Photos © Ruud Leeuw

Canadian Museum of Flight (Langley,BC), 2006


Like the sign on the door says: Welcome Aboard!

This is Douglas C-49H CF-PWH (c/n 2198) "Spirit of the Skeena" and is actually owned by the Friends of the DC-3 Canada, who recovered it in 1987 from Terrace,BC where it had been used as a spares ship by Trans Provincial Airlines and subsequently abandoned. This Classic Airliner was originally built for American Airlines and delivered in Feb.1940. It is the oldest surviving DC-3 in Canada!!!
Douglas DC-3's with the (passenger)door on the righthand side of the aircraft are rare; PWH has no cargodoor.

Interior of CF-PWH CF-PWH was refurbished by the Friends at Cloverdale and you can see they did a magnificent job!!

Former identities of this C-49H; NC21793, 42-57506, NC21798 and CF-HCF. Source: North American Survivors by Roy Blewitt (2005); see also at bottom page.

Interior
Cabin of CF-PWH
Cockpit
CF-PWH flightdeck
Cockpit
DC-3 info "Spirit of Skeena"
Restoration by the Friends of the DC-3 (Canada) group started in 1986 and Sean Keating was involved in this; he sent me some photos and recollections, follow this link for his gallery on my website.

In Dec.2006 I received following email-
"In 1974 I worked as a wrangler for a guide-outfitter in north-central BC. We flew in a DC-3 from Terrace to a place named Hyland Post, with a year’s worth of supplies, then rafted them down the Ross River to the Stikine River where our main camp was located... The DC-3 could only have been CF-PWH, which is now parked at the museum at Langley. Weird!
I never would have made the connection without your efforts."
Don McDonald

But Sean Keating disagrees on the likelyhood of it being CF-PWH:
"IIRC CF-PWH was ferried by Sheldon Luck from Vancouver to Terrace in about 1971/72 and was stripped for parts; it never flew for Trans-Provincial as it had no cargo door! My guess would be that it was CF-PWI (going from memory here) that was active with TP in Terrace at that time..."
Sean Keating

See bottom page for an update on the preparations to move the DC-3 and the entire museum!

CF-CKT This Beech is an Expediter 3NMT and its last tailnumber was/is CF-CKT (c/n A-782 / CA-180).
It is former military 2307 and was airlifted here in 1984.

More can be learned from the museum's website: www.canadianflight.org
CF-CKT
CF-CKT info
Cockpit
Cabin of CF-CKT
Way aft..

handley Page Hampden
Hampden info
F-104 Starfighter
CF-100 Canuck
CF-100 info

T-33
Snowbird
Vampire
Ongoing restoration

Inside the museum My visit was somewhat rushed here... I had lost time earlier that day finding Delta Airpark at Boundary Bay and had to fight my way through traffic to get to Langley.
So I arrived here at 15:30, only to find that they would be closing at 16:00!
So I concentrated on the displayed aircraft outside and fortunately the friendly staff allowed me some extra time to thoroughly photograph their splendid DC-3.
But for the items displayed inside I had no time except a quick photograph of this Waco. Well, it is always best to explore a museum, I find, in a series of visits so no doubt I will be back here. And there is an excellent Greek restaurant here at the airport: another reason for a revisit!
Here is some info on the Waco from the museum's website:
Serial: 4646, CF-CCW - Manufactured: 1937 - Powerplant: 330 hp Jacobs L-6MB
The Waco (wah-co) series of four-seat cabin biplanes were initiated in 1931 and were produced continuously in progressively refined models until 1939.
Serial 4646 was manufactured in 1937 at Troy, Ohio as a ZQC-6 model (285 hp Jacobs L-5MB engine) but was converted to an AQC-6 (330 hp Jacobs L-6MB) in 1947.
Purchased new by the Department of National Defence, Ottawa, it was operated by the Department of Transport until 1949, when it was moved out to the British Columbia Coast.
It was operated by B.C. Airlines, then by a logging company. Dr. Jack Pickup of Alert Bay was the next owner, who acquired the airplane in 1953 and routinely used it as a "flying doctor" float plane. During its long career it suffered several landing accidents.
It was donated to the Canadian Museum of Flight in 1980 by Dr. Pickup and is currently undergoing a complete restoration. This aircraft was donated on floats, but for the Museum's purposes, it will be restored on wheels.
The first test flight in over 30 years happened on February 13th, 2002 after a twenty year restoration done by the volunteers at the Canadian Museum of Flight.

Harvard Mk IIB
nice museum, nice airport
The following information on the Harvard was obtained through the Museum's website:
One of the museum's most impressive artifacts is a North American Harvard Mk II, donated by Dr. Gordon Potter. It is one of the Canadian built Mk. IIB models, built by Noorduyn Aviation in Montreal. The original civil registration was CF-MGI for many years. C-FGME has been on Langley field for about 8 years, and Dr. Potter purchased if from previous owner Brian Beard. In the mid-1980's the Harvard had belonged to Dr. Rolf Yri who used the call letters YRI. It went to the U.S. for a short time before being brought back to Canada. The letters YRI are still located on the side of the plane.

Later this trip I had a brief opportunity to revisit this museum with some new-found friends, but lunch, lovely sunshine and good conversation (much was aviation folklore..) kept me from visiting the exhibits.
Fond memories are associated with this museum and I am sure I will be back... --> see below!

 

 

CANADIAN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT, REVISITED 07SEP2010

Spirit of Skeena
Douglas C-49H CF-PWH (c/n 2198) 'Spirit of the Skeena' is still in good shape.

John Stewart sent me this photo, of CF-PWH in better days:
DC-3 CF-PWH
John wrote: "This photo was taken at Vancouver, in (I think) September, 1973.
I believe it was being operated by Harrison Air at that time."

Beech 18 Beech Expediter 3NMT a CF-CKT (c/n A-782 / CA-180) hasn't changed much either, which is a good thing.

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The Handley Page Hampden P5436 is still in stages of restoration, but if one considers P5436 spent more than 44 years in salt water before recovery in the 1980s, you start to look at this project with different eyes.

Handley Page developed a modern stressed-skin mid-wing monoplane, powered by Bristol Pegasus radial air cooled engines, with its first flight in 1936. It had the most advanced wings available at the time, giving it a remarkably low landing speed of 73 mph for an aircraft of its size, with a top speed of 265 mph.

The Hampden went into service in August 1938 with No. 49 Squadron (RAF). A total of 1,432 Hampdens were built, 502 of them by Handley Page, 770 by English Electric and 160 in Canada by the Victory Aircraft consortium. Of the 160 built, 84 were shipped by sea to Britain, while the remainder came to Patricia Bay (Victoria Airport) B.C., to set up No.32 OTU (RAF).

During operations, the Hampden proved to have serious deficiencies, particularly in its defensive armament, which consisted of five 0.303 inch machine guns. The fixed forward firing gun proved almost useless and the single guns in the nose, dorsal and ventral positions had limited transverse, leaving a number of blind spots. In addition, the cramped conditions led to crew fatigue on long flights, and it was almost impossible for crew members to gain access to each others cockpit in an emergency. Losses during early daylight raids were very heavy.

P5436 was one of the Canadian-built Hampdens. It survived only 100 hours of flying time before crashing near Patricia Bay, on November 15th, 1942.
The aircraft quickly sank 600 feet to the bottom. The 4-man crew was more fortunate, as the pilot of a passing Stranraer flying boat had seen the mishap, and they were plucked out of the water, with very minor injuries, within minutes.
In the 1980's, CMF salvaged the remains of Hampden AN136 from Mt. Tuam on Saltspring Island, and a later N132 from a mountaintop near Ucluelet.
In 1985, some detective work into wartime RCAF files pinpointed the depth of P5436's wreck.

The difficult and costly salvage operation was carried out by Jerry Olsen and his crew of C-LOST (Canadian Lake and Ocean Salvage Team), the Thompson Family of Tillicum Towing of Pender Harbour and International Submarine Engineering.

Restoration work was driven mainly by volunteer Fred Gardham, who worked on Hampdens in the local aviation industry during WWII, and who had even logged one flight in P5436 following repairs. Vital components from the other two Hampden crash sites were used in the rebuild.
[Source: www.canadianflight.org]

Handley Page Hampden on Wikipedia


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text Replica Mustang MJ-7-G C-FIJB (c/n 34),
Manufacturer I.J. (JACK) BAPTISTE in 1981; reg'd to Museum of Flight 08Aug08.

 

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Fleet 16B Finch II C-GBJS/4725

 
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text '4236' is De Havilland DH.82C Tiger Moth C-GMFT

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Westland Lysander Mk.IIIA C-GBXL (c/n 1194)
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Pratt and Whitney R-2800 CB-16 Double Wasp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp is a two-row, 18-cylinder, air-cooled radial aircraft engine. The R-2800 is considered one of the premier radial piston engines ever designed and is notable for its widespread use in many important American aircraft during and after World War II.

After the war the engine was used in a number of commercial aircraft: Douglas DC-6, Convair 440 and the Canadair CL215 waterbomber.

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Aviation pioneers remembered
radiator from Junkers F.13

Waco
Western Canadian Museum of Flight's 1936 Waco EQC-6 CF-CCW (c/n 4646)
Waco

Restoration of Fleet 80 Canuck C-FHOU (c/n 220)
Fleet 80 Canuck restoration
Restoration Canuck C-FHOU

Crash TCA North Star CF-TFD
wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Canada_Air_Lines_Flight_810

CMF commemorates crash Flight 810

The Harvard is still with the CMF

The Harvard 2 CF-GME (c/n 07 144) has the following information on the Transport Canada website: Manufacturer: Noorduyn Aviation Ltd. in 1941 - Type of Registration: Private - Owner Registered Since: 1996-10-17 / Latest Certificate of Registration Issued: 2003-10-10 and Owner's Name: Canadian Museum of Flight Association.

 

Ken Swartz forwarded me ((Nov.2024) a link and info on a possible relocation of this museum.
"This article probably answers the question of what’s going to happen with the Canadian Museum of Flight’s propliners: Lockheed 18 CF-TCY, DC-3 (DST) CF-PWI, and DHC CS2F Tracker/Firecat CF-OPU.
The DC-3 and Tracker/Firecat are at Langley Airport and the Lockheed 18 is at Abbotsford Airport."

www.theprogress.com/news/bc-based-canadian-museum-of-flight-to-move
'After an unsuccessful attempt to find a new location at the Langley airport, the museum will be moving to Pitt Meadows.'
'Mike Sattler, a Canadian Museum of Flight Association director, told the Langley Advance Times the extra space is needed to accommodate a growing collection of aircraft and aviation-related exhibits at the non-profit, volunteer-driven institution.
"We really wanted to stay there. It's been our home for the last 20-something years. But then we realized that the museum was changing [becoming] something that was a little bit bigger than we had imagined."
Sattler said it will probably take about five years to complete the relocation, and it won't be cheap. "Just to move the aircraft [alone] to Pitt Meadows is going to be just under $1.5 million."

Jan.2025 update:
Langley's DC-3 being moved
www.hopestandard.com/community/moving-day-for-historic-dc-3-at-langley-airport (20Jan2025)

A historic DC-3 briefly returned to the air on Friday, Jan. 17 (2025) when the 85-year old aircraft belonging to the Canadian Museum of Flight was lifted by a crane at the Langley airport, which moved it from a spot next to the north-south runway to a location in front of the historical mural on the north side of the airport administration building.

Relocation was ordered by NAV Canada, the federal air traffic control agency, which had "calculated a potential obstacle issue for aircraft arriving and departing," said Geoff Guest, a member of the museum board of directors.
He said another museum aircraft, a Conair Firecat, was ordered to move a few months earlier for the same reasons.
Guest coordinated the move of the DC-3 with assistance of museum volunteers, airport staff and the cooperation of airport manager Patric Sihota, using the same crane company that moved it back in 2017, Maxum Crane Rentals Ltd.
"It's actually quite a rare DC3" Guest said.

Named "Spirit of the Skeena," the DC-3 was the first to be owned and operated by a B.C. airline, Queen Charlotte Airlines, and went on to become the first operated by Pacific Western Airlines.
It was rescued by "Friends of the DC-3, North America," from a scrap dealer after it was stripped for parts and abandoned in Terrace. It ended up first at the then-Transportation Museum in Cloverdale, and when that closed, it went to the Langley museum.

It is the second time in just under 8 years the DC-3 has had to move at the Langley airport.
In 2017, it had to be shifted to the location west of the runway because of construction at the airport.
At the time, that particular site was expected to be the location of a big new museum building, but that didn't happen.
"There's a bit of a creek, and the terrain there is really not acceptable," Guest said.
Now, the museum has an agreement to move to a new home in Pitt Meadows, but that is still a few years off.
"The museum's not going anywhere soon," Guest said.
"It's the number one tourist attraction in Langley next to [historic] Fort Langley, which is a national park. We've got education and kids programs. We just want to pass on the history of what aviation does."

This year, the museum plans to focus on the history of civil aviation, after marking the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) last year.

 

 

 

 

Continue my 2010 journey in the Greater Vancouver area and Vancouver Island HERE...

North American Survivors, by Roy Blewett "North American Survivors" by Roy Blewett (Gatwick Aviation Society, 2005) is an excellent handbook to take out on the road or use at home as a reference guide.
It offers status and information on vintage transports (both propellor and jets) and are listed by Canadian and US States; there are three appendixes covering aircraft in Mexico, a listing of extant Beech 18s and “US Army Air Force Skytrains and Skytroopers; where are they now?”.
The book is in easy to use A5 format and fits easy in any size of bag. The 358 pages offer a huge amount of information and is of great use in planning a trip to N.America.
I hope others will follow in the example set by this book.

www.aircraft-survivors.com

 

Aviation Museums of North AmericaThe most wonderful book to have with you for visiting air museums and seeking out plane collections are the books by Bob Ogden, published by Air-Britain.
It is also extremely helpful to catalogue your photos when you return home with photos taken at aviation museums.

Besides this edition on Aviation Museums and Collections of North America (published in 2007), there are the editions Aviation Museums and Collections of Mainland Europe and Aviation Museums and Collections of the Rest of the World.
The books offer great detail and are masterpieces of research.

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


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