Museum History

The Canadian Air & Space Museum provides a rare opportunity to turn back time and re-enter an historic aircraft factory that played an important role in the development of Canada as a nation and laid the foundation for what is the world's fourth largest aerospace industry today.

• In the 1930s, The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. facility became the largest supplier of military, civilian and government flown aircraft in Canada.
• During the Second World War, this factory produced training aircraft for use by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada and for overseas combat use by Allied air forces.
• Postwar, a series of successful original Canadian-designed aircraft were developed in this building which established Canada as a leading aircraft manufacturer and exporter, and a leader in short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft designs.
• When the site was sold to the government in 1954, the building became home for de Havilland’s guided missile division which in the early 1960s constructed and tested Canada’s first satellite and its innovative antennas.
• When the renamed Special Products Applied Research (SPAR) division moved to Malton, use of the building reverted to the air force which had a number of squadrons base at Downsview as well as a major supply depot.
• When the current museum was formed in 1997, Bombardier Aerospace had leased the large hangar to produce the rear fuselage of the Short C-23 Sherpa transport aircraft for the U.S. Army, and the main hall was in use by the military for aircraft crash investigation.
• Museum volunteers undertook the cleaning and renovation of the offices and hangar for its new role as a heritage, cultural and educational centre. 
• Work on the construction of a full scale replica of the Avro Arrow began in 1998, and restoration the City of Toronto’s rare Avro Lancaster bomber began in 1999 in the hangar with its arrival from the Toronto waterfront.

Canadian Air & Space Museum
An Historic Building
Detailed History 

Our Building’s History at a Glance

1929 – Became home of de Havilland Aircraft of Canada during the Golden Age of Canadian aviation.

• The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. constructed a 25,000 sq ft. office, workshops and production hangar  on 70 acres of farm land in Downsview in 1929 to assemble D.H. 60 Moth aircraft shipped from the parent company in England.
• The site was selected for its large flat landscape suitable for an airport and its location adjacent to a major railway line.
• The facility opened in September 1929 when de Havilland moved its equipment, personnel and a prefabricated hangar from De Lesseps field in Weston to Downsview, a few kilometers to the north-east.
  

1930s – The factory was Canada's largest supplier of military, civilian and government owned aircraft in the 1930s, providing the Ontario Provincial Air Service, dozens of newly formed Flying Clubs, and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) with the majority of their aircraft equipped with wheels, skis or floats.

• Between 1929 and 1937, hundreds of aircraft were delivered from Downsview to customers in every part of Canada. All of these aircraft arrived in crates and were assembled and test flown at Downsview.
• Several record breaking flights of the 1930s were made with aircraft assembled or modified in these buildings:
  • A D.H.80A Puss Moth flown by George Mickleborough and Geoff O’Brien hopped across Canada in the summer of 1930, traveling 6,050 miles in 57 flying hours – an achievement unheard at the time.
  • On October 20, 1931, Australian Bert Hinkler took off from Downsview in his Puss Moth, and eventually showed up in London, England, on November 25, 1931. He had stopped in New York, Jamaica, Brazil, several parts of Africa, and Paris on the way. This was recognized as the most daring flying feat of 1931.
  • On August 8, 1934, D.H.84 Dragon assembled at Downsview became the first aircraft to fly non-stop across the Atlantic from Canada to England. Captains Len Reid and James Richard Ayling took off from Wasaga Beach and landed near London England the next day after 30 hours and 50 minutes in the air. (Newfoundland, a popular trans-Atlantic takeoff point, was not a part of Canada until 1948)
• In 1937, de Havilland began to build an all-Canadian Tiger Moth trainer modified for the harsh Canadian climate. The order from the RCAF marked Toronto’s re-emergence as an aircraft manufacturing centre, following the First World War.
• The factory was doubled in size 1938 to fill the RCAF order and to supply 200 Tiger Moth fuselages to the parent company in England.
• The twin-engine enclosed cabin D.H.84 Dragon and D.H.89 Dragon Rapide passenger aircraft pioneered scheduled airline service in many parts of Canada.
  

1939-1945 – Second World War

• When Canada entered the war on September 10, 1939, the RCAF had 6,000 personnel and about 200 mostly obsolete aircraft. Creation of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan would establish Canada as a major training ground for allied air crew, triggering the construction of hundreds of flying schools across Canada and orders for thousands of training aircraft.
• These buildings were used to produce 1,500 Tiger Moths and 375 twin-engine Anson II trainers for BCATP training schools, as well as assemble hundreds of aircraft shipped from the UK to Canada at the start of the war for training schools.
• In 1942, production began at Downsview of the still secret Mosquito fighter-bomber developed by the parent company in England. The all-wood Mosquito was one of the fastest aircraft of the war, and Canadian production employed 50,000 people, including 40,000 at sub-contractors and 7,500 at Downsview who worked on an automated production line capable of producing 80 aircraft a month.
• About one third of de Havilland’s wartime employees were women; they were involved in almost every aspect of aircraft production at Downsview.
• Downsview-built Mosquitoes were flown in combat in Europe and North Africa by the RCAF, Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force and postwar by the National Chinese air force who purchased the undelivered wartime inventory.
  

1940s – Post War

• When the war ended in August 1945, de Havilland laid off the majority of its 7000 employees as wartime orders were cancelled. The engineering team focused on the design of a modern all-metal trainer aircraft and bush plane that would be superior to earlier models. The future of the company was by no means assured given the sudden availability cheap military surplus aircraft.
• In late 1945, Canadian production of the D.H.83C Fox Moth aircraft was launched utilizing surplus Tiger Moth parts to generate much needed revenue. Many RCAF veterans began their postwar airline careers flying these new Fox Moths, such as Max Ward, founder of Wardair Airlines.
• The Main Display Hall of the Museum became home for de Havilland’s “experimental department” where the prototypes of new aircraft models were developed.
• In 1946, the prototype DHC-1 Chipmunk training aircraft was developed in this room and first flown at Downsview on May 22, 1946. The Chipmunk served as the RCAF’s post-war trainer until the late 1960s.
• The Chipmunk also established de Havilland as Canada’s leading post-war aircraft manufacturer. Canadian-built Chipmunks were sold to air forces in India, Thailand and Egypt. In fact, demand for the aircraft became so great that the parent company established a Chipmunk production line England to supply air forces in more than 20 counties with trainers, and the aircraft was also produced in Portugal. Literally tens of thousands of air force and airline pilots around the world first learned to fly on the Chipmunk.
• Fast on the heels of the DHC-1 Chipmunk’s success, de Havilland engineers launched development of the all-metal DHC-2 Beaver bush plane in 1947. This aircraft was designed to replace pre-war wood and fabric aircraft still serving many parts of northern Canada, and featured impressive Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) performance which allowed it to get in and out of small lakes and very short fields.
• The prototype Beaver, CF-FHB-X, was fabricated and assembled in the museum building and first flown by Russell Bannock on August 16, 1947.
• The Ontario Provincial Air Service was the launch customer and new aircraft were sold in 65 countries, including almost 1,000 to the U.S. military. The Beaver’s impressive performance established it as the best selling Canadian-designed aircraft of all time with 1,692 built and sold.
• The Beaver remains in widespread commercial and private use 62 years after the prototype flew. Long after other contemporary aircraft have become obsolete, the Beaver continues to fill a unique aviation niche.
• In 1948, Canada entered the jet age when more than 80 Vampire jet fighters arrived at Downsview from England for assembly, test flight and delivery to the Royal Canadian Air Force
  

The 1950s

• The Chipmunk and the Beaver helped establish Downsview de Havilland Canada as a leading exporter of innovative aircraft designs.
• In January 1951, development work started on the DHC-3 Otter prototype in these buildings, with the first flight made by George Neal on December 12, 1951. Like the Beaver, the Otter could be fitted with wheels, skis or floats and had impressive STOL capability.
• In September 1954, de Havilland opened a new aircraft factory two kilometres to the south following the sale of its original factory to the Canadian Government to create the RCAF Station Downsview air force base. 
• The site of the de Havilland factory became home for a thriving air force base and home for an RCAF transport squadron (436 Sqn.), two air force reserve squadrons (Nos 400 and 411), and Royal Canadian Navy air reserve squadron (VC 920), and many support units.
• de Havilland Canada continued to manage a large aircraft overhaul facility that was now within the air force base, and for the next 40 years would routinely lease office and factory space within air force base to accommodate engineering and production staff overflow staff needed for the development of new aircraft or to support surges in production of new aircraft
• In 1954, the museum building was leased to de Havilland’s newly formed Guided Missile Division to undertake air-to-air missile development in support of the RCAF’s Avro CF-100 and CF-105 interceptor aircraft, as well as other advanced aerospace and electronics projects. This secret work was hidden from public view within the new RCAF base.
  

1960s – Beginning of the Space Age

• Renamed the Special Products division in 1960, de Havilland’s team of guided missile engineers and scientists won a contract to construct and test Canada’s first spacecraft, the Alouette I satellite and develop its unique STEM antenna.
• When launched in 1962, Alouette I established Canada as the third nation in space, after the USSR and the United States.
• The STEM antenna became Canada’s first space technology export and was used on by the U.S. manned space program and on satellites. At one point in the 1960s, there were more than 1,000 STEM antennas in orbit in space.
• The Special Products Applied Research (SPAR) division eventually moved from Downsview to Malton when de Havilland purchased Avro Aircraft Canada in 1962. SPAR was later spun off as a separate company.
• When SPAR moved to Malton in 1960s, the building was occupied by the military used for a wide range of purposes.
  

Canadian Forces Base Toronto – 1962 to 1996

• The integration of the Canadian military in the late 1960s led to the creation of the Canadian Armed Forces.
• For many years the original de Havilland buildings accommodated the DND Supply Depot activities while the Base Downsview went through various undergoing operational changes.
• The de Havilland Canada division of Hawker Siddeley Canada was purchased by the Canadian Government in 1974, and in 1985 was owned by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company.
• Bombardier (and the Ontario Government) bough de Havilland from Boeing in 1992. In 1998, Bombardier purchased the Government of Ontario’s 49% interest in de Havilland Inc.
• In the mid-1990s, Bombardier Aerospace occupied the hangar of what is now the museum to build rear fuselages for the Short C-23 Sherpa aircraft ordered for the U.S. Army. Aircraft production continued until December 1997.
• With the closure of Canadian Forces Base Downsview in 1996 and the transfer of No. 400 “City of Toronto” Squadron to CFB Borden, Canada Lands Corporation took over management of the former base lands and initiated plans for their disposal.
  

New Opportunities for the Downsview Aerospace Site -1996-Present

• In December 1997, Canada Lands Corporation approved a proposal from the newly formed the DND formally allowed the Canadian Air & Space Museum to occupy a small portion of Plant #1 in which to establish Toronto’s first and only aerospace museum.
• In 1998, the Canadian Air & Space Museum commenced production of a replica of the Avro Arrow in what had been the wartime Avro Anson II trainer and de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber paint shop.
• In 1999, The City of Toronto’s rare Avro Lancaster Mk. X bomber, FM104, was moved from Lakeshore Blvd. to the Canadian Air & Space Museum for conservation and restoration
• In April 2003, the Canadian Air & Space Museum and Parc Downsview Park Inc. entered into a three year Strategic Alliance.
• In 2004, the Canadian Air & Space Museum welcomed home a DH 82 Tiger Moth built at Downsview in 1942. The aircraft was flown from California to the museum by Robert Laidlaw who sdonated the Tiger Moth to the museum’s collection.
• In June 2005, a recreation of a First World War Vickers Vimy bomber departed Downsview to recreate the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by Alcock and Brown in 1919. The aircraft was piloted by US aviation adventurer Steve Fossett and Mark Rebholz. The pilots retraced the original flight from St. John’s to Ireland in the giant twin engine biplane.
• In May 2006, the Canadian Air & Space Museum celebrated the 60th anniversary of the DHC-1 Chipmunk at its first Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival
• In October 2006, the Canadian Air & Space Rollout a full scale model of the famous Avro Arrow supersonic interceptor on the 49th anniversary of the original rollout at Malton in 1957.
• In May 2007, the Canadian Air & Space Museum celebrated the 60th anniversary of the DHC-2 Beaver bush plane at its second Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival.
• In late 2007, the Canadian Air & Space Museum took delivery of a Bell CH-136 Kiowa helicopter from the National Air Force Museum of Canada at CFB Trenton. The Kiowa was the last military aircraft every operated from CFB Toronto, which closed in 1996.
  

2009 – Canadian Air & Space Museum Launched

The Future: 
 
In the museum’s current form, the Avro Arrow is homeless. The revitalization and expansion project will create a home for the Arrow in the Avro Canada Gallery. 

In addition, the Lancaster Mk X Bomber will also find a home in the Aviation of Defense Gallery, where visitors can comfortably, clearly and safely view the restoration of this historic aircraft.

A classroom area will be created and known the Science of Flight Centre.  

A Civil Aviation and Transport Gallery will showcase Canada’s accomplishments in the Commercial Airline industry and Toronto illustrious Aviation History will be showcased in it’s own unique Gallery area. 

Outside visitors can marvel at the Bombardier Commercial Airline Gallery. 

Other unique and new museum areas will include and area dedicated to aerospace Innovation and Research, a 100 Seat State of the Art Education Theatre, an Educational Workshop, An upper and lower Space and Discovery Gallery featuring a space theatre and planetarium a Historic Gallery devoted to telling the history of de Havilland Canada. An area where Restoration and Fabric Demonstration projects can be viewed by visitors, as well as the restoration and recreation of the original de Havilland Canada Office Gallery.  

The museum will also boast a comprehensive Aerospace Library and Archives. 

In addition the museum will offer a first-rate Gift Shop.