Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

 

In 1984 Quebecair, in an effort to enter the transatlantic charter market, leased two Douglas DC-8-63's. Also, in July 1985, they leased one DC-8-54F to try to enter the air cargo market. 

 

These attempts to increase revenue were not successful and, by July of 1986, Quebecair was acquired by CP Air and the three aircraft were returned to the lessors. The two passenger aircraft would then be leased to start up charter carrier Nationair until the early 1990's.

 

C-GQBA and C-GQBF (photos below) were both originally delivered to Iberia in 1970, leased to Aviaco in 1981 (both airlines headquartered in Spain) and then to Arrow Air in the U.S. in 1983. Quebecair acquired both in May and November of 1984, respectively. Both aircraft would to be converted to cargo configuration and continue to fly until the early 2000's until scrapped.

 

C-GQBG (pictured in the issue's header) actually began life as CF-TJR, a Douglas DC-8-54F Jet Trader, (pictured below) with Air Canada in March 1966. 

 

It was sold to United Air Leasing in March 1984 and also briefly flew for Arrow Air. Sadly, it crashed on February 15, 1992 on approach to Kano International Airport (Nigeria) while flying for MK Air Cargo d'Or of Ghana. 

 

 

CF-TJR (fin #818) at Frankfurt May 24, 1980

 

Photo courtesy of Jan Buisman

 

 C-GQBF - Paris May 1985

 

Photo courtesy of Alain Iger

 

C-GQBF in transition livery from Quebecair to Nationair livery
Montreal - October 1986

 

Photo courtesy of  Pierre Langlois

 

 

C-GQBF after repainting in Nationair livery

Paris, France - June 1989

 

Photo courtesy of Felix Goetting

 

 N821AX (formerly C-GQBF) in its final Airborne Express livery

Minneapolis -  St. Paul International - September 2000

 

Photo courtesy of Felix Goetting

 

 

A few last flight updates.

 

Air Canada said good-bye to the B-767-200 on November 2, 2008 with flight 156, the red-eye from Vancouver to Toronto, our last commercial flight operated with this aircraft.

 

Air Canada's Rapidair flight AC439 from Montreal to Toronto on June 2, 2020 marked the end of an era as the airline retired the last aircraft from its mainline Boeing 767-300 fleet.

 

Air Canada took delivery of C-GAUB (fin #601), the first of our B-767-200's, in October 1983 and had a total of 23 aircraft in this fleet. Throughout its lifetime, C-GAUB logged more than 82,200 hours of flying. That's the equivalent of flying around the world approximately 1,745 times. It was broken up in March 2009. The company continues to operate 8 B-767-300's in cargo configuration.

 

Flight 865 from London-Heathrow to Montreal on November 20, 2008 marked Air Canada's last "four-engine" commercial flight operated with the A340.

 

From the NetLetter archives -

The first flight of the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service (CGTAS) roared eastward over the ocean on July 22, 1943 with its Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) crew.

 

Twelve hours and 26 minutes after taking the air with official passengers and a load of mail for the Canadian Armed Forces Overseas, it had landed on the other side, a new record for a non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from Montreal to Britain, bettering the old mark by 25 minutes.

 

The first return flight was on July 24, 1943.

 

Imagine in 1946 - This posted notice -

 

Plusses please note space east of Montreal is very, very poor at present. However, if you get this far, we can usually put you in the Dorval Inn at the airport, for a night or two at $1.00 per night.

 

This comes as a pleasant surprise these days, when $4.00 and $5.00 a day is not an uncommon charge for a hotel room.

 

Editors' Note: At the time, 'Plusses' was a term used for contingent passengers. After loading the full revenue passengers, 'Plusses' (or Standbys) could be loaded. 

 

Canada’s First Air Traffic Control Tower Celebrates 85th Anniversary​.

 

Excerpt from canadianaviator.com

 

It was in 1939 that the first air traffic control tower was built in Canada, and Nav Canada celebrated its 85th anniversary at the Saint-Hubert airport.

 

Within a year of its opening, the tower's workload increased dramatically in 1940 as the airport in the Montreal suburb was made into a military training base to support Canada's Second World War effort.

The airport has marked several milestones over the years, including the hosting of a stopover in 1985 for the Paris to New York air race. Transport Canada had just built and opened a new control tower.

In 2004 Transport Canada ownership of the airport was turned over to Développement de l'aéroport Saint-Hubert de Longueuil (DASH-L).

 

Last year Porter Airlines of Toronto announced plans to build a passenger terminal at the airport, and earlier this year DASH-L announced the renaming of the airport to the Montreal Metropolitan Airport, or 'the MET', for short.

Interestingly, the tower mentioned above was not the first tower built on those grounds. Going back to England in 1926, Canada's then prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie-King, was attending the Imperial Conference in London. At that time, Britain was proposing an airship service for the British Empire and wanted Canada to contribute an airship base.

 

So, the first tower built on this site was a 208-foot-tall mooring tower, completed in May 1930. It hosted His Majesty's Airship (an R-100 airship) in 1930, at that time the largest airship in the world. This led to the establishment of the country’s first aerodrome at Saint-Hubert to serve nearby Montreal, at that time Canada's largest city.

 

The airship stayed in Canada for 13 days, touring various locations in Quebec and Ontario.

 

Three times longer than a Boeing 747, it could carry 100 passengers in a level of luxury more associated with first class travel on trains and ocean liners of that period.

 

The photo includes the Canadian Bank of Commerce building in Toronto, tallest building in the British Empire when it opened in 1931 and until 1962 when the Place Ville Marie tower in Montreal took that title as tallest in the Commonwealth for some years.

 

More on that Toronto building here:

 

 

 

Extracted from Newsletter #18 of the Quebec Aerospace Museum.

After a journey of 79 hours over the Atlantic, it was on August 1, 1930 that the British airship R-100 reached its mooring at Saint-Hubert airport.

The mast was specially built for the occasion by Canadian Vickers. Some 40,000 people turn out to see its arrival. But in total, it is said that no fewer than a million curious onlookers came to see the flying behemoth up until August 14 1930.

 

Three thousand of them will also have the opportunity to visit it. A railway station had even been set up on the edge of the airport especially for the occasion and La Bolduc "hits it big" with her song 'Toujours R100'. That's how much excitement there was!

So, to perpetuate the memory of this unforgettable visit, our friends of the Fondation Aérovision Québec created a commemorative wall plaque. The central consists of a piece of canvas from the collection of Dr. Jean-Claude Marcoux.

 

Photo by Philippe Bernard and Pierre Gillard.

 

We have welcomed 64 new subscribers so far in 2024.

 

We wish to thank everyone for the continuing support of our efforts.

Back issues of The NetLetter are available in both the original newsletter format and downloadable PDF format.

 

We invite you to visit our website at www.thenetletter.net  and select 'NetLetter Archives'.

 

Restoration and posting of archive issues is an ongoing project. We hope to post every issue back to the beginning in 1995.

We always welcome feedback about Air Canada (including Jazz and Rouge) from our subscribers who wish to share current events, memories and photographs.

 

Particularly if you have stories to share from one of the legacy airlines: Trans-Canada Air Lines, Canadian Airlines, CP Air, Pacific Western, Maritime Central Airways, Eastern Provincial, Wardair, Nordair, Transair, Air BC, Time Air, Quebecair, Calm Air, NWT Air, Air Alliance, Air Nova, Air Ontario, Air Georgian and all other Canadian based airlines that once graced the Canadian skies.

 

Please feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.

 

Thanks!