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Terry has spent countless hours scanning issues of internal company publications going back over 60 years to preserve periods in history.
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Ken suggested viewing the videos linked below showing then Princess Elizabeth during her first visit to Canada in 1951. The RCAF operated 24 unpressurized North Stars as military transports. Six of those aircraft were built with passenger interiors and temporarily operated by TCA while waiting for their pressurized North Stars. The opening photo in this issue and the photo above show one of those early aircraft. The RCAF also acquired a single pressurized North Star for VIP use, designated C-5. It was the 71st and last North Star built. It was similar to the pressurized airline version built for TCA, CPA and BOAC, but was unique in using Pratt & Whitney engines from the Douglas DC-6, rather than the notoriously loud Rolls-Royce Merlin engines on all other North Stars. It was delivered in July 1950 and was retired in 1966 and later scrapped. The two videos below show that one-off C-5, then only a year old, during a royal visit to Canada in November 1951 by then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, her first of many trips to Canada. She became Queen three months later on the death of her father, King George VI. The second video (right), from a National Film Board documentary on that royal visit, has better colour footage of the C-5 which they used on a brief sidetrip to Washington, DC, also her first visit to the USA. The President then was Harry Truman. Interestingly, her flight to Kenya three months later, the first leg of a planned lengthy trip to several Commonwealth countries, and her unexpected return trip as Queen a few days later after her father's death, were on a BOAC Argonaut, the name used by BOAC for their 22 Canadair North Stars. Editors' Note: Both videos begin at the point where the aircraft is visible. |
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Sources and links: The Canadair North Star by Larry Milberry |
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