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Below is a photo of a former Trans-Canada Air Lines Vickers Vanguard, registration CF-TKC, after being acquired by Europe Aero Service and registered as F-BTOX.
We see it here at Le Bourget, Paris (LBG) in October 1974 with a livery which leaves no doubt about its Canadian origin. Origin: Pierre Gillard collection.
Editors' Note: Only 45 Vanguards were built. TCA was the largest of only two original customers with 23, plus 21 for British European Airways and one prototype.
With the Vanguard somewhat late going into service and medium range jets like the Boeing 727 on the horizon, few airlines were interested in large 4-engine turboprops by the early 1960's.
Air Canada disposed of the Vanguards between 1969 and 1972. Several of the Vanguard's smaller and more successful predecessor, the Viscount (almost 450 built, 51 for TCA), remained in AC service until 1974.
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Aviation historians and enthusiasts have certainly been following news stories about the restoration and final flight of the Hawaii Martin Mars before it is placed on permanent display at the B. C. Aviation Museum in North Saanich, British Columbia (near Victoria International Airport, YYJ).
A couple of our frequent contributors Anthony Herben and Larry Milberry, have composed the following tributes to this aircraft.
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From Anthony Herben -
The End of an Era for the Mighty Martin Mars
On Sunday, August 11, the mighty Hawaii Martin Mars conducted its last flight. Between 6,000 and 7,000 hours were spent preparing the aircraft to fly again on its final voyage.
Pilots and engineers were brought out of retirement to fly it one more time. The red and white Martin Mars had its last fire fighting season in 2015. The huge water tanker fought fires in BC, and other provinces for more than half-a-century. The Martin Mars could dump more than 27,000 litres (6000 Imperial gallon) of water on a fire.
The Martin Mars was donated to the BC Aviation Museum in North Saanich, near Victoria, BC. The aircraft departed from Sproat Lake, outside Port Alberni at approximately 4:00 pm on Sunday, August 11, and flew to Patricia Bay. The Martin Mars made several flyovers of Port Alberni, Campbell River, Powell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo, Duncan, Ladysmith, and Crofton.
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From Larry Milberry -
Martin Mars “Hawaii Mars” Joins the BC Aviation Museum
August 11, 2024 was a Canadian aviation milestone when Martin Mars C-FLYL “Hawaii Mars” was delivered from its historic base at Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island to the British Columbia Aviation Museum at Victoria International Airport (CYYJ).
After flying its farewell tour between Campbell River and Victoria with several communities between, it landed on schedule at about 1800. The weather was fine, the Snowbirds provided a spectacular escort, and the crowds along the route were mightily impressed!
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Submitted by new subscriber Gordon Haines regarding the LHR reunion photo in NetLetter #1539 -
My name is Gordon Haines and I was the owner of Ground Aviation Handling Ltd in the UK and worked directly alongside the Heathrow baggage staff since 1981. Although I wasn’t an Air Canada employee I always felt and was treated as part of the organization.
My company was responsible for AC’s mishandled baggage deliveries through the UK, Co-mail services, First and Business Lounge staff, Terminal buggy services as well as Airside short connection transfers. Over the many years of working with AC at LHR I become personal friends with many, many employees ranging from the station manager to ramp staff and everyone in between. On a recent visit back to the UK (I now live in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia) I was treated to a surprise get-together by some of the baggage agents and we all had a great time catching up. Following on from that get-together, Jack Morath suggested dropping you an email and gave me your email address so that I could make contact and see if it would be possible to join the mailing list. Editors' Note: We are very happy to add Gordon to our subscription list.
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Steve Charlton who retired from Computer & System Services (C&SS) YUL shares this information -
 All-in-all, after working 6 years at IBM and 30 at Air Canada, I'm certainly enjoying this thing called retirement.I enjoyed my career, and having been nominated twice for the Air Canada Award of Excellence, I guess I contributed as well. I enjoy travel - I've been to all 7 continents and Japan was my 105th country!
After retirement, I published a 2-volume cookbook for men, wrote a short science fiction story to please my son, centered around my alma mater (University of Western Ontario), and have spent quite a bit of time recently, writing my autobiography, an activity that gives me great pleasure, and which I would recommend to anyone else to do, before one's memory goes for retirement as well.
Click the book cover to view Steve's books listed on Amazon.
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 We have welcomed 72 new subscribers so far in 2024.We wish to thank everyone for the continuing support of our efforts.
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 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.
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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
We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.
Thanks!
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