Per Ardua ad Astra - the RCAF story

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Such is the motto of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), formed in 1924: it means “through adversity to the stars”.

Canada’s National Air Force Museum is located in Trenton, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Ontario west of Kingston. Since 1994 it has occupied a 15 acre (6 ha) site adjacent to the Canadian Forces Base. At present there are 27 aircraft and 36 memorials and cairns on display, plus some 9,000 flagstones commemorating members, both serving and deceased.

Devoted to the history of the (RCAF), it has more than 40,000 artifacts from both Canada and abroad, including paintings, weapons, and military memorabilia. Of course I can only give a small sampling in these photos. The “crown jewel” is a 1945 Halifax heavy bomber, retrieved from a deep lake in Norway in 1995, airlifted in bits and pieces to Canada and painstakingly restored over a ten year period, largely by volunteers. One of only three remaining of more than 6,000 built, today it serves as a memorial to over 50,000 Canadians who served in Bomber Command in WWII, nearly l0,000 of whom perished.

The Museum has undergone three expansions, most recently over the Fall and Winter of 2012 to 2013. Admission is free; it is family-friendly, and receives about 40,000 visitors per year.

There are two good web-sites: http://www.airforcemuseum.ca contains complete and detailed information, including the complete story of the retrieval and restoration of the “Hallie”, while another good one is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Air_Force_Museum_of_Canada .

As usual, you can enlarge any photo simply by clicking on it.

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