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The Warplane Museum at Hamilton airport is home to over 40 aircraft, 25 of them still in flying condition. It focuses on aircraft used by the Canadian armed services from World War 1 on -- from the very earliest biplanes to almost the latest jets. The main focus is on World War 2 and the Cold War, when the last propeller-driven planes were giving way to the first jets -- every little, and not-so-little, boy's dream time. I'm focusing here on just a few of their propeller driven planes.
The museum is a private enterprise that has grown from its start, around 1970, when four enthusiasts banded together to buy a Fairey Firefly, a WW2 plane that looks as sharp as the Spitfire from the nose to the wing but from wing to tail looks like it was designed by a badly-led committee. That Firefly became the museum's logo and its successor is still their most frequent flyer. When it isn't providing paying passengers with an aerial view of southern Ontario, the Firefly is a popular exhibit. Visitors can peer into the cockpit and engine -- knowing it's a genuine working plane.
In 1972, the museum moved to a hanger at Hamilton airport, expanding through the years to its present size and fine, purpose-built, facility. The museum's work is all done by volunteers who maintain and fly the operational planes (the museum is rightly proud of owning one of only two WW2 Lancaster bombers that still fly) and restore the exhibits that don't.
The museum's other famous WW2 bomber is a B52 Mitchell, the plane used in the Doolittle raid on Japan. This plane isn't one from the raid but it is still flyable and appears at events throughout the warmer months.
Almost everyone's favourite fighter, the Spitfire, is sadly one of the static displays but it's as beautiful on the ground as it was in the air. The Spitfire is the archetypical fighter. Built for speed and agility, without the need to provide mundane services like carrying things, it's graceful, sleek and toned - like a movie star. And it was a screen star in the Forties and Fifties.
Other famous planes you'll find at the museum; that unsung hero of the Battle of Britain, the Hawker Hurricane, a Douglas DC3 or Dakota - probably the only plane from that era still in service around the world, a Westland Lysander, used for dropping spies behind enemy lines, and, from WW1, a Sopwith Pup - forerunner of the Camel, made famous by many WW1 'Aces' and, more recently, Snoopy, from the Peanuts cartoons.
The museum is open 363 days a year (closed only for Christmas and New Year) and it's all indoors. At Can$10 for adults (in 2009), it's an ideal spot for cold or wet days. With all those exhibits, intriguing restorations or maintenance to watch, and knowledgeable volunteers to talk to, you can while away hours there. And the museum has a cafeteria to provide visitors a place to rest and refuel.
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Regards,
Paul C James
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