Showing posts with label Hamilton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamilton. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

Saturday May 23, 2009

Now we're at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on the outskirts of Hamilton, Ontario. Glenn's comments are in italics.

They call this a "Gate Guard". It's actually a CF101 Starfighter, utilized by the Canadian Forces in Europe and a real killer of many pilots. Why? Just dig the dinky wings.

Inside the front door you first come to a gift shop.

The displays are through a beautifully designed door featuring many of Canada's military aircraft.

A humdinger of a painting, featuring a PBY amphibian, Lancaster and a Corsair.

A small scale version of the Fairey Swordfish, Britain's first line of defense at the beginning of WW2. Most were promptly shot down.

A Fairchild Cornell, another "woody' military trainer.

The odd looking Westland Lysander, used during WW2 to sneak spies in and out of occupied territory. Here it's painted as a target towing aircraft. I almost shot one down during air to air gunnery practice.

J and T flew in this very Stearman a few years ago. They both crammed into one seat!

Oooo - I do love a silver airplane.
The Lockheed T33 "Shooting Star". Friend Terry Macaulley from my hobby shop days, took me flying in one of these slick jets.

Avro Arrow. A fine model of a tragic aircraft. The tragedy was that we had a Prime Minister who was a complete idiot, letting the Americans convince him that the days of manned fighters were over. I was at Air Force headquarters when we saw the first unauthorized photos of three Arrows being chopped up. It was Diefenbaker that should have been chopped up.

Hawker Hurricane.

It's just a crying shame to clip the beautiful wings of a Spitfire, I think.

The start of it all in Canada...a replica of the Silver Dart which first flew at Baddeck, Nova Scotia in 1909.

This is, of course the mighty "Lanc", one of WW2's most famous bombers. The Avro Lancaster made a name for itself during many hairy operations, among them being the famous Dam buster raids. The bomb bay is huge - I have to suggest that maybe two B17 Flying Fortress bomb bays would probably fit in the Lanc's bomb bay. The Yanks designed their bombers around the crew and armament and the left over space was for a few bombs. The British planned for maximum bomb load and any spaces that were left over was where they squeezed in the crew.

We managed to get inside this bomber and see the cramped space and the complicated-looking controls.
Can you believe that 18 year old kids sat here and manhandled the huge four engined beast through every kind of hazard know to man? In this view from the pilot's seat, a Harvard taxis by in the bright sunshine.

The two starboard engines loom over the Tiger Moth.