Article Archive
By Jerry Vernon
Quite by chance I stumbled across the article on the CAHS website recently, about the Bell Airacobra and the RCAF. During one of my visits to the Directorate of History in 1983, I was given a copy of a couple of research papers by Dr. Steve Harris on the procurement of fighter and other aircraft for the RCAF early in the Second World War. Most of this information was later incorporated in the appropriate places in the 3-volume official RCAF history, and can be read there in more detail.
By Bill Zuk
In 1939, as war clouds brewed over Europe and the Far East, Canada was ill-prepared for war. The RCAF, in particular, relied on a handful of obsolete Grumman Goblin 1 two-seat biplanes as front line fighters, although Canada Car and Foundry in Fort William (where the Chief Engineer Elsie MacGill became known as the “Queen of the Hurricanes”) had already started the production of a small run of Hawker Hurricanes. Eventually 1,300 Hurricane Mk X series were manufactured, but the orders were intended for RAF use.
By Mathias Joost
One of the risks of operating flying boats into the autumn months, was the risk of having the boats caught in the ice if the weather suddenly turned very cold. This had happened before to RCAF detachments and in October 1930, that’s exactly what happened in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan when these areas were subject to a rapid and unexpected deep freeze. The RCAF detachments at Cormorant Lake, Lac du Bonnet and Ladder Lake were caught flat-footed and their flying boats were caught in the ice.
On November 17, 2011, the CAHS and MacRitchie Family presented the Doug MacRitchie Memorial Scholarship to Centennial College student Bernard Spiteri.
Lost in time and history is a small but significant RCAF Station in the Ottawa, Ont. area - Shirleys Bay, which was only operational for four years, from 1925 to 1928.
