Thankyou for visiting my website.I try to add new material on a regular basis which you can access by selecting the tabs at the top of this page (be sure to click on the "right" arrows to access additional pages-76 at last count) and welcome contributions of original (especially Canadian) material. Although this page normally remains constant you can find new or updated articles by perusing the website with new pages under section one usually. Don't forget to check out the articles under the pull down tabs at the top of this page. And if you happen to be an executive with the History Channel, yes, I could create a more entertaining series of abandonned airports than your terrible Abandoned Racetracks show that nobody but Dale Earnhardt's family cares about. contact me at ed dot [email protected].
Latest update: Sept 2023 Airplane ashtrays and Centralia pics
Latest update: Sept 2023 Airplane ashtrays and Centralia pics
Ontario By Air
I created this website to blog about my favourite pastime-all things aerospace. An old friend who was a baseball fan had a big map in his house with every major league stadium he'd visited marked with a coloured pin-it was his goal to see a major league baseball game in every stadium in North America. His enthusiasm for his favourite team, the BlueJays, and the sport of baseball was infectious and it gave me the idea to do something in the same manner by posting everything aerospace I come across in my travels. His goal was to hit all the major league stadiums before he retired, but in my case, there's way too many cool things related to aerospace (and too many airports just in Ontario) to ever realistically plan on taking it all in, even if I limited it to a days travel from my home in Ontario-after all, as the fifth largest aerospace manufacturer in the world, Canadians more than hold their own in the aerospace industry. Nonetheless, I'm up for a challenge and I plan to chronicle as many of the aerospace related things I come across on this website, from airfields to astronauts. My earliest memories of anything aeronautical were as a small child visiting Selfridge AFB in Michigan, and later at London, ON with my dad for some great airshows and I've continued that tradition with my own son who appears throughout this website both as photographer and photographee. Check out the site often as I continue to add more articles, photos etc.
. I have been a private pilot for over 40 years and currently enjoy flying in a homebuilt RV-4 based out of Stratford, Ontario. Hopefully, this website will afford me an opportunity to ride shotgun occasionally in some other planes (jets too!) and share my passion for aviation with other like-minded pilots. Send me your best flying stories, tips, places to visit, photos and of course, Ontario airfield/airports via the contact submission box below and I'll post the best submissions here regularly. Make sure you check out all the pages by scrolling through the header and drop-downs... Photo looking West towards Centralia (former RCAF training field) from my RV-4.
. I have been a private pilot for over 40 years and currently enjoy flying in a homebuilt RV-4 based out of Stratford, Ontario. Hopefully, this website will afford me an opportunity to ride shotgun occasionally in some other planes (jets too!) and share my passion for aviation with other like-minded pilots. Send me your best flying stories, tips, places to visit, photos and of course, Ontario airfield/airports via the contact submission box below and I'll post the best submissions here regularly. Make sure you check out all the pages by scrolling through the header and drop-downs... Photo looking West towards Centralia (former RCAF training field) from my RV-4.
Boeing 307 Stratoliner
Howard Hughes, thwarted Aviation Pioneer
Not many people realize that Howard Hughes made significant contributions to aviation outside of the well known H-2 troop plane, often referred to as the "Spruce Goose" a name which Howard detested, and which was in any case, not even accurate since it wasn't spruce wood. In the 1930's and 40's Burbank airport would most certainly have been the place to go to see the latest and greatest designs and it was there where Hughes had his engineering offices. Hughes was certainly a fan of cutting edge aviation technology and when Boeing came out with the first pressurized high altitude commercial transport, the Boeing 307, he was quick to buy one of the first, which he converted into his own flying luxury penthouse- long before Donald Trump was a gleam in his father's eyes. The 307 is probably one of the most iconic (DC-3 aside) early commercial passenger planes, and nothing defines "art deco" design more than this aircraft in my opinion.
I recently had the good fortune to acquire a set of original negatives from one of Howard's engineers, a man by the name of Ken Blackwell. Ken obviously spent a lot of time at the offices in Burbank and snapped the following photos of one of TWA's Stratoliners taken at the TWA/american Airlines hangar in Burbank in 1940. Ken writes:
" The pictures looking down are from Howard Hughes Aircraft walkway (hung from roof) that joined his two engineering departments. We were designing and doing a bit of tests on laminated wood structures for his all wood (mostly) cammera (sic) ship. It was to have the Curtiss Wright 47 (?) cylinder engines. He never got them, smaller engines were used. The plane mysteriously burnt up in its' desert hangar." Editor note: the envelope the photos were in, had a hand printed note on the back, "Do not Develop". Not sure why as there does not appear to be anything secretive about the images pictured below, not seen since 1940 when Ken snapped them in the Hughes hangar..
Jpg copies of the photos below available for educational institutions or aviation publications by contacting me at [email protected].
I recently had the good fortune to acquire a set of original negatives from one of Howard's engineers, a man by the name of Ken Blackwell. Ken obviously spent a lot of time at the offices in Burbank and snapped the following photos of one of TWA's Stratoliners taken at the TWA/american Airlines hangar in Burbank in 1940. Ken writes:
" The pictures looking down are from Howard Hughes Aircraft walkway (hung from roof) that joined his two engineering departments. We were designing and doing a bit of tests on laminated wood structures for his all wood (mostly) cammera (sic) ship. It was to have the Curtiss Wright 47 (?) cylinder engines. He never got them, smaller engines were used. The plane mysteriously burnt up in its' desert hangar." Editor note: the envelope the photos were in, had a hand printed note on the back, "Do not Develop". Not sure why as there does not appear to be anything secretive about the images pictured below, not seen since 1940 when Ken snapped them in the Hughes hangar..
Jpg copies of the photos below available for educational institutions or aviation publications by contacting me at [email protected].
Dave Drimmer's Boeing 307 Stratoliner Houseboat
Dave Drimmer owns what is left of Howard Hughe's Boeing 307 in the form of a houseboat which he has maintained on the inside with much of the original furnishings when Hughe's owned the plane. Dave had some interesting information to share with me about the 307:
"...On a related note, I discovered a dedicated 307 website that I wasn't aware of until recently. I've often considered making one that's specific to the model and perhaps will still do sometime in the future: http://stratolinerclub.com/. I'm also collaborating with a retired Boeing IT employee who is doing a complete forensic review of all the ten Strats for the Museum of Flight. Incidentally the MOF is extremely interested in acquiring the planeboat for exhibition, a definite maybe sometime in the future. This retiree, Craig Dupler, also has this intriguing theory that one of the Strats that was reported damaged and scrapped in SE Asia could possibly still exist! He has a photo that was supposedly taken after it was reported scrapped taken at a Taiwan CIA airbase of it in the background with its visible tail number that was originally N19908 aka APACHE. He filed a Freedom of Information request, waiting to hear back. I also recently was visited by a gentleman who does restoration work for the Montreal Aviation Museum, who graciously agreed to restore my two hatches that were in severe disrepair. I'm so surprised and very grateful for his help and interest with my craft."
March 20 2016
Craig writes: "Hi Ed. Thank you ever so much for the note. And the photos you have posted are simply priceless! A couple of corrections to your article regarding what I have been able to establish about the possibility that one of the SE Asia 307's survives. The photo taken on Taiwan is not of the suspected survivor and was taken several years before the missing one simply disappeared. The reason that the photo is significant is that it is the first hard evidence that the CIA was directly involved with the 307's, and possibly arranged for the transfer of the three that were left after the French abandoned them. We'll know much more if the FOIA request coughs up the maintenance data, especially if there are any service reports for either the missing plane, and most especially if any of the records are for work performed either after 1975 or for Mandala Airlines. Either of those would be a smoking gun pointing the way to the possible survivor. As an aside, what I've told Bob Bogash and others is that if the news is positive, I'll first request permission to make a presentation to the Museum of Flight's acquisition and curator team, where I'll announce the positive results first and then send out the email to all interested parties. If the news is either negative or indeterminate, I'll just send out the update right away."
"...On a related note, I discovered a dedicated 307 website that I wasn't aware of until recently. I've often considered making one that's specific to the model and perhaps will still do sometime in the future: http://stratolinerclub.com/. I'm also collaborating with a retired Boeing IT employee who is doing a complete forensic review of all the ten Strats for the Museum of Flight. Incidentally the MOF is extremely interested in acquiring the planeboat for exhibition, a definite maybe sometime in the future. This retiree, Craig Dupler, also has this intriguing theory that one of the Strats that was reported damaged and scrapped in SE Asia could possibly still exist! He has a photo that was supposedly taken after it was reported scrapped taken at a Taiwan CIA airbase of it in the background with its visible tail number that was originally N19908 aka APACHE. He filed a Freedom of Information request, waiting to hear back. I also recently was visited by a gentleman who does restoration work for the Montreal Aviation Museum, who graciously agreed to restore my two hatches that were in severe disrepair. I'm so surprised and very grateful for his help and interest with my craft."
March 20 2016
Craig writes: "Hi Ed. Thank you ever so much for the note. And the photos you have posted are simply priceless! A couple of corrections to your article regarding what I have been able to establish about the possibility that one of the SE Asia 307's survives. The photo taken on Taiwan is not of the suspected survivor and was taken several years before the missing one simply disappeared. The reason that the photo is significant is that it is the first hard evidence that the CIA was directly involved with the 307's, and possibly arranged for the transfer of the three that were left after the French abandoned them. We'll know much more if the FOIA request coughs up the maintenance data, especially if there are any service reports for either the missing plane, and most especially if any of the records are for work performed either after 1975 or for Mandala Airlines. Either of those would be a smoking gun pointing the way to the possible survivor. As an aside, what I've told Bob Bogash and others is that if the news is positive, I'll first request permission to make a presentation to the Museum of Flight's acquisition and curator team, where I'll announce the positive results first and then send out the email to all interested parties. If the news is either negative or indeterminate, I'll just send out the update right away."
New Old Photos
By far and away my favourite airplane photos are those of old shots depicting Canadian aviation history and occasionally, kind collectors allow me to post them on my website to share with everyone. Gary Barrett is among this group of memorabilia collectors who works hard to uncover these gems of aviation history which he sells on ebay and has also kindly also shared with me to present here. The lines through the photos are only meant to prevent people from copyright infringement so that Gary can earn a living, but the pictures are very cool nonetheless. The ME-262 photos below were recently uncovered from the estate of an RCAF public relations officer, R.M.L. Bowdery who was also apparently a squadron leader. Photo 1 shows some German war prizes brought back to Canada at the end of WW11 and are most likely from the RCAF staff college according to Canadian military expert Harold Skaarup. You can make out a German ME-262 (the well-known 509 ME-262 featured on my page about the Mystery of the ME-262 in Canada), a Reichenburg IV, a Komet (likely the one that was later destroyed in Arnprior) and a Vampire jet. For more pictures, see my page on the Avro Arrow.
By far and away my favourite airplane photos are those of old shots depicting Canadian aviation history and occasionally, kind collectors allow me to post them on my website to share with everyone. Gary Barrett is among this group of memorabilia collectors who works hard to uncover these gems of aviation history which he sells on ebay and has also kindly also shared with me to present here. The lines through the photos are only meant to prevent people from copyright infringement so that Gary can earn a living, but the pictures are very cool nonetheless. The ME-262 photos below were recently uncovered from the estate of an RCAF public relations officer, R.M.L. Bowdery who was also apparently a squadron leader. Photo 1 shows some German war prizes brought back to Canada at the end of WW11 and are most likely from the RCAF staff college according to Canadian military expert Harold Skaarup. You can make out a German ME-262 (the well-known 509 ME-262 featured on my page about the Mystery of the ME-262 in Canada), a Reichenburg IV, a Komet (likely the one that was later destroyed in Arnprior) and a Vampire jet. For more pictures, see my page on the Avro Arrow.
August 2020 The three photos below are from an RCAF airbase somewhere in Western Canada in the 1940s. If you can identify which base it is, please contact me at [email protected]. looking for definitive identification rather than best guesses. Airport tower is indicating a runway 210. (and yes, i have identified the serial number on the Noorduyn)
November 2019 I was given these cool photos below from a collector who got them from a photo album that belonged to the original CEO of Canadian Pacific Airlines, depicting some early Canadian bushplanes of the late 1920's (except the fleets and Beaver of course) qualifying them as some of Canada's first commercial aircraft. They appear to have been photographs retaken again in 1962, but I'm pretty sure the original negatives no longer exist. Starting in the top left, is CF-AIJ a Fokker F14 and one of the first aircraft of Western Canada Airways (Eventually Canadian Pacific Airlines) which would later be wrecked in a forced landing in West Rosser, Manitoba in 1930. Middle top are a line up of fleet Fawn 7's lined up at Camp Borden. The Fleet fawn was a primary trainer for the RCAF, and most were built between 1931 and 1938. Top right is Fokker Universal, dismantled in 1939 but apparently used to survey much of Canada's extreme north. another Fokker Universal, used by Western Airline, Canadian Airlines, Great Bear Lake Airways and Independent airway Ltd in the row below which later had it's gear collapse on landing at Gull Lake in 1933. Second row, far right is a junkers F13 with Grant McConachie standing on it-it was later sold as scrap and might be the one currently held by Deutches Technik Museum in Berlin. Bottom left is a Lockheed Vega being pulled from the mud-it's famed aviator Wiley Post's plane photographed at Edmonton during his record setting flight around the world in 1931 and attended by Grant as a child- the photo also appears in his autobiography. The last two are of a Turbo Beaver with Grant and unknown acquaintances.
March 19 2023 flea Market find.
I found these three photos in an old photo album of a former serviceman's journal of the construction of a homebuilt aircraft in the 1960's. They literally fell out of a back page and I can only assume they were perhaps snatched by him at the Arado factory in Germany at war's end as a memento. The photos are pencilled "Deedledorf 1945" which I assume was a misprint of Dusseldorf. The Arado 240 is a very rare German prototype and only a handful were made so this one was lucky to survive the war. The ME-110 appears to be a C2 variant. All three of the images are stamped with original factory stamp indicating Arado-Bildstelle Bra, Fluzeugwerke GmbH werk Brandenburg. Interested buyers can email me,
I found these three photos in an old photo album of a former serviceman's journal of the construction of a homebuilt aircraft in the 1960's. They literally fell out of a back page and I can only assume they were perhaps snatched by him at the Arado factory in Germany at war's end as a memento. The photos are pencilled "Deedledorf 1945" which I assume was a misprint of Dusseldorf. The Arado 240 is a very rare German prototype and only a handful were made so this one was lucky to survive the war. The ME-110 appears to be a C2 variant. All three of the images are stamped with original factory stamp indicating Arado-Bildstelle Bra, Fluzeugwerke GmbH werk Brandenburg. Interested buyers can email me,
July 13 2014 HOLLAND HOMECOMING
So my Canadian Aerospace Holland correspondent (cousin Robert who flies out of Rotterdam) took these photos of the Dutch National football team returning home at Rotterdam airport to a hero's welcome.
So my Canadian Aerospace Holland correspondent (cousin Robert who flies out of Rotterdam) took these photos of the Dutch National football team returning home at Rotterdam airport to a hero's welcome.
Here,a shot of a Harvard between the wings of a biplane. photo by Erik Das
Original Avro Arrow T-shirt
I had 500 of these unique Avro Arrow Anniversary T-shirts printed from my own design, modelled here by my wonderful wife in 2007. After not selling quite all of them, I now give them away to worthy candidates, fellow pilots and Canadian icons. (Mr Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings-call me anytime for your complimentary shirts!) Update 2020; T-shirts now all gone but I'll still make some up on sufficient demand!
Space Groupie (2011)
OK, I freely admit, when the opportunity presents itself to meet with a real Canadian astronaut, in this case Dr. Steve Mclean, Canada's second astronaut to walk in space, I get as giddy as a teenage girl at Justin Bieber concert. Dr. Mclean visited our company today to inspect our lunar Rover program so i made sure I brought my special edition Air and Space, space shuttle edition for an autograph. Of course, being from the Sarnia area originally, I've extended an invitation to Chris Hadfield as well to visit our plant and hopefully I'll be able to report on that in the near future. (see above- didn't get him to the plant, but was fortunate to cross paths at Centralia airport! six years later!)
Update January 2012: It seems that Dr Mclean is stepping down from his directorship of the Canadian Space Agency.
Update January 2012: It seems that Dr Mclean is stepping down from his directorship of the Canadian Space Agency.
ODG lunar rover
This is a prototype lunar Rover which the company I used to work for (ODG) is developing which the CSA is interested in. One of the engineers demonstrates the ease with which it can climb and descend inclines.
Chicago Airport
Al Capone was one of the most notorious gangsters of American history and Chicago was his stomping grounds. Federal authorities could never seem to nail him on any charges largely in part because he had a very good bookkeeper who "cleaned" his books and made him look like a law-abiding citizen. Although he was amply rewarded financially by Mr Capone, his conscience weighed heavily on him and he vowed that his son would not follow in his shoes. Knowing that his son would one day question his own success, he decided to come clean and eventually surrendered the evidence to the FBI that would lead to Al Capone's incarceration and his own death by said gangster. His son went on to lead an honest and honourable career by becoming a pilot in the Second World war and most notably, diverted a flight of eight Japanese bombers away from his American aircraft carrier singlehandedly shooting down five of them and possibly changing the ultimate outcome of the Battle of the Pacific in favour of the United States. His name was Lt Edward O'Hare, son of Al Capone's bookkeeper and namesake of Chicago O'Hare airport, in honour of America's first combat air ace. Photo at left is a Wildcat similar to the one Lt O'Hare flew which is located in the terminal building at Chicago O'Hare.
Ingersoll tools
Ingersoll Cutting Tools is a company close to Chicago Illinois I had the pleasure to visit and have a tour of the facility. Ingersoll is a manufacturer of cutting tools for the metalworking industry and the very expensive tool pictured at left is one section of a cutting tool that is used to cut the slot in the runner for the flaps on Boeing's 747 airliners.
Golden Hawk
Located in a floral park in Sarnia, this F-86 appears to have been one of the original Golden Hawks, the predecessors to the Snowbirds and notably the first air demonstration team to introduce the two planes flying head-on to each other routine, that is now a mandatory manoeuvre for any fighter jet show worth its salt. This F-86 is now in the midst of a renovation, headed up by my friend Rick West (who is without dispute the best man in Sarnia to head up the project)but will be unfortunately repainted in other colours according to the Sarnia Observer.
Update mar 2013 Apparently other Sarnians shared my opinion which I posted to the editor of Sarnia's Observer on the paint scheme of this classic jet- it will retain the Golden Hawks colours and is currently undergoing the 1st stage of restoration. I spoke with Rick recently and he advised that in the course of the refurbishing they discovered serial numbers which confirm this jet was actually one of the leads for the original Golden Hawks jets!
Update july 2014 111my friend Rick West is doing a great job restoring the F-86- see photos on my Sarnia page
Update mar 2013 Apparently other Sarnians shared my opinion which I posted to the editor of Sarnia's Observer on the paint scheme of this classic jet- it will retain the Golden Hawks colours and is currently undergoing the 1st stage of restoration. I spoke with Rick recently and he advised that in the course of the refurbishing they discovered serial numbers which confirm this jet was actually one of the leads for the original Golden Hawks jets!
Update july 2014 111my friend Rick West is doing a great job restoring the F-86- see photos on my Sarnia page
Centralia from 7,000ft
Took the plane up for a test ride after a brake repair and snapped this shot of Lake Huron and Centralia airport. Most of Ontario was the training grounds for the majority of British aviators during the Second world War and a majority of the smalltown airports in Ontario today remain as a legacy of the BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Program). The general flatness of the farmland as seen in the photo at left also provided the added benefit that most fields were potential landing strips in the event of emergency. A lot of these airfields (Centralia airport roughly in the middle of the shot) have fallen under neglect as a result of public apathy but fortunately there's still enough support to keep many of them operating if only on a shoestring budget and the help of many volunteers.
Kitchener-Waterloo airshow
I don't go to airshows too often (surprisingly), but this weekend I had a couple of free tickets and the pending rain promised to keep the crowds down so my son and I took in the Waterloo ground display. Of course, the obligatory fighter cockpit photo was mandated.
The Waterloo show was actually a bit of a disappointment but I suppose since i was a kid, military spending isn't what it used to be and the majority of the small group of display aircraft seemed to come from private collections.
The Waterloo show was actually a bit of a disappointment but I suppose since i was a kid, military spending isn't what it used to be and the majority of the small group of display aircraft seemed to come from private collections.
Provost
A 1960's Provost, the only one still in flying condition in Canada.
Neil Armstrong was Here
This jet (F5D Skylancer) is a direct descendant of the space shuttle and is the only one of four originally built still in existence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_F5D_Skylancer. Project DynaSoar (NASA really needs a better PR department- did you really think naming your jet after a synonym for something extinct would conjure up an image of leading edge technology?) called for a winged aircraft that could return from space and land as a normal aircraft. I remember stopping here just outside of Dayton years ago and thinking that it would be in a museum the next time around. Sadly, it still sits outside. Neil Armstrong flew this-what are you people thinking? Put it inside. Go.........Go.Go..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_F5D_Skylancer. Project DynaSoar (NASA really needs a better PR department- did you really think naming your jet after a synonym for something extinct would conjure up an image of leading edge technology?) called for a winged aircraft that could return from space and land as a normal aircraft. I remember stopping here just outside of Dayton years ago and thinking that it would be in a museum the next time around. Sadly, it still sits outside. Neil Armstrong flew this-what are you people thinking? Put it inside. Go.........Go.Go..
RV-1 Saturday, May 26 2012
The first RV ever built (1965), an RV-1, stopped in at Windsor airport on one of two official Canadian stops on it's North American tour, so I decided to pay it a visit. The weather wasn't the greatest so only a dozen or so RV's showed up.
My RV-4 somewhere north of Stratford
Ontario is arguably one of the best places to fly in the world-lots of places to go, plenty of unrestricted airspace and generally friendly people everywhere you go. Is there a favourite stop you like to make when touring around the province? Where is it and what makes it a great destination? Let me know....
T-28 in Stratford
I always get a kick out of flying into a small airport and crossing paths with a rare bird or uncommon visitor-in this case it was a T-28 Trojan that dropped by my home airport of Stratford from Fort Erie on a Father's Day tour. This was the primary carrier training plane for the US Navy right up until the 1980's and still sports it's original arrestor hook. Of course, I never miss an opportunity to get a shot with my RV alongside another cool plane.
I recently dug up this old photo of my dad's old Beechcraft which was the first four seater I would fly on a regular basis until my dad had an unfortunate landing incident with a tree that was just a little to close to the end of the runway. Dad was fortunately unharmed, but the plane not so much.
Son's first preflight
My son checks out dad's plane and shows his approval.