Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum & RCAF WWII Memorial
Dedicated to the plan for training air force personnel for the Commonwealth in the Second World War
An exciting experience – free with admission! Using motion sensing technology, the user ‘pilots’ a WWI biplane! Read about it more here: https://ingeniumcanada.org/aviation/exhibitions/ace-academy-flight-experience . This display is on loan form the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum and will be here all of July & August! Don’t miss it! I won’t!
June 4 was Armed Forces Day and was also our grand reopening after 8 months closed. Our structural issues are shored up, they still require a permanent solution, but it is safe for us to open again. Armed Forces Day provided a wonderful opportunity to reopen, while we would have enjoyed more visitors, we did have almost 300 people come out to enjoy the displays. We thank everyone who came out – visitors and displayers. Donations were plentiful and much appreciated. Just so you know, we have brightened and changed up our galleries as well as rearranged displays in the hangar. The gift shop is also rejuvenated and new stock has been coming in. Please enjoy the video below that highlights the day and lists those who came out to display – including the RCAF and the Canadian Army from CFB Shilo, among others!
You might also want to check out his video made to support a grant application!
Sunday, June 18 10 am – 3 pm! (Weather permitting). Call or email the museum to book a flight. Rides available in the Cornell, Harvard, and Tiger Moth. A once in a lifetime adventure! These are the planes that World War II pilots trained on! Flights are about 20 – 25 minutes long.
Prices
CATPM Armed Forces Day Celebration
Sunday June 4th, 10 am to 3pm
The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum at McGill Field, Brandon Airport will be having its grand reopening by recognizing Armed Forces Day, Sunday June 4thbetween 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. The public is invited to participate in this family friendly event. The Royal Canadian Air Force is expected to send aircraft that could include a C-130 Hercules and CT-142 Dash 8 and aircraft/helicopters from Southport. Along with our own flying aircraft consisting of a Cornell, Tiger Moth, Harvard, Stinson and Fleet Finch, visiting civilian aircraft may include a Musketeer, Stearman, Harvard, T28 Trojan and Nanchang. There will be no flying aircraft demonstrations, but you will be able to get up close and personal with all the aircraft and in many cases speak directly to the pilots flying them. A special participant will be a CF18 Fighter Full Scale Cockpit. The museum will also be open for viewing to take in our many non-flying aircraft and vintage vehicles and artifacts. There will be free parking and free admission. Donations would be greatly appreciated.
The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum is proud to be one of the seven Manitoba Signature Museums, a Manitoba Star Attraction and a National Historic Site.
For more information about the CATPM’s event, please contact:
Stephen Hayter, Executive Director
Ph: 204-727-2444 Email: airmuseum@inetlink.ca
1946 RCAF Estevan Crash Memorial Presentation at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum Canteen, Brandon Municipal Airport
Sunday, May 28, 2023, at 1:30 p.m.
Everyone is invited!
The Commonwealth Air Training Plan (CATP) Museum at McGill Field (Brandon Municipal Airport) will host the presentation ceremony for the memorial of the September 15, 1946, RCAF crash near Estevan, SK. Twenty-one airmen lost their lives that morning as they were returning from Minot, ND, to Estevan. It was one of the worst accidents involving the peacetime RCAF. They had been tasked with repatriating Cornell training aircraft to Fargo and Minot as part of the Lend Lease Agreement between Great Britain and the United States during WWII. From #124 (Ferry) Squadron, Rockcliffe near Ottawa, they had been stationed temporarily at the former #38 Service Flying Training School at Estevan.
The Forever in the Clouds Memorial Committee spent more than two years searching for family members of the airmen and planning three days of remembrance activities in July, 2022. Marie Donais Calder gathered historical information and communicated with members of all twenty-one families in order to write Together Forever in the Clouds*, the story of the crash and of each individual airman. Families and the community gathered, first at Government House in Regina and then at Estevan, to honour the airmen and to dedicate a memorial cairn at the crash site. Of the twenty-one families, fourteen were represented by over sixty people…..coming from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Crete and Mallorca. Saskatchewan and the wider Estevan community supported and continue to support this initiative. Sincere gratitude is expressed to the CATP Museum for its assistance with the remembrance events, especially to those who provided rides in the Cornell and Harvard.
As part of continuing events related to the crash, the Forever in the Clouds Memorial Committee has arranged for a framed photo of the memorial plaque to be presented to the CATP Museum, hoping to keep the story of these dedicated airmen alive by bringing it to a wider audience.
The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum is proud to be one of the seven Manitoba Signature Museums, a Manitoba Star Attraction and a National Historic Site.
For more information about the CATPM’s event, please contact: Stephen Hayter, Executive Director, Ph: 204-727-2444 Email: airmuseum@inetlink.ca
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum & RCAF WWII Memorial