PastPost - Toronto Wings and Wheels Festival, Part 1

Note: This post was originally published on a now-defunct website in 2009.  The fly-in festival, supported in large part by Bombardier Aerospace, was organized by the Canadian Air & Space Museum only six times - 2006-2011.  It ended when the museum was evicted from its historic premises to make room for ice hockey rinks which, in the end, were never built at that site.  In order to maintain historical context, the captions remain in their original form.

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Toronto Wings and Wheels Heritage Festival

23-24 May 2009

The Toronto, Ontario area is rich in aviation heritage and no site is more prominent than the airfield at Downsview.  Aerial activities began here when a growing de Havilland Aircraft of Canada established a new factory and flying field in 1929 on what had been farmland.  Since that time grass has given way to paved runways and the sights of wood and fabric, piston-engine biplanes has been replaced by modern turboprop commuter airliners and turbofan-powered executive jets produced by Bombardier Aerospace.  Military flying - from transports to jet fighters to helicopters - was long carried out at the airport by the Royal Canadian Air Force and, later, the Canadian Forces but encroaching civilization eventually forced a close to that chapter.  Most of the former military base has since become an urban park and recreational area but a link with the past is maintained by the presence of the Canadian Air & Space Museum which celebrates aeronautical achievements past and present.

The museum is also the site of the annual Toronto Wings and Wheels Heritage Festival and a variety of modern and historical civil and military aircraft fly in for public display.

Special thanks go to Media Relations Manager Diana Spremo and media escorts for their help in making the following images possible.

The following links are provided for those interested in visiting the museum and the festival:

Toronto Wings and Wheels Heritage Festival http://torontowingsandwheels.com/

Canadian Air & Space Museum http://casmuseum.org/

Part One

The Fighters

(above)  This nicely painted Fokker DR.I replica, C-GDRI, taxies in upon arrival at Downsview.  It is flown by the unique Great War Flying Museum based at Brampton Airport located north of that Ontario city and is painted in the markings of WWI German Air Service pilot Leutnant Paul Bäumer who was credited with 18 victories during the Great War of 1914-1918.  The Fokker DR.I was inspired by the agile British Sopwith Triplane which began operating with Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps squadrons in early 1917 and the first examples entered service later in the year.  Though DR.Is accounted for a tiny fraction of German fighter production, its place in history is guaranteed for it will forever be associated with that great German fighter pilot - Manfred von Richthofen otherwise known as "The Red Baron".

(above)  Representing World War II naval aviation, FG-1D Corsair C-GVWC, a Goodyear-built version of the Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair, sits idling soon after engine start prior to departure.  The outstanding Corsair was used in great numbers in the last half of World War II by the US Navy and as a multirole fighter by the US Marine Corps and equipped squadrons of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in the Atlantic and Pacific and the Royal New Zealand Air Force as well.  This aircraft, painted as a Corsair flown by Lieutenant Robert H. Gray, VC, DSC, Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve while assigned to the Fleet Air Arm's 1841 Squadron embarked in HMS Formidable, is part of the growing collection of warbirds and antique civil aircraft that belong to Vintage Wings of Canada at Gatineau Executive Airport, Quebec.  Lt. Gray was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross - the last to a Canadian - for his attack on an Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer on 9 August 1945.  Despite intense antiaircraft fire and damage to his aircraft he continued the attack that dispatched the ship to the bottom.

(above)  Resplendent in the markings of a North American Mustang Mk. IV flown by No. 441 (Fighter) Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force late in the Second World War, P-51D C-FVPM is also part of the Vintage Wings of Canada collection.  The P-51D is probably the most publicized version of Mustang and is best known for its World War II service with the US Army Air Forces in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Pacific but it was also flown by squadrons of the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, RCAF, Chinese Air Force and, in its reconnaissance version, by a Free French Air Force squadron.  Canadian squadrons, for the most part, flew early reconnaissance versions powered by Allison V-1710 engines but some Mk. III and Mk. IV aircraft, equivalent to the USAAF P-51B/C and P-51D respectively, made their way late in the war to Nos. 441 and 442 Squadrons which had previously flown Supermarine Spitfires.

(above)  A welcome addition to the festival, arriving MiG-15 N15VN comes to a stop following an early morning flight.  The aircraft, a two-seat MiG-15UTI trainer, is owned by Viper North and carries the basic markings applied to most aircraft flown by Union of Soviet Socialist Republics air arms during much of the 50-year Cold War.  In the history of air warfare, few fighter aircraft can be as important as the MiG-15.  Its appearance during the Korean War challenged American air superiority for the first time and resulted in the deployment of North American F-86 Sabres and the first large-scale combats between swept-wing fighters.  The MiG-15 was the first of a long line of successful swept-wing jet fighters from the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau and formed the backbone of the fighter forces of the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China and most of the countries within their spheres of influence.

(above)  Canada's frontline fighter is the McDonnell Douglas - now Boeing - F/A-18 Hornet.  It's officially the unnamed CF-188 in Canada but is usually referred to simply as the CF-18 or Hornet and an example of the single-seat version is seen here.  From 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron at 3 Wing CFB Bagotville, Quebec, 188711 and pilot get a tow from the static display area prior to departure following the festival.  The F-18 represents the fourth generation of American jet fighter aircraft and its heritage can be traced to the Northrop YF-17 which was built to compete against the General Dynamics YF-16 in a 1974 competition to select a new lightweight, low-cost, air superiority fighter for the US Air Force.  The YF-16 won and went on to become an outstanding multirole fighter while development of the YF-17 by Northrop and McDonnell Douglas led to the equally capable F/A-18 Hornet.  It entered service with the first US Navy fleet replacement squadron in 1981 and the first operational US Marine Corps squadron the following year.  Canada became the first foreign nation to buy the F/A-18 and, with deliveries to the Canadian Forces commencing in the autumn of 1982, the CF-18 eventually replaced McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo interceptors as well as Canadair CF-104 and CF-5 strike aircraft.

NASA Announces Museum Destinations for Space Shuttles

NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. just announced the permanent display locations of the space shuttle fleet when the program ends this year.  According to the retired US Marine Corps Major General, Enterprise (aerodynamic test vehicle) will move from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.  Discovery will go to the NASM while Endeavour will be displayed at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  The last bird, Atlantis, will reside at Kennedy Space Center from where all of the shuttles were launched since STS-1 Columbia inaugurated the shuttle space flight program 30 years ago today.

About This Blogger

Phil has been around aircraft, in one form or another, for very nearly his entire life.  Indeed, if it’s possible for aviation to ‘run in a family’, then a grandfather who served as an observer with a Royal Air Force reconnaissance squadron during the Great War, an uncle and cousin who were pilots plus a father and another uncle who were reserve officers in the Royal Canadian Air Force/Canadian Forces made an interest in the subject unsurprising.

Born in northwest Metropolitan Toronto, Phil grew up in nearby Mississauga and was introduced to aviation through air shows, visits to RCAF Station Downsview (Toronto) to view transient aircraft and air reserve operations and much time spent at Mississauga’s major airport variously known as Malton Airport, Toronto International Airport and, now, Lester B. Pearson International Airport.

Later on he obtained a Private Pilot Licence through an air cadet flying scholarship program and a college diploma in Aircraft Maintenance Technology.

Though an introduction to photography came with a general-purpose ‘Instamatic’ camera, serious 35mm aviation photography began in 1975.  An eventual desire to expand to printed images and words led to the co-authoring of two books – Modern Military Aircraft and Their Markings: No. 1 Canadian Armed Forces and Military Aircraft Illustrated No. 1: Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve – with his photographer/publisher brother and the publication of photos in several other military aviation and aircraft books.

After two decades in the logistics industry, the last many years as a warehouse supervisor and health and safety specialist, Phil became a victim of economic globalization/downsizing/outsourcing and found plenty of time to start Aviation eBooks.  The original photographic/research effort supported the development of a digital tome covering aviation in Ontario but it was overtaken by work on Biplanes to B-2s: USAF Heritage on Display which was released in early 2011. 

When not working on several planned e-publications, Phil enjoys drumming in pipe bands.  Rudimental drumming has also been a lifelong interest and he has played in bugle bands, drum and bugle corps, military bands and pipe bands.  He has particularly enjoyed the challenges of teaching drummers of a variety of skill levels and writing percussion scores for the drum corps of several pipe bands.  Phil is currently the Lead Drummer and drum instructor with the Pipes and Drums of the Toronto Scottish Regiment, an Army Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Forces.