Western Development Museum, Moose Jaw -2007-

Photos © Ruud Leeuw

Western Development Museum (Transportation),
Moose Jaw- Saskatchewan

Summer vacation in 2007 brought me to Canada. My itinerary made me travel through Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba as well as parts of Northwest Ontario.
On my way from Winnipeg to Calgary I passed several museums and in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan) I visited the Western Development Museum on 22Sep07.

The museum has exhibitions at four different locations in the province and many aspects of life are portrayed. The Moose Jaw branch houses the transport collection.
There are impressive displays of cars, boats and railway equipment.
At the entrance sits this forward fuselage of, I think, Avro 652A Anson I; below one can see the interior of the cockpit.
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) had many bases in the area and a replica of the front of a typical hangar has been built with examples of aircraft in the famous yellow scheme parked nearby.
However, disaster struck... I seem either to have lost a compact flash card with the images taken at the museum or failed to make a proper back up before deleting the images for the card's further use
The museum offers more aircraft on display than shown on the photos below; I am esspecially saddened that the images of the Noorduyn Norseman Mk.V CF-SAM [Airliners.net] were lost: it was the 2nd aircraft used by the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service and was bought in 1946; during its first year of operation it flew 173 patient missions - the service peaked in 1953 with 1.000 missions.
The Moose Jaw WDM has also a special display of the Snowbirds aerobatic team.

In 2016 Norman Smith read my misfortune, loosing the images, and came to the rescue with these images of CF-SAM:
Noorduyn Norseman CF-SAM at Moose Jaw air museum

Noorduyn Norseman CF-SAM at Moose Jaw air museum
Thanks Norman!

Jodel D.9 Bébé CF-PFB (c/n 1)
This D-9 was built from a kit in Estevan,SAS and used for pleasure flying

Piper J3C-65X CF-LBE (c/n 4848X) on floats

DeHavilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth CF-ADI (c/n 781)

An early glider, but I don't remember which one

Pheasant H-10 G-CASR (c/n 121), former NC5417

Funk B-85C CF-HAR (c/n 311), ex/ N81181

"Thanks for posting your review of the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw,SK. It was a most pleasant surprise to see your photo of the Funk B-85 (CF-HAR).
My father was the second owner of N81181. He sold it in Canada when he returned to the U.S., after a pipeline construction job was completed in 1953. Although he subsequently owned and flew several aircraft, he always regretted selling that Funk..."
Mike Myrick
Merritt Island,FL

Aeronca K, CF-BIN (c/n K-280)

This is the front hull portion of a Vickers Vidette flying boat. This aircraft was used in northern Saskatchewan in the 1920s and 1930s for forest fire suppression and other work.

DeHavilland DH.82C Tiger Moth, C-GYGU - 3985

Other aircraft on display include a Beech C23 Sundowner, Cessna T-50 Crane I, Fairchild M-62A-4 Cornell II. Noorduyn Norseman Mk.V and a Stinson HW.75.
And of course many other forms of transportation.
The map may give you a clue to the extent of the collection, truly a museum one can spend hours in!

The museum's website

Other Canadian aviation museums I visited during this 2007 vacation are:

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Hamilton, Ontario (17Sep07)
Western Canada Aviation Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba (2007)
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon, Manitoba (2007)
Nanton Lancaster Air Museum, Nanton, Alberta (2007)

Bernard Filiatrault attended the May 2007 opening of the new RCMP Heritage Centre and sent some images of this Beech Expeditor, putting this museum on the map for me, so to speak...
So I made it a point to visit the new RCMP Heritage Centre in neighbouring Regina, but was told at the reception desk that the DHC-3 Otter (cockpit, CF-MPW) on display had not 'survived' the move earlier this year to the brand new museum. So I cancelled my intention to enter the museum, instead I went over to the former entrance where I found permission to photograph the Beech D18S on display here.

Fortunately Shannon Cunningham (Conservator/Collections Manager) sent me good news on CF-MPW's fate: "It is in storage in the back room of the Heritage Centre. In fact, we just moved the engine from the old museum to the new facility a couple of weeks ago. We are hoping to have it back out on exhibit at some point in the future as it is extremely popular with children." [April 15th, 2008]

Beech D18S CF-MPH (c/n A-141)

Air Museums by Bob Ogden The best book to take with you for visiting aviation museums, are the ones compiled by Bob Ogden for Air-Britain; for this trip I carried with me the recently (2007) published guide for North America.

In 2011 a 2nd edition, fully revised and also including monuments, was published by Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd.

Created: 28-Mar-2008

Western Development Museum (Transportation), Moose Jaw- Saskatchewan

Western Development Museum (Transportation),
Moose Jaw- Saskatchewan