Vintage Wings of Canada facts for kids
 |
|
| Location | Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport, Quebec, Canada |
|---|---|
| Type | Aviation Museum |
Vintage Wings of Canada is a special place in Quebec, Canada, near the Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport. It's a charity that collects and cares for amazing old airplanes. Michael U. Potter, who used to lead a company called Cognos, started it. Many of these planes can still fly, or they are being fixed up to fly again!
Their main building is a huge hangar, about 2,137 square meters (23,000 square feet). It looks like the hangars used during wartime. Vintage Wings is like a "flying museum." They show their aircraft both in the air and on the ground. You can see them at many airshows and special events. These include parades for the Royal Military College of Canada and Battle of Britain Sunday. They also attend air shows across Canada and the USA.
Contents
What Vintage Wings Does
Vintage Wings of Canada has a clear goal. They want to:
- Find, fix, keep, and fly classic airplanes.
- These planes are important to the early days of flight.
- They want to teach future generations about aviation history.
- They show that these planes are more than just old parts.
- They keep the spirit of these aircraft alive.
- You can hear their engines roar and smell the old leather.
- Pilots enjoy flying them in the skies over Canada.
How Vintage Wings Started
Vintage Wings was created by Michael Potter. He was the CEO and founder of a company called Cognos. After he retired, Mr. Potter became very interested in collecting unique old airplanes. He started his collection in the year 2000.
As his collection grew, Mr. Potter decided to create a foundation. This foundation would help buy, manage, keep, and fly the aircraft. He brought in many skilled pilots to help. Some of these pilots came from the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association. Others were from the National Research Council Flight Test Laboratory. They all helped manage, display, and fly the planes.
In November 2024, Mr. Potter announced he was selling his own personal aircraft collection. However, Vintage Wings is a separate organization. It continues to operate and share its amazing planes with everyone.
Amazing Aircraft Collection
Vintage Wings owns and flies many classic airplanes. They are especially known for their Allied World War II era aircraft. Most of these planes are still able to fly!
As of February 2023, Vintage Wings of Canada had three aircraft officially registered. These planes are listed with Transport Canada. They use the special code GHK and the call sign GOLDEN HAWK.
Here are some of the aircraft that Vintage Wings operated in July 2022:
- de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk – They have two of these.
- de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
- de Havilland Fox Moth
- Fleet-built Fairchild Cornell
- Fleet 80 Canuck
- Fleet Finch II – Model 16B
- Hawker Hurricane XII
- Hawker Fury II (This one is currently being fixed up.)
- North American Harvard Mk IV
- North American Mustang IV
- Westland Lysander IIIA
- Goodyear FG-1D Corsair
- Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX
Some aircraft that were once part of the collection have been sold or are no longer there:
- Beechcraft D17S Staggerwing (sold in 2011)
- Bellanca Citabria
- Boeing Stearman
- Canadair Sabre Mk 5 (was for sale in March 2017)
- Curtiss P-40N Kittyhawk
- de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
- de Havilland Tiger Moth
- Fairchild Cornell
- Fairey Swordfish Mk III
- Hawker Hurricane Mk IV
- Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI
- Waco Taperwing ATO (sold in 2011)
About an Incident
On August 28, 2009, a Vintage Wings de Havilland Tiger Moth had an incident. It happened at the Gatineau Airport. The pilot, Howard Cook, was from England and got some serious injuries. He was practicing for an air rally when the plane had an engine problem. It crashed about 50 meters (164 feet) from the airport runway.
See Also
- List of aviation museums
