Of Supersonic Travel and No Lost Baggage
Original Article by Ed Unrau In the 1962 cartoon, “The Jetsons”, George Jetson commutes to work in an aerocar that resembles a flying saucer with a transparent bubble top. And just a few short years...
View ArticleThe Stewardesses of Trans-Canada Air Lines
Trans-Canada Air Lines hired their first stewardesses in 1938. Eighteen eager young women from across the country were brought together at Trans-Canada Air Lines head office in Winnipeg for training...
View ArticleEngineering the Flying Future
In 1937, when Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) was established, Winnipeg’s location at the geographic centre of Canada made it the perfect location to coordinate trans-continental air routes. As a result,...
View ArticleKonnie Johannesson: Golden Boy of Winnipeg
The first airplane to fly over Winnipeg took off from the Dufferin Avenue fairground on a July afternoon in 1910. Among the observers was 14-year-old Konrad Johannesson. Konnie, as he was known to...
View ArticleGrant McConachie and the Pacific Route
When Grant McConachie began his career as a bush pilot in 1931, his enthusiasm for flying was not diminished by the grim prospects of the economic depression. Airmail contracts had been cancelled and...
View ArticleFirst Lodestar Lands In Winnipeg January 10
February, 1941, Canadian Aviation Winnipeg, Manitoba, January 10 – The first of six new Lockheed ‘Lodestars’ purchased by Trans-Canada Airlines landed at Stevenson Field here just before sundown today,...
View ArticleComet Airliner Starting Shakedown Flight Trials
December, 1949, Canadian Aviation by Floyd S. Chalmers London – We went out to the de Havilland plant the morning after the Comet’s amazing six-hour hop to Castle Benito, Lybia and back – an aerial...
View ArticleLinda Meckling: In-flight Service in 1966
Inspired by a love of travel, Linda Meckling became a flight attendant with Air Canada in 1966. After four weeks of training in Montreal, she was flying coast to coast and, later, overseas. Linda...
View ArticleHe Flies on Business
August, 1946, Aircraft and Airport Magazine Seeking to establish a precedent in aviation for businessmen, J. F. (Jack) Fawkes, Winnipeg travelling salesman, has embarked in his privately owned aircraft...
View ArticleBlazing the 49er Skyway: Florida/Canada/Alaska
June, 1959, Western Wings Tour Mostly Over Western Canada Western Canadian skies will be buzzing this summer with the sound of several hundred aircraft heading for Alaska. At least three groups, from...
View ArticleArticle: The World’s Shortest Airline
July/August, 1956 Esso Air World Magazine The 12-minute flight linking Leamington and Pelee Island over 22 miles of Lake Erie, Canada, is believed to be the shortest air route in the world with three...
View ArticleArticle: Karen Bulow and the TCA Curtains
November, 1950, Between Ourselves (TCA Internal Magazine) Seventeen years ago, a young Danish lass, proud owner of one loom and office space in a St. Catherine Street office building in Montreal,...
View ArticleInfographic on Lockheed Electra 10A, CF-TCC
The Lockheed Electra 10A was among the first passenger airliners to be flown in Canada. Trans-Canada Air Lines, now Air Canada, operated five Electras between 1937 and 1941. We’ve dug deep into our...
View ArticleArticle: Imperial Airways Goes Commonwealth
by James McCook This untitled (until now), undated, unpublished (until now, it is believed) and unsigned manuscript is part of the James McCook Collection in the Aviation Museum. Because it bears a...
View ArticleArticle: A Famous Forced Landing
Fall, 2008, Altitude Gimli, Manitoba, founded in 1875, is a prosperous, progressive town of some 5,000 people located approximately 80 kilometres north of Winnipeg on the sandy, southwestern shore of...
View ArticleArticle: Last Flight of CF-THS
Fall, 2015, Altitude by Jim Griffith Late August, 1983, was hot and muggy in Winnipeg. I was on a lawn chair in my backyard looking at the condensation droplets on the side of the tankard holding my...
View ArticleArticle: Western Coach Service
September, 1953, Aircraft & Airport A bold step in the development of Canadian commercial air services will be made by Pacific Western Airlines Limited with an air-coach-type passenger service...
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