4) Rear bogies… 3 sets of two wheels

'nuff said ~

(partial source: Wikipedia)

(All Flickr "pieces" processed in Streetsville.)

:: The NEW Chapter .::..

…in America's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program… the Raptor!

You MIGHT be TOO CLOSE…when you're the same distance from the lampost… as the photographer!

The 5th generation of STEALH TECHNOLOGY has arrived, high above the skies of dormant Toronto!!

At $137.5 million USD each these "babies" are pricy but man can they fly! RAPTORS use thrust vectoring nozzle technology for incredible manoeurability, jamming technology to prevent counter-attack weapon "lock-ons" and strike their targets "sight" unseen.

The Congress of the United States has decided that the Raptor will never be sold internationally, to anybody, so Canada will never have any.

BUT WE WILL have some of these, which Canada is currently co-developing with the USA and several other Allied nations… the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35.

Didya Know?

In the 2007 movie the Transformers, the Decepticon known as Starscream is an F-22.

In April of 2006, an F-22 pilot became trapped in his aircraft due to the canopy getting stuck. When all else failed he had to be cut out by fire department personnel.

The canopy was replaced.

…… and the cost?

A cool $182,205 USD, folks!

The Way We Were ::: 1959 - 1969 ::: CANADA

AVRO comes to Georgetown!

… so, so, long ago now… and only for a time.

A quick decade.

Then AVRO Canada… the Georgetown chapter, was closed.

EMPIRES, like people, usually die by degrees…not all at once…or suddenly.
The mortally wounded often falter at first, try to regain their footing… their balance… pick themselves up and carry on, until…

… it becomes obvious to everyone, more especially to themselves, that the “death blow” has been dealt, and they shall succumb.

And it is now quite apparent that AVRO CANADA’s “last gasp” was indeed in Georgetown, Ontario.

BECAUSE HERE, in Halton Hills… that AVRO Canada mantra and attitude… ”that we can do anything we put our minds to” was still alive and being freshly channeled into the newly formed AVIAN AIRCRAFT Ltd. company of 1959. AVIAN was created and “birthed” into existence by a dozen former AVRO Canada engineers and employees.

Speedboats, and refrigerators were then being made at the then-diminished AVRO Canada Malton facility… in an attempt to keep the company afloat… in some capacity…but the innovative AVRO “spirit” now, realistically, remained only in Georgetown, Ontario at Avian.

And no, Avian didn’t create another C-102 Jetliner… the first commercial jetliner to be designed, created and flown in North and South America.

And no, they didn’t create a world-class supersonic, stratospheric, interceptor like the AVRO ARROW.

Or even another FLYING SAUCER.

They headed off in an entirely new direction.

They created a GYROPLANE.

The Avian 2/180 Gyroplane, specifically.

Say what??!!

Now I won’t say a lot here…but I will say it is an aviation story that needs to be told.

Special Projects IR is waiting to acquire all the necessary and pertinent info related to Avian… to tell the “tale” ~

BUT YOU can see the flying GYRO “beast” above an August 2007 photo of the building that was built for, and once housed AVIAN, but is now an auto-collision facility!

The AVIAN Gyroplane certification prototype first flew in November of 1965.

SPECIAL THANKS to Dawn Livingstone and Mark Rowe, of the Esquesing Historical Society, for their assistance.

© 2007 Dawn Livingstone
© 2007 Special Projects IR
© 2007 Paul Cardin
© 1969 – 2007 Avian Aircraft Ltd

Good Intentions

SURE… SOMEBODY… at some time… had tried to preserve this Harvard… save it from the ravages of those brutal Canadian winters, but…

Good intentions are just that.

We need follow-through…

The eagerness was there in the beginning, but then fizzle…fizzle…the protective wrap gets pulled away, exposing the airplane… and no one ever returns to make the necessary adjustment.

Not unlike BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE, and her idyllic song, "Universal Soldier".

A great song, performed best by her, for all time… but we need to make the adjustment for today, Buffy. We need to make your song relevant, again.

Some of the unconditional peaceniks have paraded this song out, as of late, and you know folks it just doesn't really apply.

Her song FALSELY PRESUMES and calls all soldiers to just stop fighting… and then the whole world would be at peace.

Good intentions Buffy… but we need universal follow-through in this, the age of NEW WAR, because one crazy side just won't stop fighting.

And nobody sane, really wants war… let's be perfectly clear on that… but we also don’t want peace at any price either.

Like at the cost of our freedom. I want to attend church openly, not as the Islamists would have it.

And if there ever is a peace… it will be negotiated on our Western terms.

And the soldiers were never the problem, Buffy.

When you performed this ballad of peace Buffy, in 1970, at the very height of the Cold War, all we had to worry about then was– the Soviet Union.

But Russia always had a keen eye to self-preservation too, and that was a huge advantage for the "dove". The USSR knew that if they dropped the “bomb” on us, our retaliation would be swift, and severe.

And vice-versa, of course.

Not a perfect system, mind you, but one with built-in “checks and balances”.

And so no attacks ever came.

Now today there is an "element" in the world that doesn’t care about self-preservation.

It only cares about attacking, maiming and destroying our freedom, and our way of life… at any cost.

And the attacks have come… and will continue to come our way.

Whether here, or over there.

And we need to root out these enemies of mankind, these “elements”, wherever they may be, and annihilate them.

And they aren’t just going to go away!

And Buffy, well… you need to update your song… change around some of the lyrics, bang it up a bit, and newly entitle it, “The Universal Terrorist”.

Please make your WORTHY APPEAL to that very deluded segment, tell those rabid dogs to unstrap their bombs and to refuse to co-operate with their lost, fanatical, leaders.

Yes… remake your song relevant for today ~

Relevant from yesteryear, here’s Buffy Sainte-Marie’s POWERFUL, LIVE PERFORMANCE, on the music scene, in 1970.