Flight Days & the CATPM’s Stearman

This post is by one of our summer workers, Rory McCallum has submitted several blog posts over the last year, this is his latest. Rory is a Music student at Brandon University.

The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum acquired a Stearman Kaydet last season (https://airmuseum.ca/2025/10/01/catpm-excited-to-welcome-historic-boeing-stearman-kaydet/), and we are thrilled to welcome it to our fleet of flying aircraft this summer. For the rest of the summer, the Stearman will be available for the CATPM’s remaining flight days, which, barring unforeseen circumstances, will occur on Armed Forces Day weekend (June 6-7) Canada Day, July 18th, and 19th, and more! (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gtXFLJEo5rG2IGt2NIwR10s75iJr0S7gcDqaFXynxWY/edit?tab=t.0) (note that flights are weather dependent).

With its open cockpit and (current) bright orange colour, our Stearman is a very recognizable training aircraft. First flown in 1934 in its Boeing hometown of Wichita, Kansas, the aircraft was originally utilized as a trainer for the US Army, featuring accommodation for a student and instructor. With fabric-covered wings and a welded-steel fuselage, it was powered by a single radial engine and was ideal for initial flight training.

Weighing around 2700 pounds and with a top speed of nearly 200 km/h, more than 8,400 of the aircraft were constructed during the war period, with around 300 seeing action after transfer from the US for use in the British Commonwealth Training Plan. Amazingly, more than 50% of US pilots had their initial flight in a Stearman, as did 10,000 RAF and Fleet Air Arm pilots in British Flying Training Schools in the United States from 1941 to 1944.

photo of a Boeing Stearman
The CATP Museum’s Stearman Kaydet.
A member of the Women’s Branch of the United States Naval Reserve and pilot on a Stearman during training. (U.S. National Archives)

This arrival of Stearman to the RCAF in 1942 was an expansion of the BCATP’s fleet of basic trainers, serving at No. 3 Flying Instructors School in Arnprior, ON, as well as four Elementary Flying Training Schools on the prairies. However, the Stearman was found not to be a match for the biting prairie winters due to its open cockpit, and four months later, it was replaced by another one of the CATPM’s aircraft, the Fairchild Cornell.

Finally, it is important to acknowledge how exciting the arrival of a flying aircraft is to the museum. Visitors this summer will not only be able to observe the static aircraft but also see the biplane take off, bringing history to life in a unique way. Joining an ever-expanding collection of flightworthy aircraft, including the Tiger Moth, Fleet Finch, Harvard, Stinson, and possibly more to come. Each aircraft provided a different training role in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, telling a story of the more than 130,000 allied members of the Commonwealth who trained in Canada during the Second World War. We hope that this summer you may be able to take a ride in one of our aircraft or attend one of our flight days. Additionally, the Stearman will be flying on Armed Forces Day, which is coming up soon on June 7th!

Lighting the Way Home: The Humble Flare Pot

This post, her first of many (I hope) is by one of our summer workers. Whitney M. Hodgins is a Master of Arts Student at Athabasca University.

This black round object caught my eye in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, it was inside the workshop, sitting humbly on a display case. At first I was perplexed about what it could be. At first I thought it reminded me of the Bob-ombs from Super Mario Bros. But instead I found out it was much more than that. Sitting humbly on the shelf were flare pots. 

Flare Pot, located in the workshop section of the museum.

What are flare pots you may be asking? Flare pots were used in WWII during night training or missions for pilots flying aircraft (Canadian War Museum, 2001). They would sit on the runways about 200 feet apart on both sides and they would be filled with gasoline or oil (Canadian War Museum, 2001). These pots had the important job of assisting pilots to see the runway in order to safely land their aircraft at night (Canadian War Museum, 2001). They required a lot of care and attention from service-members on the ground; if they went out, someone would have to go out and relight them (CBC, 2015). 

Flare pots may sound nifty at first, however, upon further research, there were some minor issues with the flare pots with their design discovered. Flare pots were increasingly vulnerable to wind blowing them out from either crosswinds of the prairies or the aircraft themselves during take-off (Canadian War Museum, 2001). One solution that was discovered to mitigate this was that only one lane of lights would be lit (Canadian War Museum, 2001). This may sound like a reasonable solution, but the problem for pilots was determining which side the tarmac would be on for one string of lights on the ground (Canadian War Museum, 2001)! If you missed the tarmac, you may end up going into the infield, which probably made for an even bumpier ride. Another issue with the flare pots is that they were difficult to see as pilots could only make them out from about one and a half kilometers away (Alison, 1964). This means that it left a pilot very little time to make any necessary corrections for landing at night time. If anything, the flare pots create a narrative that allows us to view just how profound the risks of being a pilot were back in WWII, regardless if you were “in action”, training or transportation. 

One thing is for certain, even though the flare pot sitting in our collection is one of the many representations to symbolize the remnants of WWII, these little pots also have been shown that in times of crisis can still symbolize heroism during peace time as well. One news report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) noted that the small community of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, experienced a power outage in 2015. At the time of this incident, pilots were trying to conduct a medevac for a patient seeking medical care (CBC, 2015). The airport, in response, had to send out someone to place and light the flare pots so that pilots could see the runway (CBC, 2015). Regardless of whether you think flare pots are an artifact of the long forgotten past or a contemporary hero in times of crisis, they are one of those interesting yet essential items for airfield operations that still continue to have a resounding impact even to this day in peaceful times, lighting the way home for pilots in Canada.

Initial Training Schools (ITS)

Our summer workers return, including Rory M., who continues his blog post features with this one exploring the ITS. Rory is a student at Brandon University.


As the school year comes to an end, students across Canada, including myself, are preparing for final exams by reviewing notes, late-night studying, and are excited for warmer summer weather.

During the Second World War, the young men from across Canada who entered the Commonwealth Air Training Plan and faced the Initial Training School had a similar moment. However, their tests carried greater weight, and within weeks, their performance on course materials decided their path as a pilot, navigator, or air gunner in the Allied air effort. 

The first Initial Training School (out of the 7 that would be constructed) opened in Toronto, ON, on May 1st, 1940. As the Air Training Plan expanded to include Regina, Victoriaville, Edmonton, Belleville, and Saskatoon, ITS served as an academic foundation for every student’s future career in the Air Force.

Initially, the ITS course lasted a brief four weeks, incorporating lectures and coursework in navigation, math, aerodynamics, meteorology, and science. Interspersed with foot drills, physical training, and coursework, the discipline required of service members was solidified through the ITS experience. While students were expected to absorb large amounts of unfamiliar information in a short period of time, new recruits were eager to fly but first had to prove they were willing to learn. 

photo of Students studying in the library of an Initial Training School in Quebec (Canadian War Museum)
Students studying in the library of an Initial Training School in Quebec (Canadian War Museum)
Photo of Examples of textbooks studied in Initial Training School, from the CATPM’s main gallery.
Examples of textbooks studied in Initial Training School, from the CATPM’s main gallery.
A LINK trainer exhibit in the CATP Museum’s hangar.

Additionally, ITS was a selection system, not a school. While many recruits enlisted in the RCAF with the hope of becoming a pilot, other aircrew positions were available and essential to a pilot’s success. Broadly, candidates were first grouped by educational background. Those with more extensive high school education were streamed towards navigator or pilot training, while others were streamed towards roles such as wireless operators or air gunners. Another factor was a particular aptitude for flying skills. One of these tools, found in the CATPM hangar, is the link trainer (see photo), an early flight simulator that challenged a trainee’s potential as a pilot. 

According to Author F.J. Hatch in Aerodrome of Democracy: Canada and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the first group of ITS graduates from Toronto showed a division of roles within the class. Out of the 164 recruits, 92 were selected as pilots, 41 became navigators, 25 as air gunners, and 6 were unable to complete the course. Unlike a typical pass/fail report card that today’s students may receive, completion of the course determined an individual’s role in the war. 

While much of the medical and psychological testing of the RCAF was completed at Manning Depots upon enrollment, at ITS initial testing, such as minor issues in vision, blood pressure, and heart function, was conducted to evaluate trainees. Additionally, strict physical requirements were enforced, which may have had an impact on your placement in careers. Pilot candidates for example, could not exceed 6 feet 3 inches or 200 pounds, and had to be between the age of 18-28. Academic expectations were additionally significant. In the beginning of the war, candidates on the prairies were required to have at least completed a grade 11 education. However, this requirement was later replaced by the RCAF’s classification test, which measured learning ability rather than formal educational attainment. Like students today striving for competitive educational opportunities, trainees knew that every opportunity on their training path had an impact on their future in the Armed Forces. 

For those selected as navigators, their training at the ITS introduced fundamentals and critical tools of aerial navigation. Trainees were introduced to tools such as compasses, sextants, and drift recorders, and studied the relationship between air and ground speed, wind and its role in flight path, and how to plot flight courses effectively. These lessons, first introduced in the classroom, would later be essentially applied in the air. 

Finally, as the war progressed, ITS evolved. Beginning as a four-week program, the course had expanded to ten weeks by October of 1942. This change reflected a growing recognition of the importance of ground instruction before elementary flying training. These schools were ultimately recognized as playing a vital role in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan by providing a foundation of knowledge, a mechanism for sorting out critical roles, and transforming civilians into aircrew. Before any aircraft took to the skies, the outcome of the war was shaped by the important work being done in classrooms across the country.

From the Archives: Lantern

Google has this wonderful little tool that we use quite often in the archives. You go to google search and tap the icon that looks like a camera on the far right of the search line. You can then take a photo of your item and by the magic of the internet find out what you are looking at (reverse image search). It doesn’t always work but it does give you some hints as to where to look. This item, a carbine lantern, donated in 1991 by Barry Sobchuk of Brandon turned out to be a gem (see photo on the right). It would have been used during the black outs during the War. It is old and rusty but we do wish we could hear the stories it could tell. The lanterns produced a bright white light through the process of dripping water onto calcium carbide. The slit in the lens cap reduced the lighted area so was suitable during the blackouts. It was also popular because batteries were scarce. They were mostly used by civilians on patrol but were also used in railway stations to inspect wheels and other duties. The handle of this lantern has an opening so that the lantern could be hung on a post or bicycle. Canada did have mandatory black outs particularly along the coasts that feared enemy attacks. So where it was used and how it travelled to the prairies to end up in our Museum will probably remain a mystery.

item submitted by CATPM archivist, Judith.