Armed Forces Day at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth. 
T-33 Silver Star, courtesy of Waterloo Warbirds (waterloowarbirds.com), July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
July 2017
On Saturday July 8, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM) at Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope, Ontario, hosted Air Force Day, a part of Hamilton’s Canada 150 celebrations.
Visitors had the opportunity to meet current members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, see their aircraft up close on the ground and learn the many roles performed by Canada’s air force today and view almost 60 aircraft close up. From helicopters and transports to the CF-188 Hornet, along with the museum’s permanent collection of vintage military aircraft, including one of only two flying Avro Lancaster Mk. X in North America.
Originally housed in an old WWII-era British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) hangar at the Hamilton John C. Munroe International Airport, the CWHM was founded in 1972 for the purpose of preserving and maintaining a collection of aircraft flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force from WWII to the present day, along with an exhibition hall with displays on the BCATP in Hamilton, stories of prisoner escape networks in Europe and traveling exhibits such as memorabilia from the Anne Frank Museum and the important contributions of women in wartime.
The museum also has a collection of artifacts, books, periodicals and manuals in its archives and is open year round.
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- De Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Douglas DC-3 flown in WWII by 435 Squadron “Canuks Unlimited”, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Interior of Douglas DC-3, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Looking out the cockpit window of the Douglas DC-3, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft beside a WWI-era bi-plane, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Inside the C-130 Hercules, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Inside the C-130 Hercules, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- De Havilland DHC-5 Buffalo, similar to the ill-fated aircraft, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Inside the De Havilland DHC-5 Buffalo, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- The RCAF DHC-5 Buffalo 461, before it was repainted for UN service. It was shot down on 9 August 1974 over Syria, killing all nine passengers and crew, the largest single-incident loss in Canadian peacekeeping operations. DND photo.
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- The crew and passengers of United Nations Flight 51, shot down over Syria on 9 August 1974. DND photos.
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- CF-100 jet fighter, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Norht American Harvard, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- The museum’s Avro Lancaster, known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in honour of Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski and it is painted in the markings of his aircraft, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Afghanistan War monument to Hamilton veterans, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Afghanistan War monument to Hamilton veterans, July 2017. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
Sources: Information provided by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum – www.warplane.com.
