Sixty-five to seventy years ago, an entire generation of young, virile men and strapping naive boys would forgo the futures they were planning for to join the fight against tyranny around the world..

On August 14th, 2010, there was an invasion of Vintage Wings of Canada from veterans of the Burma theatre of operations during the Second World War. Three successive waves of dry land…

It was a typically hot sunny day with light winds over the eastern Mediterranean on the early afternoon of August the 9th, 1974. United Nations flight 51 chugged its way along the centre line of airway..

Ask just about anyone born before 1980, who was the first person in the world to break the sound barrier and you will be answered quickly with “Chuck Yeager!” In fact, Chuck Yeager has been immortalized best …

On September 23, 1953, a little remembered but near-tragic incident took place on the high seas. As one of the 42 pilots involved in this terrifying event, it remains strong in my memory. ..

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Canadian Navy, the progenitor of the modern Canadian Navy. Throughout 2010, Vintage Wings of Canada will join our brothers-on-the-sea…

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, during a tour of Vintage Wings of Canada or at an air show: “Whaddya call that bullseye thingamajig there?” or “How come the bullseye on the wing …

In the period immediately after the Second World War, there were two major surpluses created which would ultimately be a breeding ground for either great ideas or bad ideas. ..

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, during a tour of Vintage Wings of Canada or at an air show: “Whaddya call that bullseye thingamajig there?” or “How come the bullseye on the wing …

Today, fourteen statues and busts stand on Sappers' Bridge near Ottawa's Parliament Hill. The Valiants Memorial is a collection of nine busts, five statues and a large bronze wall inscription that reads,…

Last year we began what we hope to be a lasting American Thanksgiving Tradition. Instead of a story about Canadian aviation history, we will run a story of one of the hundreds of thousands of our American friends who risked their lives alongside our own airmen during the Second World War….

On September 19th of this year, the Vintage Wings of Canada open house featured the reunion of James “Stocky” Edwards and his Second World War Kittyhawk fighter. While Stocky received much-deserved acclaim…

The story begins on May 19th, 1941, when I was nine days out of Halifax en route to Britain. Until now my learning experience had been great fun and excitement, but war still seemed a distant fantasy; …

By the end of the Great War, military aviation had come of age and was recognized as a vital part of modern warfare. The Armistice of November 11th 1918 required the German Army to surrender its most potent weapons of war, …

A tapered brick smokestack towering 300 feet broke the horizon at Ketton, about three miles off the east end of Runway 26, and was affectionately referred to by returning pilots as the ‘Luffenham Beacon.’ ..

During the long days of the Second World War, the wide, flat Ottawa Valley was a virtual production line for pilots bound for the battlefront theatres of Europe, North Africa, Asia and South Pacific….

There it is – on the left!” someone cried from behind us. A wave of excitement swept over the crowd of visitors at the Vintage Wings Open House. We all turned to the left, and searched the sky…

When the post-war Luftwaffe of the German Federal Republic was formed in September of 1956, plans called for the formation of several air defence day-fighter wings. The choice of a suitable aircraft was …

The entry in my log book reads simply: “Scramble - 32,000’ - 45 minutes - night”, but it was an experience I have never forgotten. Today's all-weather pilots would consider this little adventure a joke, ..

For me, ‘inspiration’ has come in the form of sights, sounds and feelings that have combined in unforgettable moments. These were experiences that touched my emotions, lifted my mind and guided me…