…jus' get into LIFE more than others~
THIS is a TI-CAT FAN. This IS NOT a BLUE JAYS fan—
Thank-you.
Will Hamilton still have the Ti-Cats in 2012????
Is 2011, the VERY LAST YEAR at IVOR WYNNE and the very last year of the HAMILTON TIGER-CATS?
Will a 150 year (almost - 1873) football tradition really end?
Will Head Coach of the Ti-Cats cheerleaders LESLIE STEWART save the day?? Again???
MARLENE STEWART STREIT, Order of Canada, was born on the farm, in Cereal, Alberta on March 9, 1934. Two years later her family abandoned the family farm because of the unrelenting locust hordes of the past two years. These locust storms had consumed all their crops. The Stewarts resettled in Ranier Alberta, in the irrigation district, where crops were bountiful with fruits (like melons) and vegetables they had never even seen before.
So far, so good.
Eventually, horrendous sand storms killed crop production in Ranier, so the Stewart family in 1941 again pulled up stakes, and moved to Fonthill near to the US border at Niagara Falls, Ontario. Marlene's father, Harold, had tried to join the RCAF but because her dad was a skilled electrician he was immediately dispatched to work for Fleet Aircraft of Canada, there in Fonthill.
Still, good.
Starting off as a golf caddy for a friend of hers, Marlene learned how to play…and really win at the game…from golfing master and pro Gordon McInnis Sr. at Fonthill's Lookout Point Golf Club. Putting spikes into her street shoes, and rewrapping her golf club's because Marlene's hands were so small…McInnis taught Marlene the techniques showcased in Ben Hogan's book, Power Golf.
Tiny Marlene, she stood only five feet tall, was so persistent and so damn determined. She got golf right, and right from the start immersed herself in the game, practising golf day and night. Soon she started winning tourneys. After she won the Ontario provincial championship, before financially committing to take Marlene to the Amateur level, Harold Stewart asked McInnis to fairly assess his daughter's potential future success.
Marlene's dad asked the seasoned McInnis, "How far can she go?"
McInnis thought about the father's searching question, and honestly responded, 'She can go the limit. She can be the best.'
And that's exactly what she started to do…
By December, 1954, at a mere 20 years old, and standing only five feet tall with tiny hands, Miss Stewart had garnered some pretty spectacular golfing achievements for a young Canadian lass.
Have a looky for yourself:
▪Ontario Junior Girls (2-time winner)
▪Ontario Ladies' Amateur - 1951
▪Canadian Women's Amateur - 1951, 1954
▪CLGA Close Amateurs - 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954
EXCELLENT!! Way to go Marlene!
But on December 17, 1954 Canada's brightest golfing star boarded a triple-tail TCA Super Constellation in Tampa, Florida with…Canada's worst pilot, Captain Norman Ramsay, at the helm.
Oh. No.
Marlene, not good~
I can't look. Quick, take another afternoon flight!!
Too late folks, airborne now…
Trans-Canada-Airlines newest type airliner took flight on a route straight north from Tampa to Malton airport, now known as Pearson International or YYZ.
At 9:32pm, Mount Pleasant - Brampton, Ontario time, Captain Ramsay vectored his large and brand-new 1.5 million dollar Constellation to line-up with Malton airport's northwest runway. He coaxes the graceful bird into position, drops his wheels, drops his flaps, throws his canteen out the window, and brings her in to land.
Trouble is…Norman and his TCA Constellation…are 12 miles from the airport.
Very soon, Norman's Super Constellation's fuselage and delicate underbelly is being ripped up by the very rough, and very frozen, unforgiving farmland fields of Mount Pleasant in Brampton.
All 27 passengers aboard the TransCanada Airlines flight had only just been told, and had only begun to prepare, moments before, for landing at Malton…when their unexpected disaster struck.
On the descent, the Super Constellation struck several trees which sheared off one of the wings of the ill-fated airliner. Good grief. The speeding airliner stared sliding along the frozen Brampton tundra for nigh of a 1000 feet. When the botched-landing airplane came to rest, it was on the farmland of Clure Archdekin. And fortunately, for the passengers and crew, Clure was right on hand to give help.
Some of the passengers were able to escape through the large fuselage hole created when the Connies' wing was torn away. Other dazed survivors just jumped to the ground unassisted from the former aircraft, while Clure got the rest of the passengers, and all three crew members, out from the other end of the burning wreck. Everyone survived, and as they ran from the fire engulfed airplane, it proceeded to explode sending a huge ball of orange flame that went a hundred feet into the air.
At the time, 1954, it was the most miraculous escape in Canadian aviation history.
Marlene Stewart, herself, sustained only slight injuries from the accident. Not only did everyone survive, but miraculously…no one was even seriously injured!
These TCAL air crash survivors were cautiously sent to Brampton and Weston hospitals. Brampton firefighters who had rushed to the scene mostly assisted the crash survivors by getting them into arriving ambulances, as they were not able to save the burning airplane. TCA's pride of the fleet, the Lougheed Super Constellation, was stuck 1000 feet from the nearest road, on frozen, rough farmland…and remember Brampton at the time did not have the elaborate fire hydrant system that it has today. In short, the firefighters were not able to get any significant amount of water out to the airplane, in order to save her.
Very shortly after this crash, Malton Airport's flight approach route was altered, so that descending airliners would no longer take this approach…and fly over the centre of Brampton.
Good idea.
This Trans-Canada-Air-Lines crash, and Hurricane Hazel's terrible October flooding of Brampton two months earlier, convinced Brampton politicians that the city needed full-time firefighters, modern equipment, and a disaster plan for this growing community of British and Portuguese immigrants.
Only 16 short years later that very disaster plan would have to be put into effect for another large airplane that would crash in Brampton, this time, at the other end of the city.
That would be Air Canada Flight 621 on July 5, 1970.
Only this time there would be no miracles, because there would be no survivors.
Marlene Stewart Streit as we know survived the forgotten Trans-Canada-Air-Lines crash of 1954, and went forth to become the most accomplished Canadian amateur golfer…in Canadian history, male or female. Marlene also became the only golfer in world history to have won the Australian, British, Canadian and United States Women's Amateur Golf Championships.
In total career wins Marlene won 11 Canadian Ladies’ Open Amateurs, nine Canadian Ladies’ Close titles and four Canadian Ladies’ Senior Women’s Amateur tournaments. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1956, and again in 2003.
When Marlene was 69 years young she became the oldest person to win a USGA championship.
She claimed her third US Senior Women's Amateur Championship at this time.
Today, she is 76 years old.
In 2004, Marlene Stewart Streit was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame becoming the first Canadian to be so honoured.
Marlene resides in Florida, but was not able to be reached for comment related to this post. I hope to do a follow-up piece interviewing Marlene about herself, and her TCA experience.
A special thanks to Carolyn Crawford who helped me find the location of the accident, and provided me with some background details about the community at the time of the accident. Carolyn's father resided on the farm beside, and south of Clure Archdekin's. Both her aunt and her father boarded their tractor that fateful evening, and drove out to the accident to see if they could lend a hand, only to find the passengers rescued, and the airplane burning out of control.
An additional special thanks to former Brampton firefighters who helped me identify the "famous" golfer who was aboard this flight, and to Rhonda Glenn, for additional details about Marlene's career.
The TOP photo is a TCA Super Constellation
LEFT photo is part of the crash in Mount Pleasant
CENTRE is Marlene at 20
RIGHT is the location of the crash arena in Mount Pleasant, Brampton
FAMOUS QUOTES from Marlene:
"Don’t be a spoiled brat; get out there and do it. Beat everybody. Don’t go around with a chip on your shoulder. Just beat ‘em."
“When you write about me, don’t forget Canada. Canada (fist clenched, tapping it on her heart) is right here!”
THIS CRASH Part 1: www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/4066337145/
THIS CRASH Part 2: www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/4066337145/
+++++MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL in 2010!+++++
(As with all my articles…this is a first post that will be revised several times over time.)
'COURSE CHRISTMAS wouldn't have been right if I didn't get a coupla' Haunted Tank comics for Christmas.
Yup, there in my bedroom reading comics (or building models)…safe away from that whip-snap cold of our Canadian winters just outside my window.
Good times, for sure…
And remember, they DON'T come up with creative story-lines (a Civil War ghost general aiding an American tank crew during WW II) like this anymore~
THIS ANCIENT CLASSIC hand game played by two, or more people, has, not surprisingly, evolved into a modern easy to play, aeronautical, version.
It's the new Airbus version.
Here's how it goes.
PAPER covers rock.
ROCK beats scissors.
SCISSORS cuts giant Airbus A380 wing root.
Rock-Paper-Scissors - the Airbus Version…has the same ole' 5 count, and is still used as a selection method.
If you win, your Airbus flies.
If you lose, well, like the giant Emirates A380 airliner did on December 7, 2010 at Toronto's YYZ…a catering truck's scissor lift collapses, and drops it's heavy load on the leading edge of your Airbus, slicing through precious wing as only falling scissors can…right into the very wing-root of your mega-big super Jumbo!
Then your Airbus gets to sit around indefinitely, right out there, in the harsh Canadian winter (as seen, yesterday), losing a half million in revenue daily, while local air techs build silly treehouse structures around your airliner, supposedly, to more effectively work on your Airbus…even though these guys haven't ever worked on anything larger than a Dash 7.
Good luck with that—
What will happen in the end, when all this "playing" is done…is this A380 will be written off as a complete hull loss.
Then this fatally wounded Emirates A380 will re-appear next summer as a fully taxiing, flashing lights extravaganza "700 seat kiddies airplane ride", complete with with a jazzy new ride name, and its own newly built 3000 foot mini-runway at Vaughn's Canada's Wonderland. Cool, eh?
Kids, you can start screaming right away…
Buy those Wonderland Season Passes early.
You've been warned.
FOR 3 YEARS. In WW II. In the RCAF.
He beat the odds.
MOST, didn't.
Now a free man…in a free world. A freedom he helped win for generations of Canadians to come after the war.
THEN, aboard Halifaxes and Lancs.
The average lifespan of a rear-gunner, or tail-gunner, was about 10 missions. Being generous here.
I talked to him about the Halifax heavy bomber vs. the Lancaster heavy bomber…you know, which did he like better?
Hands down the Mighty, Mighty Lanc.
Seems it boiled down to the shape of the Lanc's wings which meant the Lanc was highly manoeuvrable in tense situations, compared to the lumbering Hally.
And safer.
Caught in a Nazi spotlight?
No problem.
The captain of his Lanc would dip the Lanc's wings to a 90 degree angle (to the ground) and proceed to drop, slicing downwards through the air…for hundreds of feet…effectively losing the lifetaking spotlight.
And then complete the bombing run.
I was so immeshed in our conversation (which had gathered a small crowd), I forgot to ask our homegrown hero what his name was!
AND, I wasn't the only curious one! As I left, another guy appeared and was rifling questions at this guy like there was no tomorrow.
So…what do we know about him?
Our tail-gunner was assigned to Bomber Command, of the illustrious All-Canadian Group 6: RCAF 428 Squadron, Ghost Squadron. The "Ghost" moniker was earned through its many night bombing ops. And through the death and destruction which the Canadian squadron meted out to the Nazis, and to their incessant efforts at war production. The squadron badge depicted a skull in a shroud…a chilling death head.
Squadron 428 flew in night and tail-gunner was responsible for being on the lookout for any approaching enemy fighter-planes.
RCAF Lancaster bombers flew as solo aircraft, while American bombers flew in formation.
Therefore when the tail-gunner, rear-gunner, or "Tail-end Charlie" as they were interchangeably called, spotted an enemy night-fighter he radioed his captain who would then engage in radical flying maneuvers like a corkscrew roll, etc. to escape. When all else failed…the tail-gunner would cock his machine-guns and open fire on any pursuing enemy aircraft!
This gentle warrior comes out to CWH every year for Remembrance Day. To remember his fallen buddies.
Wouldn't be anywhere else.
What do we know about the 428 of the RCAF?
Hailfaxes of 428 Squadron, flying at 15,000 feet carried out the first highlevel bombing of Brest with mines!
In June 1944, the squadron struck their Handley-Page Halifaxes off charge… and were re-equipped with Canadian-built Mark X Lancasters…which were made in Malton.
After the war 428 was stationed in Yarmouth Nova Scotia, until the 5th of December when the squadron was disbanded.
RCAF 428 Squadron re-formed mid-June 1954 as a night-fighter squadron flying CF-100 Canucks and was scheduled to be the first Canadian squadron to receive, and put into operational status, the never-to-be Arrow.
In 1961, specifically May 31…the squadron was again disbanded, for a final time.
STOP. THE. PRESSES.…just in…
THAT'S an ORIGINAL CANSO. The one in tatters…
The white one just behind this bare-metal beastie is how most Cansos and Catalinas look today! But not during WW II, folks! They had a gun turret in front! And here's the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE SECRET…CWH's flying Hornell Canso will have that turret mounted onto her airframe and be flying anew by summer!
Is there anything these CWH guys can't do?!
Methinks that this is quite an amphibious, no, sorry…quite AMBITIOUS winter project.
PLUS…Transport Canada has demanded an additional mod…a new door on the side of the Canso…see the green tape outline!
If I was Prime Minister of Canada, I would put CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM in charge of getting things done, especially the improbable. Just when you think they've done all they could…they come up with this!
Can't wait!!!!!
MADE IN MALTON. Made in Toronto. Now residing at the old, former, RCAF Station: Mount Hope in Hamilton, Ontario.
One of the best Allied tools for ensuring our freedom, used by free men, to maintain a free world…a world that we inherited…and are to maintain.
Remember, need I say it again…"A new war is coming…"
FOR A BRIEF WHILE, the CF-100 was the only all-weather fighter jet stationed in Europe for NATO.
About a year and a half.
Everyone else's fighter was a FAIR WEATHER fighter only.
Now, you know.
(The LARGE SIZE of this photo is…well…REALLY LARGE!!)
HERE!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/5186381677/sizes/o/in/photostream/
IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY at the women in this photo you'll see them saluting using Churchill's V for Victory sign. So the sign has double meaning for staff atop the Lanc!
OUR FREEDOM today in Canada was purchased with Canadian blood spilled all over the world in the two great wars, the War of 1812, UN peacekeeping, the Korean War, and Canadian NATO or participation all over the globe, during the Cold War years right up to the present.
Lest we forget.
But freedom is a joint effort between the airman, the seaman, the soldier…and the factory worker.
The ABOVE pictures an Avro Lancaster Mark X being rolled out of the Victory factory in Malton, Ontario, Canada that was ONCE located at the northeast tip of the YYZ property. Pictured here is a Lancaster being rolled out sometime in late1944.
By war's end a Lancaster a day was being turned out of the Victory Aircraft factory.
Today, the former Victory Aircraft of Canada Limited manufacturing facility spread across land that is partly in Toronto, AND partly in Mississauga. The Mississauga land portion is now barren.
Victory Aircraft, a federal government venture was closed down after the war.
The factory soon thereafter was purchased by A.V. Roe and became Avro Aircraft of Canada Limited.
But, back to the war.
World War II was a different sort of war for the nations involved. It was the first time superior technological power (Germany, Italy, Japan) would lose to superior industrial (the Allies) might! For instance, German tanks were way better than the lowly Sherman and Stuart tanks the Allies had in number, but we overwhelmed the Axis powers by producing so many of them.
Same with the jet fighters and V-1 rockets the Nazis produced.
They had better.
We had more.
As I was in a motorbike accident almost a month ago, getting around has not been easy with my leg in a leg brace.
Especially, on my motorbike!
Still, I went to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on Remembrance Day as any true Canadian would. As I was walking through the museum's displays, after the ceremonies, I came across this famous VICTORY AIRCRAFT of CANADA Limited photo that I had only ever seen in very low-rez.
I always hoped I'd see the large version one day, and today was that day.
The historic photo was stuck in a display case, encased at an angle…and it was large…about 3 feet long. There, dream come true. WOW!
So, as I was flopping about the floor, screaming in agony from knee pain, while contorting my body ridiculously trying to beat the reflected light that was blowing out parts of the photo…an alarmed woman approached me, and said first in French, then, in English,
"Before you hurt yourself further, why don't you ask someone if they'll just remove it from the display for you, so you can take a better pic?"
Oui.
Somehow, that felt like I was being scolded by my mom…even at my age…but soon enough I was being assisted by Caillin Kowalczyk, the Interim Curator of the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM, who allowed me to photograph their original photo, with the museum's kind permission, of course! Out of the display case. Did I mention Caillin's dutifully going through several key rings, to find the "one" that held the missing key?
Great guy.
While this retouched photo will suffice for now, I intend to redo the photo to get an even better, and more detailed result.
Thanks, Caillin!
AND REMEMBER, the original photo, and much other historical warplane related stuff can be found at the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM in Hamilton. CWH is home of North America's only flying Lancaster and Lysander!
Lt. Col. Allen West (US Army, Ret.) who I hope will be US Prez one day…is taking about Canadian Armed Forces Lieut. Trevor Greene.
Greene is still recovering from the Afghan insanity of that day.
Greene's STORY can be found here:
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/03/04/canada-afghanistan06030...
Note the intended attack upon the Canadians through this collaborated move,
"A few minutes before the attack, someone moved all the children about 20 metres away – but none of the Canadian troops noticed anything unusual, Schamuhn said."
Best West quote, sad but true, "This is the level of people that we're dealing with over there…"
Lt. Col. Allen West (US Army, Ret.) who I hope will be US Prez one day…tells it to us, Canadians, quite plainly.
The CANADIAN ARMY (Canadian Armed Forces-ground troops) has the will…but the Canadian Government hasn't provided the equipment. Don't blame Harper though, blame the Commie left…active in Canada through the Bloc, the Liberals, and the wacko NDP for the gutting of our Canadian military.
Blame that idiot Trudeau in the 60s and 70s. That's where it started. If we had St Laurent, a true liberal instead, through those two critical decades, our military wouldn't be in the poorly equipped shape it is in, today!
As West noted—CANADA could have gotten the job done in Kandahar province, Afghanistan…BUT we don't have fixed wing aircraft or rotary wing aircraft.
In other words Canada, we don't have A-10 tank busters, or helicopter gunships to smash the Taliban with. And finish the job.
The Lt. Col. recognizes the Canadians have the will…to fight (unlike some other countries)…but are without the necessary equipment to actually WIN the ground battle!
LIFE IS chock full of ridiculous ironies.
If you're a Canadian…here's one you should never forget.
This WW II CANADIAN ARMY VET from the documentary "D-Day - Canada's 24 Hours of Destiny" is complaining about Canada sending him off to war, with inferior equipment. He wished the Canadian Army had been outfitted with American rifles which were semi-automatics…not single shooters.
Do you think a Canadian soldier running into the heat of the battle, toward a slew of Nazis, has time to cock his gun before… EVERY. SINGLE. SHOT. HE. TAKES?
No?!
Seems kinda' crazy, right?!
Well, then you might be surprised to learn the Canadian government of WW II, expected, exactly that.
Are you sitting down Canada?
Are you sitting down America?
Is everyone, in the United Kingdom, also sitting down?
The American guns our Canadian vet is talking about…the ones he wished he'd had on D-Day in Juno, France instead of the inferior British designed Lee-Enfield bolt action rifles…weren't even American guns at all!
He's talking about the M-1 Garand, here, folks.
And the M-1 Garand was designed for the American Army, by a French-Canadian, from St. Rémi, Quebec, named John Garand!!!
How do you like them McIntosh apples?
A incredible, groundbreaking, general issue gun designed by a Canadian, certified for use in 1936, acquired and used by the entire U.S. Army that same year…but a gun…unavailable to enlisted Canadians during WW II.
Go figure—
Don't ever ask if your Canadian government knows how to wage a war. They don't.
The Lee-Enfields the Canadian Army used (No. 1MK-IVs) were made in Long Branch, at the Long Branch Arsenal in Toronto. Millions were made there!
WHY? Why…we weren't making M-1 Garands there, instead…I'll never know?!?!
The M-1 GARAND, lauded by General Patton as the "greatest battle implement ever devised" was historically the first semi-automatic rifle to be issued, as the standard service rifle, to the infantry of any nation, specifically the U.S. Army.
The M-1 replaced the immediately outdated bolt-action M1903 Springfield in 1936.
REGARDLESS of Canadian soldiers being ill-equipped for D-Day, how'd Canadians do on D-Day?
"Before dawn on D-Day, 230 heavy bombers from RCAF No.6 Group pounded German shore batteries with 860 tons of bombs. And in the daylight hours, RCAF fighter squadrons flew top cover for the invasion beaches. Fifty Canadian destroyers, frigates and corvettes assisted in covering the invasion, providing anti-submarine escort and bombarding shore targets.
14,000 CANADIANS STORMED ASHORE on Juno Beach and were the only force to capture all their initial objectives that day, at a cost of 1000 casualties, of which 350 were fatal." (© WWII.CA-CANADA AT WAR)
BORN IN Vancouver, BC.
Attended high school in Sarnia, Ontario…at Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School (SCITS).
Was a Canadian Army cadet.
Became known and loved worldwide as Scotty, the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise, from the blockbuster, science fiction TV show hit, Star Trek.
Remember, "I am giving it all she has got, Captain!"?
And,
"Beam me up, Scotty!"
What so many Canadians don't know is…long before Scotty arrived to command the Engineering section of the USS Enterprise, he had almost died after landing on JUNO BEACH to fight for CANADA on D-Day!
Scotty, rather JAMES DOOHAN was a lieutenant in the 13th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.
When the war started for Canada, in 1939, Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery. In 1940 he was sent for supplemental training to the United Kingdom. He didn't actually see any action though until four years later! That was on D-Day ( June 6, 1944) when James was among the Canadian landing forces that stormed Juno Beach in Normandy, France.
After taking out two German snipers, James led his regiment right through a sea of anti-tank mines, up to higher ground where they took up their first-day defensive positions against the Nazis. At day's end, just before midnight, James left his command post after wrapping up a planning session with other regiment leaders—when he was intercepted there in the dark, by a Canadian sentry.
The Canadian kid was extremely nervous, hot on the trigger, and subscribed to the personal philosophy of machine gun first…check credentials later.
James Doohan, Scotty, was hit by six bullets. Down, he went.
Four in the leg.
One to the chest that was miraculously stopped cold—by a silver cigarette lighter that had been a parting gift from James's brother. It saved Scotty's life.
The final bullet went through his middle, right, finger…which had to be amputated.
And James Doohan who was more worried about his potential for drowning, when the landing crafts were bringing the Canadians ashore, than about being shot by the Nazis, was now in the fight for his life.
It took a while, but James did recover from his injuries. At that point, he was received his new orders and was trained as a pilot in 666 (wtfd?) AOP Squadron, RCAF.
Doohan retained his status as a Royal Canadian Artillery officer in support of Number 1 Canadian AGRA (Army Groups Royal Artillery). All three of the Canadian AOP-RCAF squadrons were manned by Artillery Officer-Pilots, of which Doohan was one. Canadian Army, and RCAF personnel, flew with these special artillery pilots, while only serving as observers.
And one day came the crazy…
Doohan, in the late spring of 1945, north of RAF Andover, on the Salisbury Plain slalomed his Taylorcraft Auster Mark IV—between mountainside telegraph poles and the mountain…to the utter amazement of numerous witnesses in attedance.
Nobody had thought the b** s*** crazy aerial feat could be done.
Doohan was true to his word. He did it…just like he had told everyone, he could.
Finally, when he landed, James would have to endure a serious dressing down.
As news spread of his flying stunt, Officer Doohan was thereafter appropriately saddled with the moniker, "the craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces."
But, most didn't realize that James Doohan had remained an officer in the Royal Canadian Artillery, even as a pilot. Doohan served many times alongside the RCAF, but was never in it.
Captain Norman Ramsay.
THERE YOU HAVE IT…the only known photograph of TRANS-CANADA-AIR-LINES L-1049 Super Constellation (call letters, CF-TGG, as seen in the RARE photo) that crashed in Brampton 56 years ago in 1954, at Norman's hands. Norm was attempting to land in Toronto!
No one was hurt, but there was a famous golfer on board the TCA flight. The Connie, however, burned to the ground!
Location of photo is approximate crash location.
FULL STORY, here: www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/4066337145/
Only 3 YEARS LATER, August 4, 1957…Norman, now working for another airline, flying another airplane, a DC-4 for Maritime Central Airways, authored the worst crash in Canadian history (at the time) that would leave 79 passengers and crew dead in a remote spot near Issoudun, Quebec.
Norm flew his airplane INTO an active cumulonimbus cloud, that included heavy rain and strong gusty winds. Most pilots fly around severe weather conditions.
I DID significant post-production work on this photo.
© 2010 Special Projects In Research, © 2010 Paul Cardin
…and stuff that wouldn't fly now!
To the LEFT…a snow-melter powered by Avro's Orenda 10 jet engine for the Germans.
To the RIGHT…husband's and wives's duties at breakfast time. I have no comment, here.
The original state of the magazine is coloured with age, is a little beat up, and readily observed in the centre.
THE ORENDA Magazine published for the Orenda Engine Division of Avro Aircraft of Canada Limited…is sadly dated January 30, 1959. Three weeks, exactly, from the cancellation of Avro's main projects, the Arrow and Iroquois programmes, by the treacherous Diefenbaker government.
None of these folk saw it comin'.
Everyone, all 14,500 workers, were let go.
Must view LARGE to read floating articles…
YOU KNOW, when its all said and done, I do.
You know its true.
I LOVE CANADIAN AIRCRAFT!
When I first saw the "I love Canadian Beef" ads put out by the Beef Producers of Canada, I knew their message was good. Oprah had slammed beef on national TV, and her worldwide zombies hang on every word.
But others slammed beef too. Mad Cow, you know.
SO the Beef Producers of Canada did the one thing I like best about Canadians, they fought back at the disinformation. Right away.
I knew THEN…the "I love Canadian" concept had be taken to higher ground.
So I designed MY OWN bumper sticker. The Arrow illustration is fantastic, but not my own.
Now, in case there was any doubt, everybody, past, present or future…knows where I stand.
'nuff, said—
…and don't let anyone EVER tell you otherwise.
And ALTHOUGH these men gave us the C-102 Jetliner, the CF-100 Canuck, the Avrocar, the CF-105 Arrow and the Orenda jet engine line-up including the mythological Iroquois…although these men gave us their all, their everything…one man would throw it all away!
Hey, these folks could take the hint.
When the, then Prime Minister of Canada, John G. Diefenbaker (I can't even bear to repeat his name), cancelled the Avro Arrow Interceptor and Orenda Iroquois engine programmes only four years later in 1959, these guys took it all in stride.
They knew it. They weren't wanted.
And what did these aeronautical engineers do? Where would they go?
Fall back into obscurity?
Flip burgers somewhere?
Lie down, and die?
Are? You? KIDDING? Me?
The Brits and the Americans knew what these ex-Avro guys were capable of!
And British and American aviation firms came right to the parking lots at Avro Aircraft Ltd. in Toronto, and hired these guys on the spot…as they wrapped up their last few days of employment at Avro. Jim Floyd, Vice-President of Avro Aircraft of Canada Ltd. even placed some of these designers, his own team, himself… with the explicit intention to woo them back when the Diefenbaker nightmare finally ended.
It didn't end.
But justice is always sweet. So we threw away these guys in 1959…but by 1969, they had their ominous revenge.
In 1969, the Concorde flew with well-documented contributions towards that Anglo-French SST achievement coming from Mr. Jim Floyd, himself.
And again in 1969, Ex-Avro engineers, in only a few months after the 10th anniversary of the demise of the Arrow and the Iroquois…were watching deep within the confines of NASA, from their command posts, as their newest creation, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Then for the very first time in world history a man descended down a ladder on the lunar module, and proceeded to walk on the moon.
These extraordinary aviation and aerospace feats, made possible, because of SIGNIFICANT contributions from our ex-Avroites (ex-Avro employees)!
Just 10 years previous these guys were at Avro in Toronto!
Arrows to the moon, baby…Arrows…to the moon!
If you don't understand that last quip, back to sleep, Canada.
And I, am, outta', here!
Good night, Canada!
TORONTO! You'll NEVER…have a finer hour~
(This version of the photo: © Paul Cardin - Special Projects in Research)
