Canadian Aviation Museum

I took my dad to this gem of a museum this week. The Canadian Aviation Museum is not in Ottawa or Hamilton. It is in Windsor and is run by the Canadian Historical Aircraft Association out of the only remaining building of RCAF 07 Elementary Flight Training School. This base came into being on the Walker airfield during World War 2 as part of the scheme to train pilots. The Walker airfield is now Windsor Airport.

The museum's general focus is telling the story of the base and on the aircraft that the novice pilots would fly. To that aim, they have a Fleet Finch, which is very similar to the Fleet Fawn, which was the aircraft that this base had. 

They also have a Tiger Moth and a Harvard. All of these aircraft are flight capable. They are reassembling a second Tiger Moth.

They also have a couple of other training aircraft such as the Boeing Stearman, which was a trainer for the US Air Force.

dditionally, they have a WW2 flight "simulator" and a Vickers Viscount flight simulator. 

Basically, the museum is bursting at the seams and has more aircraft and exhibits. They don't have enough room for their T33 Silver Star, a Korean era jet, so they have to put a tarp over it and park it outside.

What really makes this museum worth it is that it is a working museum. That is, they are actively building and restoring historical aircraft. In addition to a 1/2 scale replica of the Silver Dart and repairing wing damage caused by a deer strike to a training aircraft that they acquired last year, they have two ambitious projects: restoring a Lancaster bomber and building a replica Mosquito.

The Lancaster is in a lot of pieces. We were able to wander around the parts to do things like put our heads up into the bomb bays and look down inside the tail of the Lancaster.

	The nose of the plane is in the background.
One half is painted up as the "Bad Penny", which was the first humanitarian aid flight to the Netherlands in Spring 1945.	The bomb aimer/front gunner position
The main wing span with the crawl route over the wing near the centre of the picture.	The bomb bay from the inside. The view up into the cockpit.

As a working museum, there were a number of guys tinkering on the two planes. We talked to a couple of them about what they were doing.

The Mosquito is a completely new aircraft, although the engines are authentic. Built in 1945, they were crated and left that way until the museum acquired them.

	The aileron under construction.
A wooden plane requires a woodshop.	A Merlin being serviced.
The museum recovered a few pieces from a wrecked Mosquito in Canada's far north.	Parts being built.

If you are in the Windsor area, I highly recommend a visit.