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.

Salute! The IRREPRESSIBLE P-51!!

…makes it's appearance at FLYFEST 2007.

FLIGHT 621: Same Story…

…different year.

There’s someone’s SKULL BONE piece, emerging from the ground, in July of 2007.

From Flight 621.

Their partial skeletal remains, just left there, year-in-year-out to bake in the sun in a Brampton field…located in in the now forgotten Toronto-Gore Township.

37 years ago today, Flight 621 slammed into the ground, killing all 109 passengers and crew.

Flight 621 In Memorium

Adams, Celine Fradette
Adams, Pierre J
Beaudin, Gaetan
Belanger, Mrs.
Belanger, Jacques
Belanger, Jean
Belanger, Roland
Belanger, Rosanne
Benson, Helen
Benson, Leonard
Benson, Mary
Benson, Richard
Bertrand, Ginette
Boosamra, Lynn
Boulanger, Guy
Bradshaw, Dollie
Cedilot, Robert J
Chapdeleine, Jeannine
Chapdeleine, Joanne
Chapdeleine, Mario
Charent, Jean Maurice
Clarke, Devona Olivia
Cote, Francine
Daoust, Yolande
Desmarais, Brigitte
Desmarais, G
Dicaire, Alice (Marie)
Dicaire, Gilles
Dicaire, Linda
Dicaire, Luke
Dicaire, Mark
Dion, Suzanne
Dore, Jacqueline
Earle, Lewella
Earle, Linda
Filippone, Francesco
Filippone, Linda
Filippone, Marie
Gee, Bernard
Goulet, Denise M
Grenier, Madeleine

Growse, Jane
Growse, Roger
Hamilton, Karen E
Hamilton, Peter Cameron
Herrmann, Ronald Alvin
Hill, Harry Gordon
Holiday, Claude
Houston, Irene Margaret
Houston, Wesley
Jakobsen, Vagn Aage
Labont, Gilles
Leclaire, Marie Rose
Leclaire, Oscar
Leduc, Henri W
Lepage, Claudette
Mailhiot, Claire Gagnon
Mailhiot, Gerald Bernard
Maitz, Gustave
Maitz, Karoline
McKettrick, Winnifred
McTague, John
Medizza, Carla
Mohammed, Dolly
Molino, Antonio
Molino, Michael (Michel)
Moore, Frederick T
Partridge, Andrea
Partridge, Carnie (Carnis) Ann
Partridge, Cyril Wayne
Phillips, Kenneth William
Poirier, Rita
Raymond, Gilles
Raymond, Martial
Robert, Aline
Robert, Georges E
Robidoux, Lionel
Rowland, Donald
Silverberg, Marci
Silverberg, Merle
Silverberg, Steven
Simon, Istvan
Simon, Mark
Smith, Dwight Lee
St. Laurent, Blanche
Stepping, Glenn Thomas
Sultan, Celia
Sultan, Jerald. M
Sultan, Robert. L
Szpakowicz, Borys
Szpakowicz, Serge
Tielens, Carmen
Tielens, Frederick
Tournovits, George
Tournovits, Soula (Athanasia)
Weinberg, Carla
Weinberg, S
Weinberg, Wendy
Whittingham, Jennifer
Whittingham, John
Whittingham, Reginald
Whybro, Mary Baker
Wieczorek, Hildegund
Witmer, Edgar
Wong, Ngar-Quon
Wong, Suzie
Wong, Wong (Mansing)
Woodward, Dallas J

FOR MORE on this UNBELIEVABLE STORY in our day, and age, see:
FLIGHT 621

And THE CROWDS Did Come…

……for the Vickers Vimy. Even a Sopwith Camel showed up.

IT'S HARD to believe, but I did see a former high school teacher (Streetsville Secondary School) at this event.

Not right away……but later, when I was looking over my photos!

Ain't life strange~

:: The MIGHTY Iroquois ::..

CANADIANS look at the handiwork of your Federal Government in the 50s!

Although Dassault Mirage had already ordered 300 of these SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE Orenda Iroquois Engines (pictured above) your imperious government ordered the cancellation of this incredible order!

An additional, malicious, governmental directive was given to the RCAF to destroy all engines, manufacturing molds, existing parts and blueprints for the Iroquois!!

If you look closely, you’ll see where two blowtorch holes were cut into this side of the engine, to render it useless forever.

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, where this engine now resides, has faithfully restored the Iroquois to its former glory and Plexiglas has been placed over the cutter’s holes to preserve this dark moment in Canada’s aviation history.

This engine was to be scrapped at the time…but someone secretly it shipped off to Hamilton Airport in 1959 when it was still RCAF Station: Mount Hope. And somehow, through the years, it remained hidden until the early 80s when someone decided to see what was in those “damn” containers over by the fence.

To everyone’s horror…it turned out to be two MIGHTY IROQUOIS!

The other Iroquois was acquired by the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa.

Technology acquired from the Orenda Iroquois helped advance jet engine development for all time, and was made in right in Toronto, at Orenda, which is now Magellan Aerospace on Derry Rd.

The GLORIOUS PAST Flies Overhead…

…and THE MOB below is oblivious.

“Why would you write such a thing?” asks Barb, incredulous that I toss out ANOTHER INSULT…kinda like some folk toss about footballs.

TOO MANY people today have forgotten the sacrifices of the past…and don’t recognize the sacrifices of today that PATRIOT CANADIANS have always made…and will always make to keep…“the True North strong and free!”

And let’s not forget the prayer found in our national anthem,

“God keep our land,
Glorious and free!"

AMEN to that–

"BLAST" From Canada's…

…aviation PAST!

This is a de Havilland Grumman CP-121 Tracker!

Yup…de Haviland, not just Grumman!!

ALL 101 CANADIAN Trackers were built in Toronto, at de Havilland (now Bombardier Aerospace) and were a foot-and-a-half shorter than all other Trackers manufactured for the Americans, British, Aussies, etc.

Betcha' didn't know that.

Originally produced for the Canadian Navy, and the HMCS Bonaventure (Canada's aircraft carrier) for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW)…all Canadian Trackers were made a "tad" smaller to fit on our very STOL aircraft carrier with its small hangar bays.

507 rests contentedly here at CFB Borden near ANGUS, Ontario…not far from the largest FRESH WATER beach in the world.

IF YOU WANT your kids to see it all in a day…BASE BORDEN has it…aircraft…old and new…and TANKS galore from every era.

Don't say I didn't tell ya'.

FLYFEST 2007:::Hamilton

…THERE WERE some nice "birds" in the air and SOME NICE "chicks" on the ground!

AND DON'T GET ALL JUMPY…it's……jus'…Grumpy.

BEST FLYFEST 2007 quote: "Listen to the sound of that "thing" (the B-25)…it sounds like a very large, BAD-ASS motorcycle.

NEVER quite heard it put that way before…but THE ENGINES of that era actually do sound like that, very, very GUTTERAL ~

No Dam TOO FAR!

THEY'LL never understand…

THEY say they do.

But YOU KNOW they don’t.

They just haven’t had the LANC EXPERIENCE yet.

So, let’s break it down for them.

The aircraft pictured above is an AVRO LANCASTER that was built, nearby, in Toronto at Victory Aircraft.

Of the 7, 366 Lancasters (all types) built back in the day, this is the only one that still flies in North America.

That’s right…of the THOUSANDS built in Canada and Great Britain during World War II…THIS is it.

There are a few “Lancs” on static display, somewhere…but this IS the only FLYING EXAMPLE, again, over here in the Americas!

Seeing a “Lanc” start up, roll forward, head out to a runway, and then fly overhead constitutes participating in the “Lanc Experience”.

That means you have participated in History and connected “mystically” with all those others who went before us, and who “lived” that experience, and made our history, whether friend, or foe, during the war.

NOW, IF YOU WANT, you can travel to England in grand fashion, and for about $2,700 CDN per person (all expenses paid) you can “get” the “Lanc Experience” over there, and see the ONLY OTHER flying Lancaster in the world.

Or, for a couple of tablespoons of gas, and $10 per person you can travel on over to Hamilton, Mount Hope specifically, to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on this June 16th or the 17th, and get your “experience” there!

So when veterans recount war tales, or WW II is discussed, in books, newspapers and “on-line”, or you see movies like the “Dambusters” due out in 2008, you’ll have experienced personally, first hand, the sounds, sights, and smell of World War II and Bomber Command.

YOU’LL NO LONGER have “yellow canaries” flying about your head when World War II enters the discussion and you haven’t got a clue what everyone else is talking about!

You’ll know…because you’ve been there…

Mystically ~

ONE MORE thing you need to know to get the FULL “Lanc Experience”.

The Lancaster JUST ISN’T any ole’ plane out there…denuding our fragile environment and cluttering up our skies like the "horrendous" Cessna 152 does.

No.

The “Lanc” became the MOST FAMOUS and successful NIGHT BOMBER of World War II, "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties (bombing missions)." The Lancaster was also used, at times, for daylight precision bombing.

The Lancaster garnered worldwide attention in 1943 during “Operation Chastise” when she took out Germany’s most important dams. Factories as far away as forty miles were immediately flooded, and a serious shortage of water occurred. This severely crippled the German “war machine” at the time.

Other Facts YOU NEED to know:

• B X version of the Lancaster: The B X (pictured above) was a Canadian-built B III, differing in having Canadian/US made instrumentation and electrics. Also on later batches, the Martin 250CE was substituted for the Nash & Thomson FN-50 mid-upper turret. The greater weight of this turret necessitated moving the turret forward for C-of-G balance reasons. Canada was a long-term operator of the Lancaster, utilizing modified aircraft in postwar maritime patrol, search and rescue and photo-reconnaissance roles until 1963.

• The test pilot Alex Henshaw is the only known pilot to have barrel rolled a Lancaster bomber, a feat considered almost impossible because of the slow speed of the aircraft.

• During the war, Lancasters carried out a total of 156,000 missions and dropped 608,612 tons of bombs. This was double what the Handley Page Halifax, the other major bomber used by the Royal Air Force achieved. In the four years of combat service 3,249 Lancasters were lost in action and another 487 were destroyed or damaged while on the ground. Only 24 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful missions.

• While only 7, 366 Avro Lancasters were made during the war…more than 30 MILLION die-cast and model Lancasters have since been purchased by an adoring public.

SOURCES: Wikipedia, Canadian Warplane Heritage, AVSIM.com, and Special Projects In Research

FIREFLY…But Not In The Garden~

♦ Fireflies in the Garden ♦

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,

That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)

Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

–Robert Frost


The FAIREY FIREFLY was most definitely a real star of WW II and the Korean War, filling enemy skies, where she served as a carrier-borne reconnaissance fighter.

The ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY acquired 65 of them for anti-submarine purposes. Detection and destruction of subs, that is.

The RCN used them from 1946 - 1954…and as it was the FIRST AIRCRAFT acquired by the Canadian Warplane Heritage…this aircraft is also featured in their logo!

'nuff said –

‘OLD LAKE:::

…this FIGHTER JET is a long, long, way…from its glory days, at Cold Lake, Alberta.

RIP at CFB Borden.

Yes…rest in peace…mighty ”T”.

ONE CONSOLATION only…the new generation flies above you, ole’ girl ~

…Jazz. –DOWN–

Yep…she's down.

WINGS…not normally "resting" on runway. Fire trucks, crane, not normally a part of airside ground services.

LATE DAY capture on Sunday May 20, 2007, of a Jazz CRJ-100, Flight AC8911, that experienced a main landing gear collapse while arriving at noontime from Moncton, N.B. Runway 06 is closed while TSB personnel are investigating the crash. Thirty-seven passengers and three crew members were not injured in the accident.

COME and Gone –

THAT’S A WW II vintage de Havilland Mosquito perched on the top of this memorial. Remember that…it’ll be important later!

SO MANY aircraft companies have come and gone…

de Havilland
Avro
Handley-Page
Hawker
Supermarine
Vickers
Fleet
English Electric
Bristol
Hunting
Gloster
Auster
Blackburn
Douglas
Consolidated
McDonnell
Hispano Aviación
Curtis
Stinson
Hughes
And who could forget the Wright Company, of course!!

And the men who made these forgotten planes, have also come…and gone.

BUT SOME have been remembered.

Right here on this very memorial.

For their heroism and their ultimate sacrifice.

IN DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE…

…some of Canada’s, de Havilland employees, gave their lives between 1939 – 1945. They are forever enshrined here, in front of the main office of BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE (Toronto), the eventual successor to the de Havilland Company of Canada.

No other remnant of the de Havilland era remains today, save this memorial, and the lone, insignia-less, de Havilland sign, which is also found above the main office.

But if you look real close, you’ll see something else, unexpected, unknown…

ONE OF THE de Havillands, themselves, gave his own life alongside that of his employees.

It wasn’t enough just to produce fighter planes for the war effort.

Even more was demanded apparently…

And no family was spared…

And no special preference was accorded him on this memorial plaque either.

And so these men, de Havilland employees, who produced the MOSQUITO FIGHTER PLANE, both in Canada and in the UK…were called additionally, to make that ultimate sacrifice of their lives…to protect the freedoms that we enjoy, and value so much in Canada today.

ILLUSTRATING in Photoshop…

…using Photoshop ACTIONS.

Start with a corrected photo and an "action" you like which you've download from Actions Central.

Unzip the PHOTOSHOP ACTION which is only a few "k" as a script or atn file, and is then "dragged and dropped" into the Photoshop Actions folder, that resides within the Photoshop CS Application. The "action" is then loaded…and the action is executed…from the ACTIONS PALETTE.

THIS WAS CREATED using Comix Actions … by Andy Purviance..

THROW AWAY the created white layer and then erase the unwanted and unnatural elements of the resulting illustration–

FUN with Photoshop!

PHOTOSHOP can do it all. Not so sure about Photoshop Elements…which has an easier user interface BUT doesn' t have the SUPERHERO power of its elder brother!

PLUS you can create a photo like this above MANUALLY and take forever…or you can employ PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS to do this "automatically".

This PHOTOSHOP ACTION is only a few "k" as a script, atn file, which is "dragged and dropped" into the Photoshop Actions folder and then loaded to be used…from the ACTIONS PALETTE.

Panos Efstathiadis created Pano's Actions …and this is BnBig Picture.

I HAVE AN Apple DUAL G5 and this "action" took about 15 minutes! IF YOU HAVE a PC…well……it may never finish!

BUGGY in a Hurry!!

…hold on to your hat, son!

IT WAS ALL so simple, back then~

==== INVASION STRIPES ===

D-DAY. Invasion of Europe. June 06, 1944

ALLIED AIRCRAFT (Canadian, American, British, Australian, and Polish etc.) were painted with the white and black “invasion stripes” like the Canadian B-25 above.

The purpose of the five alternating bands of white and black stripes on the wings and fuselage of ALLIED AIRCRAFT were to help trigger-happy Allied soldiers identify “friendly” planes and therefore not open fire on them.

(This B-25 has a few "riders"…and is headed for downtown Toronto where it will pass through, go out Niagara way, and then return to Hamilton)

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

ADDITIONALLY…British pilots thought it was a bad idea for American P-51s to enter the fray with metal finish, or unpainted aircraft.

“Ah mate, the Jerries will see you coming for miles!”

The American response was unexpected.

“Good…we want them to see us!”

The American P-51 pilots were quite proud of their high performance Mustangs–

‘nuff said ~

The Way We Were ::: 1939 - 1945 ::: CANADA

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) came into effect on December 17, 1939 when Canadian PM MacKenzie King, The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand agreed that Canada would host the greatest air training scheme ever ushered into existence.

“THE PLAN” trained aircrews from all over the Commonwealth to give Britain the aircrews she needed, at her most desperate hour.

So successful was the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan that eventually 131,553 air force personnel successfully graduated…in 8 different categories, providing trained aircrews for the RAF first, and then the Air Forces of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The 360 schools that were established at 231 sites all across Canada so transformed the country that U.S. President Roosevelt called Canada, "The Aerodrome Of Democracy".

The LANCASTER bomber, shown flying above, was one of the aircraft these trainees learned to fly and bomb targets with.

But why Canada…for so great an undertaking?

1. Proximately to Britain (by air)
2. Suitable climate (no fog or rain interference)
3. She had the manpower
4. Safe distance from every theatre of WW II
5. Inexhaustible natural resources

MANY AMERICANS also trained at these BCATP schools. One school had so many Californians that the RCAF was nicknamed the “Royal Californian Air Force” by the locals!

And that was a country, called Canada…during WW II.

NOW! ::: You Know ::..

THE EGG-SHAPED tail of the LANCASTER was designed by the none-other-than, soon to be legendary, Jim Floyd when he was only a designer at A. V. Roe in England.

He worked alongside a Canadian designer…there at A. V. Roe, who kept singing the praises of some far-flung country called Canada.

Jim just couldn't get Canada out of his head.

So it worked.

And finally…Jim had to come over to see this enigma called Canada, for himself.

And there he stayed. He went on to became a Canadian citizen, and oversaw such LEGENDARY PROJECTS as the AVRO C-102 JETLINER and the CF-105 Avro Arrow.

UNBELIEVABLY, the nearsighted Canadian Government eventually scrapped both aircraft.

And the man who fell in love with Canada, was eventually rejected by his newly adopted country!

Ironic.

So back to England he went…where Jim wrapped up his aeronautical career designing the "lowly" BAC-Aerospatiale CONCORDE.

HE DID retire in Canada, and penned a book about his greatest love…the Canadian designed AVRO Jetliner. JIM FLOYD, now in his 90s, was seen recently at the Toronto Aerospace Museum Arrow roll-out this last October.

THANKS JIM for your contribution to Canadian aviation!


(Lancaster photo taken at the CNE during CIAS)

ISLAND in the Sun

HIP…HIP…FLYING toward an Island In The Sun …

(Post-production of this photo – STREETSVILLE, Ontario by Paul Cardin)

..:: I :: See .::. DEAD PLANES :.::.

PERHAPS ONE day this "proud" SABRE will take to the skies again.

Right now…waiting…wanting ~

CONNIE DEPARTING (YYZ) for Seattle…IMMEDIATELY!

No time for engines…

Or even time to use a runway.

All aboard.

Let’s go…go…GO!

Giddeey-up!

So it’s finally over.

Another TORONTO ICON is no more.

Once a strange landmark visible by all, at the far-flung end of PEARSON (YYZ)…a mystery then…as the restaurant that was never open…that exotic, modern-age transporter of men…that once was.

Back in those distant 50s.

NO SOUP FOR YOU…now, Toronto!

She leaves Toronto for Seattle, and is owned without restriction by the MUSEUM of FLIGHT. The Toronto Aerospace Museum lost her hard fought battle to keep her in Canada. Why didn’t anyone involve PETA to make the save? CONNIES are definitely an endangered species.

Once in Seattle, this rare Super Connie WILL BE restored and painted up in TCA colours, in her old 50s TCA livery, courtesy of Air Canada!

For all museum visitors to see.

Visitors come from worldwide destinations to see Seattle’s “rare birds”. And she has many such visitors, there in the shadow of Boeing’s LEGENDARY Production Facilities.

WAIT! Folks you can relax…no modern Air Canada TOOTHPASTE LIVERY will ever be smeared on her fuselage. This Connie has suffered enough indignities already!!

What about TCA?

SO LONG AGO…long before Air Canada became incorporated as such in 1965…she was T.C.A., folks!! Yes…pick yourself up off the ground…Trans-Canada Airlines, and this was one of the wild aircraft she flew–

Back in those days when men were still men, and Canada had an Arrow~

(So, tears now…)

GOOD-BYE Connie…until we catch up, again, in Seattle ~~

Jesus Falls.

Jesus Falls

Jesus:

"The God who made the universe,
and holds it in existence
by His will alone,
becomes, as man, too weak to bear
a piece of timber's weight.

How human in His weakness is the Son of
Man.

My Father willed it thus.
I could not be your model otherwise.


If you would be My other self,
you also must accept without complaint
your human frailties."


Man:

"Lord Jesus, how can I refuse?

I willingly accept my weaknesses,
my irritations and my moods,
my headaches and fatigue,
all my defects of body, mind, and soul.

Because they are Your will for me,
these “handicaps”, of my humanity,
I gladly suffer them.

Make me content with all my discontents,
but give me strength to struggle after You."


(from…Everyman’s Way of The Cross)

Gather THE LOST…

…and THE HIDDEN.

March 25, 1958, 49 years ago and three days…the AVRO Arrow flew for the first time!

SEE WHAT happens…so easy to neglect, and even forget by three whole days…the ANNIVERSARY of the ARROW'S FIRST FLIGHT!

NAY…Canadians should never forget the achievements of AVRO Canada, especially that of the Arrow–

HERE IS a timely poem:


"Behold the work of
the Old…

Let your Heritage not
be lost…

But bequeath it as a
Memory, Treasure and
Blessing…

Gather the lost and
…the hidden!

And preserve it for thy
Children."

–Christian Metz

RELIVE the AVRO Arrow's FIRST FLIGHT: March 25, 1958 , The Arrow Takes Off

BUILDING a Mystery

…except not so much of a mystery.

:::::::UPDATED::::::::

EXCEPT when I found this stray piece of "plastic"…I really did think I would never "put it all together".

It's funny how God reveals things through desires.

I thought I should keep the piece because "you never know". Then I was looking through eBay for Air Canada realted items, desiring to find DC-8 related trinkets, when I stumbled upon this ashtray amongst an assortment of Air Canada ashtrays.

And I thought WHERE, WHERE have I seen this "blue" and "pattern" before?

AFTER going through hundreds of collected pounds of 621 debris…I rediscovered the elusive piece.

And made the match!

THE CHIPPED PIECE of molded plastic came fom the same farmfield where AIR CANADA Flight 621 slammed into on July 5, 1970. Found it last year. Just didn't know what it was.

The ASHTRAY in the graphic is what you started with. The PIECE (left hand corner) is what you finish with when a doomed 155 tonne DC-8 "Stretch" slams into the ground nose first, wing high, at 400 mph, with 109 (mostly French-Canadien and American) souls onboard.

Of course, THEY ALL died on that ill-fated day!

And just like this piece of ashtray I found……so many pieces of HUMAN BONE, passengers and crew, from Flight 621 still remain in that field because the Ontario Office of the Coroner, normally empowered and authoritative, has repeatedly failed to rise to the occasion, and command removal of the REMAINING BONES from the field.

Fingers, kneecaps, mostly skull pieces and all kinds of unidentifible fragments~

Why?

$$$.

And because IT WAS THEIR DUTY then in 1970 to remove the victims' remains and it is their duty now.

Oh, Dr. Cotnam, where are when we need you?

It would cost a million to finish the job of removal today!

Not in the budget, I was told.

SO REMEMBER the next time you fly AIR CANADA or any OTHER AIRLINE and you have the misfortune of crashing…will all your remains be removed?

DON'T count on it.

YOUR REMAINS might get left behind. Or your daughters, your wife's, your mom's or dad's remains…whoever.

PHOTOGRAPHED above is the ACTUAL PIECE I found. Below THAT PIECE is THE PIECE produced again, and superimposed on the actual type of ashtray…which I found on eBay as an Air Canada momento!

The graphic to the right is marked with a YELLOW CIRCLE that contains the pattern I USED to line up the piece to the "spot" on the ashtray where the piece came from!!

FOR MORE on this INCREDIBLE STORY in our day, and age, SEE:
FLIGHT 621


"Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully"

Sarah McLachlan
(Building A Mystery)

:::AIR FRANCE 358::..:.

…I WAS there. Both days (August 2 - 3, 2005). This was the day after the accident.

"680 NEWS…Air France Crash update!"

Blah…blah…blah…(but in the background I hear…"the bus for the photographers leaves in 10 minutes!")

Can I make it? I just happen to be one exit past the airport.

Well I did. As you can see…

The WEATHER CHANNEL used over 20 of my photographs for their special segment on the "weather-related" crash of Air France 358…but NEVER DID settle up!

They had no problem using my photos…just a problem in paying.

NEVER TRUST BIG BUSINESS!

The "little guys" are always more honest.

I'LL LET EVERYONE know how it goes in court this spring!

MORE Air France Flight 358 CRASH INFO: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_358

THE BIGGEST Toronto AIR DISASTER was in 1970, SEE: http://homepage.mac.com/friendsofflight621/Menu2.html

:::BLACK FRIDAY:::..

February 20, 1959

PM Diefenbaker cancels the AVRO Arrow programme immediately putting 25, 000 Toronto GTA aerospace employees out of work.

MOST CANADIANS never forgive this blunder.


"THE AVRO ARROW was a fantastic performing aircraft…"

"I had flown it to 1.9 Mach myself…"

"…and we had 2.3 – 2.4 Mach potential…and in 1958…THERE WASN’T another airplane in the world ANYWHERE NEAR being competitive with this airplane."

Peter Cope,
Boeing Test Pilot
(for the 727, 737, 747, 757 and 767)


For Avro veterans, the Arrow romance is rich with regret and nostalgia.

"You sit there in a hotel room full of white-haired men and listen to their testimony," he says. "These are people who went on to land a man on the moon, but they said working on the Arrow was the best time of their lives. There was this spirit of enthusiasm and creativity at Avro that they never felt again. You could just tell it was like the Apple Corp. of the 1950s."

Producer,
CBC Mini-series, The Arrow

“I can't blame old Devil “Dief” for that. But where I do blame him is in the vindictive and vengeful way the planes were destroyed. That one or two weren't saved is the real black horror of the story."

Dan Aykroyd,
Actor in the CBC Mini-series, “The Arrow”
(played Crawford Gordon, President, A.V. Roe Canada Ltd.)

“Seeing those beautiful planes being demolished - I'll never forgive them for that."

Elwy Yost,
Host, Saturday Night At The Movies
(former Avro Personnel Manager)


“The GOVERNMENT OF CANADA had rank amateurs trying to sell the best interceptor in the world to countries who already had their own interceptor programs! So when these countries predictably said, “No”, the Canadian government threw up their hands and told the public, “We have a dud…it can’t be sold!

I could easily have sold 100 AVRO Arrows to the United States!

They didn’t have a long range, high speed, independent, and so electronically advanced interceptor. Only recently (mid-80s) the F-18 Hornet achieved this status, that the Arrow had already achieved in 1959.

In 1959, the United States was very interested in buying some Canadian land near Santa Claus. Had they purchased the Arrows, I would have given them that damn, useless piece (to us as Canadians, very useful to Americans) of rock and snow!”

Way up there at the North Pole…they would have appreciated our all weather, LONG RANGE, fly-by-wire Arrows!

Paul Cardin,
Friends of Flight 621


I'VE INCLUDED clips from the movie, "The Arrow", starring Dan Aykroyd (Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters etc.) as CRAWFORD GORDON, the former president of AVRO Canada…

This is how the creation of the AVRO Arrow all began…a challenge to overcome the "impossible".

The AVRO ARROW 201 prep, first take-off, maiden flight and first landing! ALL CLIPS are comprised of actual and special effects footage. All clips are copyright CBC and if you are an aviation nut, buy the 3 hour movie. It is called, "The Arrow" and the CBC store carries it! DEFINITELY worth it!!

I INCLUDED several clips showing the Arrow in action: www.youtube.com/NWAAII


© 2007 Special Projects IR
©1997 Maclean's ©1975 CBC's There Never Was An Arrow ©1980 Avro Arrow

AVRO Mansion…and the "One" That Got Away.

WHEN A.V. ROE Canada Limited started to unravel as a company it had already become the 3rd largest company in Canada within only a few short years.

AVRO was not only building the famed Avro Arrow, and those FLYING SAUCERS (the Avrocars), but it had also set its’ sights on a venture into space!

Even more importantly, and even more secretly than the Arrow and Iroquois projects, AVRO Canada had embarked on another large-scale goal known to only a select few. AVRO Canada was already midstride in building a large, “vertically integrated” empire of enterprise!

This was the goal, not only according to famed aviation author Peter Zuuring, Avro and Arrow expert, but according to others as well.

It was here, on this 11-acre parcel of land, high above the streets of Toronto, where details of the “empire” could be discussed with an absolute guarantee of privacy.

Here…far away from the Government of Canada, the RCAF, the “moles” inside the Avro plants, and all others who just didn’t understand INDUSTRY, plans for this collossal empire were being forged, and then routinely executed. Expansion through acquisition.

Viscount Montgomery, “Monty” (formerly commander of the Eighth British Army in North Africa during WW II), was entertained by AVRO Canada and enjoyed a private dinner with other notables here, back in the heyday of both Avro and the mansion.

Ironically enough, this English style palace is only two stone throws…maybe three…from the elementary school I had attended from kindergarten to Grade six! I even stumbled upon this “mystery mansion” when I was riding around the area on my Duomatic bike one day.

In Avro’s last days…there had been many, mysterious midnight runs from the Avro Malton facility to Ottawa.

But there was only one such “run” to this refuge. And it was here, at that very last stronghold of AVRO Canada…where very likely the “one that got away” ended up. Brought here, under a shroud of secrecy, during a very well-planned, and well-executed “midnight run”.

I once met a white and wispy haired old man, so long ago now – at an aviation trade show convention. He had overheard me talking about the Avro Arrow to a woman who had recently completed a labour of love: a highly detailed, rectangular quilt of the Arrow in level flight.

He interrupted our talk and grabbed me by the arm (rather forcefully I might add), turned me about, and said, “It’s at the house!”

What?!

“It’s at the house!!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

“It’s at the house!!!” “It’s at the house!!!”

“W H A T!!!…HOUSE?”

“WHAT’S…AT THE HOUSE?!!”

He immediately produced a pen, and clumsily pulled out a white dinner napkin from his jacket pocket, and wrote down: “TECARBIRSR”.

He pronounced it, “Te-car-bir-s(a)r.”

“The Arrow…is there!”

And then he walked off.

Poof! Gone.

I never did forget the old man, and that strange afternoon encounter…or his, “Te-car-bir-s(a)r."

I actually committed it, the “riddle”, to memory.

Now, that was in the late eighties.

And now, 25 years later, I present to you: TECARBIRSR.

It is the house pictured above. I uncovered it again, through recent Arrow research, and had actually, casually, taken some pictures of the Tudor-style, stone house some months ago.

I FINALLY just solved the riddle…when I chanced upon the name of the house in my research material.

So…was the Arrow “that got away” ever here?

Is it still here…perhaps buried, even entombed, somewhere on the palatial grounds?

Was it moved from here, and if so, when? And…to where?

Many questions folks…and absolutely no answers ~

(If you do know…drop me a line)

(I won’t tell you where the house is, or what it once was called, but you’ll know it with certainty, should you find it, by the Four Watchers just above the main door! And if you do find it, as I did, perhaps you better not pry too deeply because there are very likely MORE THAN the Four Watchers, still watching…)


©2006 - 2007 Paul Cardin
©1997 Maclean's
©1980 The Arrow
©1975 CBC There Never Was An Arrow

:::::The LAST Hurrah!..::.:

OCTOBER 2, 2004…British Airways CONCORDE (G-BOAG) comes in for its final TO landing.

Yup.

Good-Bye Concorde!

WE SALUTE YOU!!

I. Was. There.

(The CONCORDE is the most recognizable aircraft in the world and for most people SHE IS the symbol of aviation…her very best ambassador, representing all of aviation's hopes and achievements.)