Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum & RCAF WWII Memorial

Teachers! It’s Field Trip Time!

March 2026

Dear School Administrators and Teachers,

When planning your field trips for this school year, please consider the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon. We offer a student friendly environment with tours to suit all grade levels with specific curriculum links from Grade 1 to 12. We are available for tour bookings now up until the end of October. We normally get booked up for tours all through spring, so book early, or consider a fall field trip!

Our museum tour can be adapted to meet your needs and time constraints. We are open seven days a week and have special rates just for school groups. Our regular rates are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for youth, school groups are only $4.00 per student and with every ten students you are allowed one free supervisor.

A little about us:

We are a National Historic Site and a Manitoba Signature Museum. We are located at the Brandon Municipal Airport. Our museum tells the story of air force training during WWII. Aircrew were trained from across the Commonwealth, and beyond, right here in Canada, including many Manitoba locations! The hangar has many historic aircraft, vehicles, and interactive displays. We also have an active restoration shop, a memorial chapel, historic buildings, and lots of outdoor space to have a picnic lunch. We also have the incredible RCAF WWII Memorial, a 300 foot granite wall that pays tribute to those lost serving in the RCAF. More information can be found on our website (www.airmuseum.ca) or on our social media accounts.

In addition to being an amazing location for an educational field trip, our Education Committee has put together some resources for teachers. You can find them on the education page of our website (https://airmuseum.ca/services/tours-education/). These resources include several activities suitable for high school created by a local history teacher. We also have an amazing learning kit, targeted at middle years, created by a highly regarded, recently retired, Brandon educator. The kit has several modules containing exciting activities, all connected to Manitoba Curricular outcomes. If you are interested in this learning kit, contact the museum.

If you have any questions or would like to book a tour, please give me a call at 727-2444.

Yours truly, Stephen Hayter

Stephen Hayter
Executive Director
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum
Box 3 Group 520 RR #5
Brandon, MB R7A 5Y5
P: 204-727-2444 c: 204-761-8365
airmuseum@inetlink.ca
www.airmuseum.ca

2025 at the CATPM in Review

The past few years, a video reviewing the museum’s activities over the previous year has been created, and the 2025 version is now available. You can view it – and many other museum videos on our YouTube channel!

2025 was an exciting year: a new Director General, acquiring a Norseman and a Stearman, a huge bequest, and much more! Watch the video to see it all.

UNESCO Live Museum

When Canada was called upon, we stepped up. Through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, communities across this country trained 220,000 personnel and helped shape the outcome of the Second World War. Small towns across Canada made a big impact.

That spirit still guides us at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum (CATPM).

This year, our Director General participated in UNESCO’s global Live Museum training – joining museum and heritage professionals from around the world to explore how museums can foster dialogue across cultures. From Brandon, Manitoba, we stood shoulder to shoulder with institutions including the Grand Egyptian Museum, sharing ideas about how heritage can connect people across borders.

We are a focused, independent museum telling one chapter of Canada’s story – but it is a chapter that changed the world.

Dialogue across cultures: Museum and heritage professionals worldwide

Little hangar. Global conversation.

Hangar #1 (the CATP Museum) — Hangar #1, part of #12 SFTS, home to the CATP Museum

CATPM calls for NRFP for Major Redevelopment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum Issues NRFP for Major Redevelopment of Historic WWII Hangar and Aviation Campus

Brandon, Manitoba — [F] — The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum (CATPM) has officially issued a Negotiated Request for Proposals (NRFP) for Design-Build services supporting a major redevelopment of its historic aviation site located at Brandon Municipal Airport.

The project represents a significant step forward in safeguarding one of Canada’s most important surviving Second World War aviation training facilities while preparing the Museum to meet growing operational, preservation, and visitor needs.

CATPM operates within an original 1941 British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) hangar- one of the few remaining wartime training hangars of its kind still in active public use. After more than eight decades of service, the structure now requires substantial structural remediation, modernization, and accessibility upgrades to ensure its long-term preservation and safe public use.

The NRFP invites qualified Design-Build teams to develop and evaluate two comprehensive redevelopment pathways. These include stabilization and repair of the original hangar, and/or construction of a new hangar-style facility to support expanded museum operations, aircraft storage, collections care, and public programming.

“This is a transformational moment for the Museum,” said Zoe McQuinn, Director General of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum. “We are not simply repairing a building, we are securing the future of a nationally significant heritage site, preserving the legacy of those who trained and served here, and building the infrastructure needed to support the next generation of visitors, researchers, and community engagement.”

The redevelopment project is expected to address structural stabilization, code compliance, accessibility, operational capacity, and long-term sustainability, while safeguarding irreplaceable aviation artifacts and collections. The work will take place on an active airfield and within a functioning museum environment, requiring specialized expertise in heritage structures and complex public facilities.

CATPM anticipates the project will also generate regional economic activity and support the continued growth of the museum as a cultural, educational, and tourism destination in western Manitoba.

Qualified proponents are invited to review the full NRFP and submission requirements through the designated procurement portal.

Submission deadline: March 30, 2026
Project location: Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon Municipal Airport
NRFP access: Catpm Redevelopment Project – Design-build Services – 2026 | MERX

About the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum

The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum is a nationally recognized aviation heritage institution dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and the contributions of Canadians and Commonwealth personnel during the Second World War. Located on an active airfield in Brandon, Manitoba, the Museum houses aircraft, artifacts, archives, and exhibits that honour the more than 130,000 aircrew trained across Canada as part of the largest aviation training program in history.

Media Contact:
Zoe McQuinn
Director General
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum
DirectorGeneral@CATPM.onmicrosoft.com
204-727-2444