K225This from Wiki:
Hubert Scott-Paine was about 18 he met Noel Pemberton-Billing and worked for him as his assistant in the buying and selling of yachts. This entailed travel all over Europe and the Mediterranean, whilst living on one of Pemberton-Billing’s yachts at Southampton, and gaining much engineering experience. Hubert and Pemberton-Billing were also interested in aviation and in 1913 they created Pemberton-Billing Ltd (with ‘Supermarine’ as the telegraphic address) with plans to build flying boats, Hubert being appointed manager of the factory at Woolston, Hampshire.
In 1914 the first aircraft, the PB1, was built in record time and exhibited at Olympia, being viewed by King George V and Winston Churchill. However the plane never flew, although orders were received from Germany. The war intervened and a land-based plane, the PB9, was designed and built within a week – although this flew there were no buyers.
In 1916 Pemberton-Billing sold the company to Hubert Scott-Paine who registered it under the name Supermarine Aviation Company Limited. The company then concentrated on designing and building flying boats for the British Admiralty. One of the engineers taken on in 1917 was Reginald Mitchell who later designed the Spitfire. Supermarine ended the war as a large and successful company.
When the Royal Aero Club announced in August 1919 that the next contest for the Jacques Schneider Trophy would be held in September Scott-Paine immediately upgraded a Supermarine ‘Baby’ single-engined flying boat, renaming it ‘Sea Lion’, but during the race the hull was damaged and the Italian entrant won.
Supermarine won the Schneider Trophy in 1922 with its ‘Sea Lion II’, thereby preventing Italy keeping the trophy permanently for winning it 3 times in succession, and allowing Britain to win it outright years later.
Scott-Paine sold Supermarine for £192,000 on 16 November 1923. On 31 March 1924 Imperial Airways was formed by the merger of Scott-Paine’s British Marine Air Navigation Company and three other airlines, and he was a director of Imperial Airways until 1939
Scott-Paine then concentrated on his MTB designs during the war years.
K225In one of the comments it identifies it as a PZL 104 Wilga. Polish. STOL aircraft that only does 85 knots.
There’s one born every minute!
“They can teach monkey’s to fly!”
K225The large crowds that turned out in Ottawa yesterday are always heartening. The attached picture from the Ottawa Citizen shows some of the crowd around the tomb of the unknown soldier.The pride of the vets as they march by to the applause of the crowd always chokes me up.
It is but a pittance in time.
I think that Nov 11 should be a National if not an international holiday.
K225Weren’t they CL415 from Quebec?
Check out this video:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4b_1193018591
Had a couple on the ramp back in September one of the Quebec ones and one from Ontario. Amazing how maneuverable they are.
Mike has these shots on his site.
K225You may be in luck Neil, the preliminary plan would have the VWoC Golden Hawk Sabre flying accross Canada during 2009. Tim Leslie outlined the plan on the site recently when he announced VWoC’s Hawk One initiative.
“Hawk One is a project spearheaded by Vintage Wings of Canada to acquire an F-86 Sabre, refurbish it, paint it in the colours of the Snowbirds’ progenitor the Golden Hawks of RCAF fame and fly it throughout 2009 on the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Canada. The Golden Hawks were created in 1959 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the same event.”
According to Tim the initial training will possibly be at Comox. Hawk1 will then tour Canada. Sure hope it goes according to plan.
K225Was G-OAHB a former USAF T33 Shooting Star or a Canadaire CT133 Silver Star? Its interesting that most flying today in the US are actually Silver Stars with the Rolls-Royce Nene’s.
From Wiki
The Canadair T-33 is the result of a 1951 contract to build T-33 Shooting Star Trainers for the RCAF. The power plant would be a Rolls-Royce Nene 10 turbo jet instead of the Allison J33 used by Lockheed in the production of the original T-33. A project designation of CL-30 was given by Canadair and the name was changed to the Silver Star.
The T-33 entered service in the RCAF as its primary training aircraft for fighter/interceptors. Its name is an interesting take of the USAF designation “Shooting Star.” The RCAF named it the “Silver Star,” in honour of Canada’s (and the British Empire’s) first flight of a heavier-than-air craft, the AEA Silver Dart.The designation of the Silver Star in the Canadian Forces was CT-133.
The T-33 was reliable and had forgiving flight properties. Its service life in the RCAF (and later the Canadian Forces) was extremely long. One of the more unusual roles it played was as an aerobatic demonstration aircraft, the mount of the RCAF’s “Red Knight.” Although the aircraft stopped being used as a trainer in 1976, there were still over 50 aircraft in Canadian Forces inventory in 1995. The youngest of these airframes was then 37 years old and had exceeded its expected life by a factor of 2½. During this period, the Canadair T-33 was employed in communication, target towing and enemy simulation.
A Canadair T-33 Silver Star served at RAF Elvington. The final Canadair Silver Star Mk. 3 was retired from the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada where it was used as an ejection seat testbed after 46 years of service. CT-133 number 133648 was delivered to Mountain View CFD on 26 April, 2005. Having been built in March, 1959 as [T-33] 21648, and had 11,394.6 flight hours at the time of retirement on an airframe rated for 13,500 flight hours. It has been sold on the civil market, along with fifteen other CT-133s. These aircraft will join the fifty others on the U. S. Civil Register and continue to fly as a part of the living legacy of the early jet age.
K225In 1970 Ormond Haydon-Baillie was test pilot at Cold Lake Alberta where he restored the Hawker Sea Fury MkXI, CF-CHB at the time.
That may explain the Black Knight the RCAF version was of course the Red Knight with the same knight on the nose. Wonder who influenced who?
Blue skies, OHB, blue skies !
K225Spent Saturday, fittingly, on the restoration of Hurricane 5447 at VWoC. We helped set up the Spitfire and Hurricane so they would be available as a backdrop for the media as they interviewed many of the BoB Canadian vets. The CWH B25 and Lancaster flew into Gatineau for formation practice for the flyby on Sunday. The winds and cloud cover however prevented any safe flying.
In addition to the pilots I talked with a lovely lady who had vivid memories of the BoB as a young woman living in England at the time. Her gratitude to the pilots was heart warming.
K225Keith “Skeets” Ogilivie
With the Battle of Britian ceremonies coming up this weekend I apologize for bringing up this old thread but the image of “Skeet’s” made me think of my father.
My father flew aircrew with “Skeets” after the war so have heard some amazing stories “tall or not” of their flying escapades. Including lining up to land a Dak on the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent and flying the rail lines of the North Shore and Labrador Railroad low enough to give the engineer of a steam engine quite a start.
Interestingly enough Skeet’s son also Keith was a friend of Mike Potter of Vintage Wings Canada when he was flying gliders in the early 70’s. Check out the story Gliders, Spitfires, and Golf on the VWoC site: http://www.vintagewings.ca/page?s=63&lang=en-CA
From Pat McAdam’s book Unbelievable Canadian War Stories
“Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Spitfire pilot Keith ‘Skeets’ Ogilvie waited shivering in the cold and dark of a March night in 1944 to make his bid for freedom from Stalag Luft 111 in Sagan, 6 kilometres southeast of Berlin.
Snow still crusted the ground, and the temperature was below freezing. The pilot’s nerves were on edge as he watched the prisoners ahead of him shuffle through the tunnel, code-named “Harry”, one of three escape tunnels designed by Canadian Flight Lieutenant Wally Floody. The prisoners passed in front of Skeets… 71, 72, 73… He remembered that Floody had been unexpectedly transferred to another camp the previous night, and his thoughts drifted for a moment…74, 75…
Number 75! It was his turn! He crouched down and inched his way slowly through the dark, dank tunnel, trying desperately to control his breathing. Empty jam tins had been telescoped together and periodically positioned along the tunnel to make ventilation pipes. As he emerged from the tunnel, a shout stopped him cold. The German guards had seen the steam rising from the escape hole outside the wire. Gunfire shattered the night. In a sudden moment, Skeets’s hopes and dreams were dashed.
The flying ace was recaptured almost immediately, as were 71 of the 75 escapees. Soon after, 50 of the would-be escapees were executed by firing squad in nearby woods. Skeets Ogilvie’s name was not on that list of 50, and he went through life wondering why he had been spared.
Keith ‘Skeets” Ogilvie was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). After the war, he stayed in the RCAF and served as a squadron leader in Trenton, Centralia, Rockcliffe, and Downsview. He retired in April 1996 and passed away May 6, 1998.”
My dad passed away Sept. 11, 2005 sure wish I had the chance to hear some more stories.
K225March of Dimes Canada has over 50 years of dedication and achievement in Canada, was established to provide essential programs and resources across the country to people with physical disabilities. It is not related to my knowledge with the American organization of the same name.
Their site is at: http://www.marchofdimes.ca/dimes/national_programs/
Thanks for posting I was not aware of the wartime involvement of this organization.
Steve M
K225Merci/Thanks
I have learned even more, an interesting and relatively rare warbird.
K225Steve P
Check out James’ posting of May 30, he’s the man that knows.
“The Wherratt machine has the Canadian Bollingbroke fitted heater jacket too; which was fitted on one of the airworthy British machines in the 80s. This is shown by the four intakes in the upper cowling, as seen in Dennis B’s nice photo. Those were never seen on Lysanders, but certainly on Bollys.”
Steve M.
K225You would of thought that the Museum would have put the Goose on display for this event. As a matter of fact John Henderson of the RCMP Air Services was giving a talk on the history there last night. So its not like they were unaware.
RCMP Air Services got its start in April 1937, with four planes, de Havilland Dragonflies with blue fuselages and yellow wings, were equipped with two-way radios and had a maximum range of more than 950 kilometres. They had eight pilots.
K225More detail on the RCMP fleet.
The fleet is made up of 33 RCMP-owned aircraft including:
13 Pilatus PC-12 located in Yellowknife, London, Regina,
Iqaluit, Prince Albert, Prince George, Moncton, Winnipeg,
Vancouver, Edmonton (2), Montreal and Ottawa
4 Bell 206L helicopters located in Montreal, Kelowna,
Comox and Edmonton
4 AS 350B3 helicopters located in Kamloops, Vancouver,
London and Moncton
3 Caravan 208 located in Vancouver, Ottawa and Prince
Rupert (float plane)
1 Cessna 182Q located in Winnipeg
1 Cessna U206G located in Vancouver
4 Cessna 210R located in Regina, London, Edmonton and
Montreal
2 DH-6-300 Twin Otters located in Whitehorse and Goose
Bay
1 Piaggio Avanti P180 located in Ottawa
K225All transport aircraft are dual-purpose and readily convertible from cargo to passenger and vice versa.
In 2002-2003, a total of 27,865,246 passenger miles were flown over 21,871 hours.
Since 2000, mileage and usage of planes has increased about 20 per cent and is expected to continue to rise.
The oldest aircraft in the fleet is a 1971 Twin Otter currently stationed in Goose Bay, Labrador. Which is the one pictured.
The newest aircraft in the fleet are the AS 350B3 helicopter and the Avanti P180 turbo prop.
There is a high degree of commonality among engines in the fleet. For example, 22 of the RCMP’s 33 aircraft contain the Canadian-built PT-6 engine.
The average number of seats per aircraft is seven. Most of the aircraft can accommodate a fully loaded advance RCMP Emergency Response Team.
The RCMP is one of the largest fleet operators in Canada.
The RCMP operates single pilot IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) with the Pilatus PC-12.
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