Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Pem-Air 

Once again with the suggestion of US subscriber, Richard Kruszka, I went digging through the internet regarding one of Canada's lesser known airlines; Pem-Air.

Although I don't have any conscious memory of ever seeing one of their aircraft; I must have during my early days driving around the Toronto ramp. 

Looking in Google maps for city of Pembroke, Ontario, what comes to mind is its location. It is practically in the middle of the Air Canada Rapidair 'triangle' between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. 

Pem-Air began flying as a Class II scheduled airline in 1970. Its first employee was John Smithman, a former RCAF pilot from Montreal, who had been flying as a captain with RoyalAir Ltd. a short-service airline based at the Montreal's Dorval airport. RoyalAir had been providing passenger services for Pembroke until it ceased operations in 1969.

John was a captain with RoyalAir and when he heard that Del O'Brien, a Pembroke Lawyer and 9 other investors wanted to build an airline to replace RoyalAir's services, he drove to Pembroke to meet with O'Brien. 

Within three years, the airline's passenger loads climbed to 2000 a month. Its biggest clients were Petawawa Army Base, Atomic Energy of Canada and Eddy Match Company; flying service personnel  and corporate employees to the three major centres. It does seem that, for a time, they had quite a nice niche market.

Pem-Air would become a member of the Canadian Partner loyalty program during the 1990's. However, during the turbulent times of the early 2000's, after 31 years  of service the company ended all its routes between Pembroke, Ontario and Toronto Pearson International Airport due to dropping traffic levels with Atomic Energy of Canada (that was responsible for two-thirds of its business at Pembroke).

Commercial airline services were discontinued to refocus on its flight school, an aviation service operated jointly in partnership with Algonquin College and still in operation today.

Co-founder Del O'Brien wrote his first hand memories of Pem- Air tilted 'The Community Airline That Did It All', available at the photo link at above.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pem-Air

Pem-Air Piper PA-31 Navajo - C-GCJN

Photo courtesy of Alain Rioux

Our cartoon by Dave Mathias appeared in the 'Between Ourselves' magazine issue dated September 1955. 

The caption reads “Nothing thanks, I’m just browsing”.

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

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Global Airlines, the world's newest UK long-haul airline, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a further three A380's.

With the purchase of these aircraft, the airline’s fleet development reaches a new milestone with four A380's now lined up for the start of operations in Spring 2024. 

Source: Globalairlines.com

Electra.aero rolled out its hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) technology demonstrator for the first time recently.

Called the Model EL-2 'Goldfinch,' the two-seat test vehicle will be used to “track performance and inform the design” for the company’s nine-passenger production aircraft concept. Electra completed a fully integrated ground test of its hybrid-electric propulsion system in September 2022.

Electra is planning to fly a full-scale prototype of its nine-passenger design in 2025 with the goal of achieving FAA Part 23 certification in 2028.

The company is targeting a 400-NM range, 175-knot cruise speed and payload of 2,500 pounds for the model. According to Electra, the design uses distributed electric propulsion and the company’s proprietary blown lift technology with “eight motors to provide additional wing lift, and hybrid-electric power that provides internal recharging capabilities for aircraft batteries.”

Source: AVWeb.com

Condor goes big on stripes for A330neo flights.

German leisure carrier Condor Airlines received a lot of attention in February 2023 when New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) became the first gateway to welcome one of the carrier’s new striped Airbus A330-900neo twinjets from Frankfurt.

Condor is replacing its Boeing 767's and older Airbus A330-200's with a fleet of 18 efficient A330-900neos and plans to serve all its North American destinations with this aircraft type by 2024.

Progress towards that goal is being made. Celebrations were held at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on May 8, 2023 and at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on May 11, 2023 to mark Condor’s regular, though not yet exclusive, use of its striped 310-passenger A330neos to link these cities with Frankfurt.

Our flight from Seattle to Frankfurt was on the 'Island' green-striped aircraft (below left) and we returned from Frankfurt on the 'Beach' beige/sand-striped plane (below right).

At both ends, we saw lots of people taking pictures and heard plenty of delighted giggles from kids and adults alike.

Source: runwaygirlnetwork.com

Pilotless cargo service.

Transport Canada has signed a one-year contract with an autonomous aircraft start up to provide pilotless cargo service to remote northern communities using a light aircraft.

Ribbit Airlines founder Jeremy Yang told CTV News the Ontario-based company has developed software and hardware that will enable the autonomous missions to operate on a schedule with minimal human intervention.

“From gate to gate, the airplane does everything itself,” said Wang, who began working on the project as a grad student at the University of Waterloo.

Source: AVWeb.com