Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

The B.C. Aviation Museum (BCAM) at Victoria, B.C. is making a bid to obtain the Avro Lancaster aircraft, FM104, presently owned by the City of Toronto.

There are currently seven restored Lancasters in Canada - 5 in Ontario and 2 in Alberta - there are only 2 in the world that fly, including the one in Hamilton. BCAM is facing competition from Langley's Canadian Museum of Flight.

The aircraft was built in Malton, Ont. in 1944. After the war ended, it was used for maritime patrols and search-and-rescues by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The bomber was retired in 1964 and displayed at Toronto’s Coronation Park, and, later, at the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park.

After WWII, Trans-Canada Air Lines received more than 20 Canadair DC-3 rebuilds.

Here CF-TEG sits in its polished glory at Cartierville, ready for customer acceptance. "TEG" served TCA from 1945 - 1957, then Canada's Dept. of Transport as CF-GXW to 1985.

In 1986 it flew around the world promoting Vancouver's Expo 86. In 2010 it was working with Algonquin Airways, and, in 2018, was listed as being owned by Lance Toland Ltd, Wilmington, Delaware, USA and registered as N173RD.

(Photo courtesy Larry Milberry/CANAV Books.)

Trans-Canada Air Lines, the publicly-owned trans-continental airway, plans to institute a 13-hour Vancouver-New York service by the spring of 1942, using the latest type of Boeing 307 Stratoliners. With such a service the Canadian airline would provide stiff competition to the present United States transcontinental services.

The 33-passenger pressure-cabin Stratoliners have been selected because of the high altitude flying required at the western end of the trans-Canada route.

Between Lethbridge, Alberta and Vancouver, the Canadian Rockies tower 12,000 feet and more, with the lowest pass, Crow's Nest, at 11,000 feet above sea level. During winter months planes have to operate above 12,000 feet and often go as high as 17,500 feet to miss storms. At present oxygen masks are provided or passengers and crews but the pressure cabin will eliminate this.

It was the Boeing president, Philip G. Johnson, who put Trans-Canada Air Lines on its operating feet. The use of these planes is expected to make possible flights straight across the Great Lakes, instead of as at present circling the lakes to the north, thus eliminating some 350 miles from the trans-continental route. Favourable exchange due to the war is expected to play a part in bringing United States transcontinental business to the Canadian line.

(Source: flightglobal.com 1940-1944)

(Note from Ken Pickford: this initiative was never actually implemented.)

Canadian Terminus.

Sea Island Airport, Vancouver, B.C., with one of Trans-Canada Air Lines' Lockheed Fourteens and one of United Air Lines old Boeing 247D's on the tarmac.

(Source: flightglobal 1939-0368)