Road Trip - Canadian Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Canada

Canadian Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Canada

I'm home and back to work. It was a great trip, but it sure feels good to be back. I did end up a bit frustrated by how few museums we got to see for all the driving we did, but my son and I had a great time together and just driving around this great country was eye opening for him.

The last stop on the trip was the Canadian Aviation Museum. This Museum is not as big as I thought it would be. It is one main building and we covered the entire collection in a couple of hours. We could have spent more time there, but after being on the road for 29 days, Shelby and I were also feeling travel weary and had a hard time remembering where we've been in the last month.

Canadian Air and Space Museum Website
Link to Steve's Pictures

But, of course, the great thing about the museum is that the collection is uniquely Canadian. Here I can see aircraft that have a lot of cross breeding between the US and Britain such as an Avro Lancaster, or a Canadian made Mustang IV. The close ties with American designs built in Canadian factories are well documented. And there are aircraft unique to Canadian Aviation, such as the Avro CF-105 (forward fuselage only)  and the Norseman. These are planes one doesn't find elsewhere. 

The other item I was happy to see here was a Canadair Challenger 604. It's a little amazing to see  a plane I was a mechanic on back in the 80's as a museum piece (and it was the older 600 and 601s that I worked on). Does that make me old? (And yes, I'm looking a little scruffy after a month of camping)

There is a great bush plane exhibit as well and lots of videos to watch if one has the time. I did take the time on this run to mark the photographs with the aircraft type. One picture I particularly like is the closeup of the Pratt and Whitney medallion on the engine in the Bellanca Pacemaker. The medallion has "Canadian" stamped on it. I have one of these off an engine that was made in the US, but not the Canadian version.

We didn't get to the Sault St Marie Bush Plane Museum, or the Canadian Warbird Heritage Museum. They'll be on the next trip. Now, it's back to work.

Thanks for following my travels

Steven Howland

www.diecastairplane.com