Air Mall Special

BY RANDAL MCILROY

Air traffic control acquires a fresh meaning in the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.

Vintage aircraft loom everywhere, from bush planes to cargo craft and passenger liners. Those suspended above are a giant, still Alexander Calder mobile, their heavy propellers silent tribute to bold years of service and exploration. In its new location at 2088 Wellington Avenue, closer to the runways at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport – it is one of only two aviation museums set so close to an international runway – giant windows allow visitors to watch today’s birds take off or land. From outdoors, visitors get thrilling pictures of how it started. The museum, which had its grand opening May 21, reinforces a necessary amendment to Manitoba history. Most Manitobans know this province’s crucial early role as a transportation hub in North America. That tends to center on rail traffic, however. There were equally ambitious developments in the air.

“Winnipeg has been a global leader in aviation and aerospace for more than 100 years,” Museum president and CEO Terry Slobodian said. One nearby craft bears the logo of Canadian Airways, a service founded in 1930 by aviation visionary and airport namesake, James A. Richardson.

“It’s been my experience that most Winnipeggers don’t know the airport is named after James Richardson because he was a pioneer of commercial aviation.”

Local examples abound. The Nova Scotian MacDonald brothers relocated to Winnipeg in 1904 to open a sheet metal business. In 1930, they founded MacDonald Brothers Aircraft Company, and specialized originally in seaplane floats that buoyed many a Canadian

bush plane. During the Second World War they built training aircraft and serviced and inspected many Canadian fighter craft. After the war, work expanded to jet engines and test rockets.

The Museum also celebrates the bush pilots, who in their small craft reached north as well as east and west – “from coast to coast to coast” in Canada. “One of the things we’re doing at the museum is not just talking about the aircraft but also the amazing pilots and their stories.”

The current collection numbers more than 90 aircraft – including Canada’s largest collection of bush aircraft – and

70,000 artefacts, texts and photographs, gathered, curated and often restored across nearly 50 years.

The Western Canadian Aviation Museum incorporated in 1974, but its founders - Murray Clearwater, Doug Emberley, Gord Emberley, Al Hansen and Keith Olson – were collecting aircraft long before that, starting when they rescued a wrecked and rare Bellanca Aircruiser, CF-AWR, a single-engine aircraft used for either passenger or cargo transport. This one was owned by Eldorado Gold Mines, and was known as the Radium Silver Express for its traditional route connecting a uranium oxide mine at Port Radium, N.W.T. and a radium refinery at Port Hope, Ont. It crashed in northern Ontario bush in 1947, and was damaged so profoundly the owners saw no virtue in rescuing it. Years later, it was rescued with the aid of an armed forces helicopter.

The first museum opened in 1978 on Lily Street in downtown Winnipeg, with its office nearby at the Manitoba

Museum. It moved to Ferry Road in 1983 and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth during her 1984 visit to the city. In 2018, flying stock went into storage while the team began planning the current home.

The first custom-built building was necessary for more than the greater space. In addition to superior visibility, via a building shaped in suitably aerodynamic design, the larger windows are a better invitation for the curious to see the riches within, and to promote the space for rental events. Already, the site has hosted several weddings. “A museum can’t survive on selling tickets (alone),” Slobodian noted.

“It’s going to be very much a community centre.”

It is a centre for restoration as well. Returning timeworn craft to shape depends on the museum’s deep talent pool of engineers, mechanics, pilots and sheet metal and fabric specialists. Many connect by Internet, via the societies that often converge around a particular plane. As well, there is friendly communication with other aviation museums in Canada, extending to the loan of craft.

“One of our philosophies is, if we have something and we can’t display it – because we own a lot more aircraft than you’ll see in the building – wouldn’t it be great if another museum could display it so people can enjoy it.”