Canadian Warplanes - (10) Newfoundland and Labrador
Canadian Warplanes in Newfoundland and Labrador
The aim of this website is to locate, identify and document every historical Warplane preserved in Canada. Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these aircraft to provide and update the data on this website. Photos are by the author unless otherwise credited. Any errors found here are by the author, and any additions, corrections or amendments to this list of Warplanes in Canada would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at hskaarup@rogers.com.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3589727)
Lockheed Hudson, Canadian Vickers Canso A and Avro Anson, 30 June 1943.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650460)
Consolidated B-24 Liberator G.R. Mk. V, Gander, Newfoundland, 1945.
(Shhewitt Photo)
AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant (149905), one of three helicopters operated by 103 Search and Rescue Squadron, based at 9 Wing, Gander. The squadron is responsible for a large area covering the offshore waters of Canada.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Argentia
Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator used by the US Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol at Argentia in the spring and fall of 1946. (USCG Photo)
Douglas R5D-3 (C-54Q) Skymaster, US Navy (BuNo 56489), c/n 10592, ex-USAAF (Serial No. 42-72487) assigned to Naval Air Station Argentia, Newfoundland, prior to its closing in 1994. (NMUSAF Photo)
Argentia was selected in 1940 to be the location of the US Navy's Naval Air Station Argentia due to its proximity to Europe, the relatively ice free nature of Placentia Bay, the safe navigational access channel, the sheltered harbour with secure deepwater anchorages nearby at Fox Harbour and Ship Harbour, as well as the local topography for an airfield and the existing railway line. The base was urgently needed as part of the trans-Atlantic supply line which joined North America to Britain, in order to provide anti-submarine patrols to protect shipping from the German U-boat fleet.
Botwood Flying Boat Museum.
Botwood Heritage Society web site: https://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650449)
Canadian Vickers Canso A, RCAF (Serial No. 9821), No. 160 (BR) Squadron, on patrol off Newfoundland, ca 1944. MIKAN No. 3650448
(Alain Rioux Photo)
Canadian Vickers Canso A, USAAF (Serial No. 44-34094), USN (BuNo. 68058), c/n CV-605, RCAF (Serial No. E1497), Reg. No. C-FDFB.
(Chris Charland Photo)
Canadian Vickers Canso A, USAAF (Serial No. 44-34094), USN (BuNo. 68058), c/n CV-605, RCAF (Serial No. E1497), Reg. No. C-FDFB, Reg. No. E1960.
Botwood was home to No. 116 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron. It started operations with the Consolidated Catalina Mk. I and Mk. IB and later converted to the Canadian-built Canso A. The peeling paint on this former RCAF aircraft hints at its previous operator, the Government of Newfoundland. They used it as a water bomber until it was replaced by the Canadair CL-215.
Gander, North Atlantic Aviation Museum (NAAM).
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650351)
Beechcraft C-45 Expeditor Mk. 3NM, RCAF 1530, 1943.
(Maxwell J. Toms Photos)
Beechcraft D-18S/C-45H Expeditor Mk. 3NM (Serial No. CA110), (MAA Plate No. 195440), CF-VPK, Ex RCN.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3583517)
Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A, 25 Sep 1944.
(Maxwell J. Toms Photos)
Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A, RCAF (Serial No. 9837), c/n CV-271, Reg. No. C-FCRP.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650711)
de Havilland Tiger Moth, No. 17 Elementary FTS, RCAF.
de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth, CF-GPE, Ex VO-ADE.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4327613)
Lockheed Hudson, 31 Aug 1940.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3613291)
Lockheed Hudson, Goose Bay, Labrador, ca 1944.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3589741)
Lockheed Hudson, RCAF 638, 21 June 1943.
(Bzuk Photo)
(Maxwell J. Toms Photo)
(Paul Mitcheltree Photos)
Lockheed 414 Hudson Mk. IIIA, (A-29-LO), (Serial No. 41-23631), ex-USAF (Serial No. BW769), now painted as RAF (Serial No. T9422), C/N 414-6448.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4327232)
Link Trainer (Serial No. 11242). The photo shows Flying Officer A.E. Jarvis instructs students on a Link Trainer at Initial Training School, Toronto, 25 July 1940.
(USN Photo)
McDonnell CF-101B Voodoo (Serial Nos. 101026 & 101059) 409 Nighthawk Squadron & 3 X USN Douglas TA-4J Skyhawks, Fleet Composite Squadron VC-13 Saints.
(Maxwell J. Toms Photos)
McDonnell CF-101B Voodoo (Serial No. 101065), USAF (Serial No. 57-0444), 416 Squadron.
Rutan Quickie.
Goose Bay, CFB Goose Bay, Labrador Military Museum (LMM).
(Ahunt Photo)
(Chris Charland Photos)
Avro B.2 Vulcan (Serial No. XL 361). Avro B.2 Vulcan (Serial No. XL 361), CFB Goose Bay. Completed 14 March 1962, being delivered to 617 Squadron the next day. Latterly with 9 Squadron, due to a fire in the fuselage during a trans-Atlantic flight from Woodford to Offutt AFB in Nebraska, XL361 had to make an emergency landing at CFB Goose Bay on 13 November 1981, site of an RAF unit and used regularly as a Vulcan exercise base. With the fleet being retired, it was not repaired, instead being positioned as the RAF unit's gate guardian. At the request of the mayor of the adjacent town of Happy Valley, the RAF gifted it to the community on 14 June 1982, on condition it was displayed within the locality in a dignified manner in RAF colours, with any future changes in its status to be agreed with the British government. Presented to the Labrador Heritage Society Museum in 1983 but remaining at the airbase, which doubles as a civilian airport, it is still displayed in the open air.
(Internet Photo)
(Warbird Registry Photo)
Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star, USAF (Serial No. 53-5413), silver, mounted on a pylon in Happy Valley.
(Photo via Mark Moxley-Knapp)
McDonnell CF-101F Voodoo (Serial No. 101003), USAF (Serial No. 56-0262).
Harbour Grace
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3584239)
Douglas CC-129 Dakota, No. 414 Sqn, 29 April 1949.
(Maxwell J. Toms Photos)
Douglas DC-3, CF-QBI, ex-Labair, “Spirit of Harbour Grace”, mounted on a pylon.
Stephenville International Airport
(Shannon K. Green Photo)
(Maxwell J. Toms Photos)
Convair F-102A Delta Dagger.
Convair F-102A Delta Dagger (Serial No. 56-1266), USAF colours, mounted at the former Ernest Harmon US Air Force Base, Newfoundland, now Stephenville International Airport. Stephenville Air Base was renamed "Ernest Harmon Air Force Base" on 23 June 1948, in honor of Captain Ernest Emery Harmon. Capt Harmon was a US Army Air Corps pilot who was killed in an air crash in 1933.
The USAF 323d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was assigned to Air Defense Command duties at Ernest Harmon Air Force Base on 15 Oct 1957, where it was inactivated on 1 July 1960. Its mission became air defense of the Newfoundland Straits and the Great Circle polar route from the Soviet Union over Greenland to Canada and the United States. In 1960 it was assigned directly to the Goose Air Defense Sector, but was inactivated later that year due to the emerging threat of missiles rather than manned aircraft.
(NMUSAF Photo)
101 Republic F-84F Thunderstreak fighters of the U.S. Air National Guard and a single Douglas C-124 Globemaster II at Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, near Stephenville, Newfoundland, Nov 1961, prior to flying the Atlantic to Europe in response to the Berlin Crisis. Because of the long over-water distance to the next airfield in the Azores, the planes were towed to the end of the runway prior to takeoff to conserve fuel. During this Operation Stair Step deployment of more than 200 fighter aircraft (the largest overseas movement of a fighter force since the Second World War), not a single aircraft was lost.
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, Newfoundland, Master Plan, 1957, courtesy of Mark White.
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Stephenville. The base was built by the USAAF in 1941 under the Destoyers for Bases Agreemen with Britain. From its establishment in 1941 until 31 March 1949, the base was located in the Dominion of Newfoundland. When the Dominion of Newfoundland was admitted to the Canadian Confederation on that date, it became the 10th province of Canada. The agreement enabling the base's existence, from 1941 until closure in 1966, enabled it to function as a de facto enclave of United States territory within, first the Dominion of Newfoundland and later Canada, making US military personnel stationed at the base subject to the Uniform Cod of Military Justice.
Following its closure in 1966, the base property was relinquished by the Government of the USA to the Government of Canada, under the terms of the original deal. The Government of Canada subsequently transferred the base property to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, which established the Harmon Corporation to oversee the disposition and use of the base property and facilities.
The airfield is now operated as Stephenville International Airport while many of the base's support buildings and housing have been incorporated into the town of Stephenville.
St John's
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3583405)
Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A, 11 Aug 1944.
Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A, C-FNJC, CV-430).
St. Anthony
Consolidated PBY-6A Canso, USN (BuNo. 46655), c/n 2019, C-FIZU. This Canso variant had a taller vertical tail, increased wing strength for greater carrying capacity, new electrical system, a standardized "eyeball" turret, and a radome over the cockpit for radar.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3598242)
Aircrew with Baby Avro seaplane aboard S.S. EAGLE of Bowring Bros. Ltd., 1924. The man on the left is Roy Grandy, ex-RFC, CAF, RCAF, later Group Captain Grandy, C/O in Gander, NL. Born in Newfoundland.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 2255921)
Newfoundland 15 cent stamp, 1930, commemorating the Vickers Vimy flight across the Atlantic in 1919 by Alcock and Brown.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3194177)
Vickers Vimy, Capt John Alcock & Lt Arthur Whitten Brown, Lester's Field, June 1919.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3194178)
Vickers Vimy, Capt John Alcock & Lt Arthur Whitten Brown, Lester's Field, June 1919.
(aerorpints.com)
Canadair CL-215 (Scooper) C-GDKW, operated by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The CL-215 is firefighting water bomber built by Canadair and later Bombardier. The twin engined CL-215 is designed to operate well at low speeds and in high gust-loading environments like as those found in forest fires.
(Bob Laura Photo)
Lockheed C-130J Hercules from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, visiting St. John's. The crewmembers are conducting routine safety checks on the aircraft in preparation for a mission supporting the International Ice Patrol as they search the North Atlantic for icebergs, 30 Mar 2012. The air crew was deployed to St. John's on an aerial reconnaissance mission supporting the International Ice Patrol as it gathers data on ice conditions, icebergs and their movements in the North Atlantic. The headquarters of the International Ice Patrol is in New London, Connecticut. (Chief Petty Officer Bob Laura Photo, US Coast Guard)
Aviation visitors to Newfoundland
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3390221)
German Dornier DO-X flying boat (Serial No. D-1929) off the coast of Dildo, Newfoundland, May 1932.
This aviation handbook is designed to be used as a quick reference to the classic military heritage aircraft that have been flown by members of the Canadian Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Canadian Forces. The interested reader will find useful information and a few technical details on most of the military aircraft that have been in service with active Canadian squadrons both at home and overseas. 100 selected photographs have been included to illustrate a few of the major examples in addition to the serial numbers assigned to Canadian service aircraft. For those who like to actually see the aircraft concerned, aviation museum locations, addresses and contact phone numbers have been included, along with a list of aircraft held in each museum's current inventory or on display as gate guardians throughout Canada and overseas. The aircraft presented in this edition are listed alphabetically by manufacturer, number and type. Although many of Canada's heritage warplanes have completely disappeared, a few have been carefully collected, restored and preserved, and some have even been restored to flying condition. This guide-book should help you to find and view Canada's Warplane survivors.
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