::: WIDOW and the Widowmaker ::

"Hush there, littl' darlin…"

Who she is remembering…we have no idea. Whomever…rest in peace—

The CF-105 Starfighter, of which 200 were made in Montreal.

While the CF-104, and its American version (F-104) were a favorite amongst pilots everywhere…they showed no mercy to those who flew her.

Make a mistake…you often didn't get a second chance.

Hence, the nickname "Widowmaker" given to her by pilots everywhere.

In fact 110 CF-104 were lost in operational accidents flying under the RCAF banner.

The first Canadair-constructed CF-104 (RCAF serial number 12701) was airlifted from Montreal to Palmdale, California in the spring of 1961, where it made its first flight on May 26. The second CF-104 (12702) also made its first flight at Palmdale. The first two CF-104s to fly at Montreal were Nos. 12703 and 12704, which both took to the air on August 14, 1961.

The CF-104 was powered by a Canadian-built J79-OEL-7, which was made at Orenda Aerospace in Malton.

AND REMEMBER while there was no money to finish and fly the already 37+ Avro Arrows, 17 complete, and the rest near completion…the Diefenbaker government found money to buy 200 of these!'

Diefenbaker…shot and pizzed on I say—

Lancaster: URGENT APPEAL!

Our "Made in Toronto" Avro Lancaster Bomber has been grounded.

Corrosion found. Propellers.

$100, 000 CDN needed to get our Lanc back in the air.

Whatever you can give…

HERE, I'll let the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum tell you:

"At this time we are seeking your financial support for a very special project here at Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. During the annual inspection on our Lancaster bomber aircraft it was discovered that there is a corrosion issue with the propellers and until we can replace these propeller blades our Lancaster will be grounded.

The propellers used on the aircraft are unique and although we have been fortunate enough to locate a very limited and currently available supply, the total replacement cost will be about $100,000.00. As I am sure you are aware, we own and operate one of only two Lancaster bombers still flying in the world today. This aircraft is the most popular and notable aircraft in our collection and we therefore receive many requests to have the Lancaster attend events throughout North America. Unfortunately without new propeller blades we will not be able to meet our flying commitments for the 2009 season.

As this year is the Centennial of Flight in Canada, the Lancaster has been requested to attend a number of high profile events and venues including Air Venture at Oshkosh, WI, the largest air show in the world. It is also scheduled to go to Cold Lake, Alberta; Bagotville, Quebec; and Winnipeg, Manitoba; as well as attending several other events in Southern Ontario. In 2009 the Lancaster C-GVRA flight schedule has been planned to allow many hundreds of thousands of people to enjoy this aviation icon during the course of the summer as we celebrate 100 years of powered flight in Canada.

In order to honour our commitments, we must endeavor to make our Lancaster airworthy once again. We have sent an appeal letter to our members and supporters and now we are asking for your assistance at this difficult time. With less than 2% of our annual operating budget coming from any government grant or assistance, we rely very heavily on supporters like you. As a donor, your investment in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is an investment in a great Canadian success story. We still have a great deal to be accomplished here at the museum and we hope you will take part in this worthy endeavor.

PLEASE DONATE NOW!!
Donations can be made on our website: www.warplane.com/Gift-Shop/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=38&a...

Or please contact the museum at (905) 679-4183 to donate by phone.

Donations can also be mailed in to: Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, 9280 Airport Road, Mount Hope, ON. L0R 1W0

Please mark "Lancaster Propeller Fund" on your cheques."

RCAF Approved: MAINTAINING Your Lancaster!

FIXING MY BOMBER


WHENEVER I'M working on my Lancaster, as you can see here I'm working on those mighty Merlins…I can't always go by memory.

Ain't what it used to be.

So I get out my Hayne's Owner's Workshop Manual for my Mighty Lanc before I do ANYTHING!

This is a damn expensive airplane, folks! And I can't take it to Canadian Tire!! Even though it was made here, locally, in Toronto.

So here goes.

Chocks in place.

Righty, tighty…lefty, loosey.

It doesn't get any better than this…working on my Lanc…Supertramp playing in the background, but hey…I almost forgot.

There is ALSO a Hayne's Owner's Workshop Manual for the Supermarine Spitfire and even the British Leyland one! Thanks ...Anna... for the tip.

WHY THERE ISN'T a Hayne's Owner's Guide for the Boeing B-17 or the North American P-51, only Ken knows. There isn't even one for the famous Taylorcraft 75.

There will be one for the Avro Arrow.

I assembled a little graphic here for the viewership, complete with page views from the books.

I. Ain't. Making. This. Stuff. Up.



© Hayne's Owner's Workshop Manuals
© SPIR
© Paul Cardin

SOME PEOPLE…you can see right through…

…and others…well…they’ll always be a little bit of a mystery…

Fortunately, you can see right through…OR right into…this Canadair SABRE.

Remember long before the SNOWBIRDS…there were the GOLDEN HAWKS!

Formed in 1959, the Golden Hawks were created to celebrate the 50th Year of powered flight in Canada.

They were disbanded in 1964 after 317 airshow demonstrations.

The GOLDEN HAWKS pioneered the “starburst” maneuver and the use of two solo pilots working together as part of the overall team demonstration. Pretty much all aerial demonstration teams have adapted this setup since–

The GOLDEN HAWKS were famous for wrapping up their demonstration by doing a low level flyby, with canopies open, and waving at the adoring crowds.

This Canadair Sabre was made in Montreal (under license from North American Aircraft) and the Orenda engine was made in Toronto. How’s that for an all-Canadian effort!

“CANADAIR SABRES were dominant in the two major conflicts in which they were employed: the Korean War where F-86 Sabres racked up an impressive 11-1 kill record and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In January 1966, Germany sold 90 of its Canadian Mk 6 Sabres to Iran. These aircraft were quickly transferred to Pakistan and became the main day fighter of the Pakistan Air Force.

In 1952, Jacqueline Cochran, then aged 47, decided to challenge the world speed record for women, then held by Jacqueline Auriol. She tried to borrow an F-86 from the USAF, but was refused. She was introduced to an RCAF Air Vice-Marshal who, with the permission of the Canadian Minister of Defence, arranged for her to borrow 19200, the sole Sabre 3.

CANADAIR sent a 16-man support team to California for the attempt. On 18 May 1953, Ms. Cochran set a new 100 km speed record of 1050.15 km/h (652.5 mph). Later on 3 June, she set a new 15 km closed circuit record of 1078 km/h (670 mph). While she was in California, she exceeded 1270 km/h in a dive, and thus became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound.” (Wikipedia)

SHHhhh… Keep it on the downsy!”

The CWH (Canadian Warplane Heritage) Bolingbroke restoration has been plodding along for 25 slow years with the nose, fuselage and wings now about 70% complete.

The present “Boly” (photo, far left) has been cannabalised from about six or seven different Bolingbrokes and will be restored to FLYING CONDITION.

But it has taken the legendary Canadian Warplane Heritage a quarter of a century to get even this far.

And the hunt for those rare, much needed parts, to complete the historic warbird has so often been fruitless. Sand through the hands.

Located parts have been found incomplete, or decimated through time, by exposure to the ravages of our harsh Canadian winters. Sometimes parts found were rendered useless simply by the owner's prolonged utilitarian use or abuse.

Many former RCAF Canadian bombers were actually sold to prairie farmers after the war. For use down on the farm. Chicken coups etc. And the farmers often didn’t even pay for said bomber, they really just paid for the gas that was still inside said bomber!

So when these forlorn, discarded bombers are found…well, sometimes, it just ain’t pretty!

But amid all those routine deadends… a miracle finally happened.

A rural rumor of a COMPLETE CANADIAN BOLINGBROKE turned out to be more than that.

A farmer in the province of Manitoba who was blessed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) bought himself a “Boly” two years after the war. Mostly for its’ package deal of discounted gas that could be drained from its four fuel tanks.

He dutifully towed it home, put it up on blocks, drained that precious gas, and left it just like that…for the next 60 years!

During that voyage through time, not even a single part of his Boly" had been lost!

Some did fell off through those tortuous years for sure…but, no problem, they were promptly gathered, and carefully stored away in his barn.

Now we don’t want to say that this miraculous discovery made some CWH men cry, because we are talking about men here, and we are talking about crying…but when you’ve toiled so long and so hard, and suddenly you are given everything you need to complete that impossible, lingering project, well…you know.

The Canadian Warplane Heritage is keeping this whole discovery on the “downsy”.

The location of the “bird” has not been disclosed, nor will it be. There is only one known photograph of it, in its present state (see Manitoba Bolingbroke, above), as it waits for the IODE (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire) to provide funding for its clandestine move from a field near Winnipeg, to Hamilton.

THIS GODSEND means that the CWH Bolingbroke should be flying inside of about three years!

And this was that secret, I promised to share about two months ago, but forgot to, amid house renos, car crash recovery and all.

I will never be called to war again.

:::The Canadians:::1948

The De Havilland DH-100 Vampire was the RCAF’s first operational jet fighter.

Developed in 1943, it went into production shortly after WW II. Canada purchased 86 of these odd looking “beasties”, only after an F MK 1 Vampire was rigorously tested at the Winter Experimental Establishment in Edmonton in 1946.

The Vampire was taken on strength by the RCAF, on January 17, 1948 at the Central Flying School in Trenton.

“Although this Vampire is a MVI, it is restored in the colours of the RCAF and markings of an F-3 (fighter, Mk, III) flown by 400 (City of Toronto) Squadron, based at Downsview (North York), Ontario.”

Vampires saw action against Communist belligerents in Malaysia (Malayan Communist Party, Malayan Races Liberation Army) beginning in 1948.

“3,268 Vampires were built. 15 versions.

Even a twin-seat night fighter, trainer was crafted. Carrier-based Vampires became known as “Sea Vampires”.

Because the engine on Vampires was so close to the ground, Vampires could not stay stationary for too long, as they would very quickly begin to melt the tarmac!

The Vampire became:

• The first RAF fighter with a top speed exceeding 500 mph

• The first jet to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier

• The first jet to set a new world altitude record of 59,446 feet in 1948

• The first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. (From Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, to Keflavik in Iceland, and then to Goose Bay at Labrador, before going on to Montreal to start the RAF’s annual goodwill tour of Canada and the U.S.)

2,892 AVRO ANSONS were BUILT…

…in Canada. For the WAR!

Some additional Ansons were imported from Great Britain and a total of 4,413 Ansons were actively used by the RCAF during WWII … mostly for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).

It became the MOST WIDELY USED airplane by any of Canada’s air forces (RCAF, Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Air Force).


BY THE Numbers:

Mk II ANSONS
1,822 Mk IIs were built in Canada; powered by two 330 hp Jacobs L-6MB engines.

Mk V ANSONS (36% increase in Engine Horsepower)
1,069 Mk Vs were built in Canada; powered by two 450 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines.

Mk VI ANSONS
ONE aircraft was built in Canada; powered by two 450 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines.

In 1952, the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy RETIRED all of their Ansons and an era ended–

THIS ANSON is airworthy and is being repaired!

:: 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.