Airplanes Of The BCATP

 Starting where we left off yesterday, mounted above is a Fairchild Cornell, another staple plane of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program during the Second World War.

Here we see the Menasco Moth, another training aircraft.

And this is the North American Harvard, an elegant training plane.

Mementos of the program.

BCATP was a huge infrastructure project- not just the building of air fields and training schools, but the roads and infrastructure to get to them, as they tended to be in rural areas. It was the biggest infrastructure project in the country to that date, and critical for the Canadian home front.

One more look at these iconic planes of the Second World War.

Back into some bush planes. This first one, a Junkers W34, dates between the wars.

The Aerodrome Of Democracy

 A panel looks at the home front effort to send the machines of war to World War Two- in this case the Lancaster plane. It is the top photograph that impresses- the staff of an entire factory on and before a Lancaster, reinforcing how big these planes really are.

There is a section of a Lancaster here that you can get a look into. A platform is built beside and behind it.

This shows the positions and responsibilities of the forward crew of a Lancaster.

The Royal Canadian Air Force was involved in research as well as fighting during the war, working on centrifuge development, part of the process of making it possible for pilots to handle faster speeds, simply by testing g-forces in such devices.

This is one of them.

And a model of the facility in which the testing would actually take place.

Canadian doctor Wilbur Franks developed an anti-g flight suit to assist in reducing the effects of gravitational force on pilots. It was water-lined.

During the war, Canada served as a training ground for Allied pilots to learn the skills before going off to war. They would train in a series of aircraft found here. Franklin Roosevelt would refer to Canada as the Aerodrome of Democracy.

This is an Avro Anson, one of the planes of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program, which had multiple facilities in Canada for the war effort.

Another integral part of BCATP- the Link Trainer, a flight simulator that some pilots said was harder to operate than the actual planes.

Falcons In The European Skies

 More looks at this beautiful Spitfire today.

This statue stands between the Spitfire and its neighbour. George Beurling was an ace of the war, who ended up with the nickname the Falcon of Malta for his extraordinary actions in battle there.

Another iconic fighter of the war- the Hurricane.

This is a Daimler-Benz engine. These were used for the Luftwaffe, in their most iconic plane.

And that plane is the Messerschmitt Bf 109, one of which resides here.

Contrast its size with the Lancaster.

Beneath the wing of the Lancaster is another German plane. Here we have the Volksjager, a product of late in the war, a mix of metal and wood meant for training. Few were finished.

Titans Of The Second World War

Another look at the German Komet plane, a rocket powered plane that was the only one of its kind used in combat in the 20th century. It had its drawbacks- too fast for pilots to hit targets, and its fuels were dangerous. Few were made.

Here we have the engine of a Lancaster bomber plane.

And here we have the Lancaster. This one was shipped to Europe in March 1945, and was too late to see combat, but bombers like this were the backbone of Bomber Command, flown by the RAF, RCAF, and other Allied air forces. It is strange, but these things meant to destroy are also beautiful.

Here we have a model sized.

The bomb bay beneath is open.

A Jeep of the era is seen close by.

Another icon of the War, and another example of a beautiful plane- the Spitfire.