Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

The Great British Airliners

This interesting 41 minute documentary is about the story of British aviation.  It follows the clip of the Bristol Brabazon and Vickers Viscount.

It is taken from the BBC documentary 'When Britain Ruled the Skies'.

Larry Milberry has put together a blog named 'The Great Lockheed Twins'. Click Here to open the blog. 

We have, with permission from Larry, some of the photos and story of those aircraft which ended up at Trans-Canada Air Lines. We will present these over several upcoming issues of The NetLetter.

Source: via Larry Milberry www.canavbooks.wordpress.com

Excerpt from Larry's blog:

A famous old Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) Lockheed 14H-2 was CF-TCN, which had begun its Canadian career in May 1939. However, with its new fleet of DC-3's serving Canada so well postwar, in 1947 "TCN" was sold to Montreal Air Service. In May 1951 it moved to Winnipeg for Central Northern Airways, then joined Argosy Oil and Gas of Calgary in 1956.

Through the 1950's such Lockheeds were favored by Canadian oil companies. While a DC-3 offered a more comfortable VIP cabin, the Lockheeds had speed, so could reach their business destinations across Canada in Toronto, south to Texas, etc. much faster.

I was quite excited when spotting "TCN" at Malton on November 25, Commander Aviation of Toronto had acquired it, so the freshly-painted "TransAir" colours were baffling. Others had title to "TCN" until in 1964 it finally went to Execaire of Montreal, an upstart corporate charter company. I've heard that "TCN" was Execaire's first aircraft.

The company gradually grew into Canada's premier bizjet charter operation. Today it operates a fleet of Challengers and Globals.

Does Execaire remember its humble beginning with a beautiful little 1939 Lockheed 14? I took the photo above on the Airport Road side of Malton on the Sanderson Aircraft lot. Across the field (and across Runway 28- 10) you can see one of the old wartime hangars, which by this time mainly were occupied by corporate DC-3's, Lockheeds, Doves, Beech 18's, etc.

Editors' Note: CF-TCN was delivered to TCA on May 25, 1939 and assigned fin #36 and sold to Montreal Air Service on April 21, 1947 after accumulating 17,178 hours.

Execaire is now part of the Innotech/Execaire Group.

Source: Air Canada "A pocket guide" by Frank Pooley.

Found in the 'Between Ourselves' magazine.

Are you there?

Traffic ground to a screeching halt along Montreal's fashionable Sherbrooke Street as the photographer assembled the above group of 170 graduating stewardesses for a "class photo".

The girls are members of the largest group of trainees ever assembled by the Company.

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Flap repair.

When fin 211 (C-FFWN, c/n 054) took off from Dorval on October 27, 1992, the pilot reported some slight vibrations. In fact, it was the main landing gear tire tread which had failed during the take-off roll and damaged the right hand inboard flap. The A320 landed safely in Vancouver but without a new flap, it was stranded.

Materials Management managed to secure a spare flap from a U.S. company within 24 hours, but they realized it was only a temporary solution. The options were to repair the flap or purchase a new one.They chose the repair route as the less expensive option. This group was instrumental in ensuring the A320 flap work was completed on time.

From left to right, front row, are: Yvon Comtois, Jean-Louis Hélie, Reggie Bowes, Jim Gelsthorpe, Bev Teague, Judy McKay, Diane Dryburgh, René d'Heilly, Angelo Rei, Normand David, Peter Ciarma, Gaspard Granata and Keith Routledge.

Back row: Bill Gibson, Bob Purcell, Yves Renaud, Rick Schofield, Raymond Lalande, David Tuff, Bert Walser, Max Eichner, Mike Kandiliotis, Wayne Pilling, Ross McDermott and Mohamed Benchabla.

Missing from the photo were: Bridget Gonsalves, Jacques Laberge. Mike Hawraniak, Brian Griffiths and Gerry Deshaies.

Photo by Brian Losito.

Bye, bye RB211.

Employees from Dorval's Power Plant Shop bid farewell to the last Rolls-Royce RB211 engine overhauled by Air Canada.

"This ends a long relationship with Rolls-Royce, which dates back to 1943 when our converted Lancasters were equipped with Merlin engines," says Val Jurkovic, Manager, Power Plant Production. 

Christmas in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt's Cargo Handling department and some former colleagues gathered together for the annual ACRA Christmas party.

Smiling for the camera were, back row, left to right: Mike Barker, Cargo Agent; Konrad Bossdorf, Cargo Sales and Service Manager; Cargo Agents Mattia Tauchert and Michael Weimer;
Eckhard Hausch; Uwe Pochert and Alexandra Bieser.

Front row, kneeling: Michael Munster; Miguel Blaufuks; Ludwig Hamburger, Senior Cargo Agent and Thomas Hock, Cargo Agent.

Captain Lamb's last flight.

Saying goodbye doesn't come easy after almost 40 years of service, but Toronto B-747 Captain Jim Lamb takes it all in stride.

Wishing him well are, front row, left to right: Dave Britt, Flight Service Director; Flight Attendants Diane Champagne and Claude St-Jean.

Back row, left to right: Flight Attendants Diane Pominville and Jerome Bélanger; Neil Dunn, Second Officer; Suzanne Proulx, Flight Attendant; Jim Lamb; Michelle Brunelle, Flight Attendant; Glenn Adams, First Officer; Flight Attendants Sylvia Hamilton, Anne Cosgrove and Héléne Monday-Lafontaine.

From 'Canadian Pacific Airlines' newsletter.

Hundreds of people thronged Windsor airport April 28, 1964, when two DC-8's (one to, the other from Mexico) inaugurated the first jet service for the Ontario city.

For the record, crews were: On Flight 581: Captain Jim Black, First Officer Neil Carey, Second Officer Jack Forgie, Purser Fred Sittman, Steward Peter Meijer and stewardesses Monique Cote, Lise St. Gelais and Estelle Prejet.

On Flight 582: Captain Harvey Johnson, First Officer Doug Ireland, Second Officer Tom Gale, Purser Wim Vanstiphout and stewardesses Nina Youngman, Christa Ehlert and Roslyn Pugsley.

Editors' Note: Photo not available.

Busy lines were these training telephones at Vancouver training department when this Orient and Latin America group spent a week on a customer service course. This was the second of three groups who received training.

Front row, from left: Becha Jiminez, Lima CTO; Monica Sievers, Santiago CTO; Mrs. Winnie Yue, Hong Kong CTO.

Back row: Yoichiro Kuhara, Tokyo CTO; Francisco Vargas, Mexico CTO; Alfredo Vega, Mexico sales rep.; Salvador Ramos, Mexico CTO-traffic; Melquiades Velasco, Mexico airport.

Bright red jackets of CPA women and blue blazers of men stood out at a gathering of the Los Angeles Interline Club.

Representing the company at an event jointly sponsored by CPA and Varig (with South American tickets as prize), were, from left: DSM Grant Williams, Rosemary Zezza, Lilian Payne, Doris Tivald and Paul McWaters.

Winnipeg terminal opens.

Station manager George Heinmiller and his staff of 10 traffic and maintenance people made an overnight move and were ready for business first thing November 12, 1963 when Winnipeg's new $18 million dollar terminal opened.

Highlight of the building is the vast, airy waiting room on the mezzanine floor above the airline counters, baggage carousels, etc. It has contemporary furnishings and 35,000 feet of illuminated ceiling containing 8,000 fluorescent tubes.

There are roomettes for transient passengers, cocktail lounge, dining room and coffee shop, a nursery, VIP suite and interview room.

One of the first flights. into the new Winnipeg terminal was, appropriately, CPA's Flight #1 by DC-8 'Empress of Winnipeg'.

Captain Jim Forbes was welcomed by Airport Manager J. E. Smyth.

Editor's Note from Ken Pickford: The 1963 terminal mentioned in the above item, expanded in 1984, was closed and later demolished following opening of the current Winnipeg terminal in October 2011.

Recognition of 15 years with CPA was given six employees at the second annual service award dinner and dance at Vancouver on November 8, 1963.

From left to right: Gerry Robertson, maintenance mechanic; Britannia Captain Jack Wells, Executive Vice-President
J. C. Gilmer, who made the presentations, Miss Elsie Muren, maintenance department; Tom Kelly, upholstery shop; Norval Norton, legal department and DC-8 second officer Alf Bicknell.

Some 500 people attended the event.

Receiving 10-year service pins were H. Yoshida, chief accountant, Tokyo and Miss June Sato, passenger agent, Tokyo.

Making presentations were Japan sales manager Bob Connor, left, and Far East regional manager Ed Ogden, right.

Our cartoon is by F.G. Freeland and appeared in the 'Between Ourselves' magazine issued January 1956, with the caption: "You heard what he said - one full fare and two halves."