X-Nico

31 unusual facts about Royal Canadian Air Force


Armed Forces Council

The Armed Forces Council is chaired by the CDS and consists of the CDS, the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, the heads of each of the three service environments of the CF: the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, as well as other senior officers.

Arnold Peters

Peters, a hard rock miner and union organizer, served in the 124th Ferry Squadron in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Bill Orban

He took a position at the Department of National Defence in 1956 and was tasked to develop a fitness programme for Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, a third of whom were not considered fit to fly.

CFB Moncton

The Moncton Garrison survived into the Cold War and was renamed Canadian Forces Base Moncton (CFB Moncton) in February 1968 following the unification of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force to create the Canadian Forces.

Charles D. B. Green

Although he was married with three children when World War II broke out, he re-enlisted, this time in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Claresholm, Alberta

Royal Canadian Air Force Station Claresholm was established near the town in 1941 to train pilots for service in World War II.

Dennis Ayling

He also served in photographic reconnaissance squadrons in the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, and for part of his service was based in Burma, where he covered many key events, including the Japanese surrender.

Dennis Travale

He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1963–1973 and then joined the federal public service, retiring as the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency's Executive Director of Security.

Diamond Jenness

In 1941, eager to contribute to the war effort, he was seconded to the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he served until 1944 as civilian Deputy Director of Special Intelligence.

Discovery Air Defence Services

Working with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), they offer advanced training to the Army, Air and Navy branches under the Contracted Airborne Training Services (CATS) program.

Douglas Thomas McFarlane

McFarlane worked on the family farm and then served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Erin O'Toole

He graduated from the RMC in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Erskine Leigh Capreol

He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at Camp Borden, Ontario as a flight instructor for slightly over a year before he took work at de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited as chief test and demonstration pilot, in charge of testing and displaying new aircraft.

German submarine U-541

She was then hunted for two days by four frigates, a minesweeper and aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), but escaped.

German submarine U-889

On the afternoon of 10 May, U-889 was spotted south of Newfoundland by a RCAF airplane, steaming at 10 knots and flying a black flag of surrender.

Hitler – Dead or Alive

The three join the Royal Canadian Air Force to enter Germany and pose as musicians to gain access to Hitler, played by Robert Watson.

Hope Slide

On 23 April 1966, a Royal Canadian Air Force Grumman CSR-110 Albatross (9302) serving with No. 121 Composite Unit (KU) at RCAF Station Comox, BC crashed on the Hope Slide.

Ian Verner Macdonald

Macdonald is claimed to be a World War II veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Fleet Air Arm, however, details of said service are unknown.

Invergordon railway station

The Sunderland, with a full load of fuel and depth charges then crashed into the railway line 2 miles northeast of Invergordon Railway Station where all 11 of the RCAF crew were killed.

J. W. Marcel Gilbert

Joseph Wilfred Marcel Gilbert (March 13, 1917 - September 28, 1942) was a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Jim Barkhouse

Barkhouse served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1958 to 1963 and worked at Sperry Gyroscope and Hermes Electronics.

Lincoln Park, Calgary

The neighbourhood is located on the section of the former Canadian Forces Base Calgary that during World War II was a Royal Canadian Air Force airfield; the name of the district derives from a small area of military housing located between 54th Avenue S.W. and Glenmore Trail which was reserved for United States Air Force members stationed at the airfield during World War II.

Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School

But with the onset of World War II, the federal government purchased of the club, and it became a secret air force research facility known as the No. 1 Clinical Investigation Unit, and later the Royal Canadian Air Force Institute of Aviation Army.

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario candidates, 1971 Ontario provincial election

Pryor Harris (died April 8, 2010) served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as an instrument technician during World War II.

Rick Moffat

Born October 8, 1960 in Lachine, Quebec, he was one of five children born to James Moffat, a decorated World War 2 hero with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Belgian and French Resistance whose wartime memoir was published in "Behind Enemy Lines", and to Anne Dosman Moffat, a Prairie survivor of the Depression and the Dustbowl of Saskatchewan in the 1930s.

Rod Clement

He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1941 to 1945, saw action in World War II, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) award.

St. Eleanors, Prince Edward Island

In 1940, several farm properties in the northern part of St. Eleanors were purchased by the federal government for the construction of RCAF Station Summerside, a Royal Canadian Air Force training and operations base.

Ted Nasmith

As the son of a Royal Canadian Air Force officer, Nasmith's early life was characterized by a series of moves as his father was re-stationed during his military career — sometimes within Canada, sometimes to other countries, such as France.

Toronto Normal School

St. James Square became the No. 6 Initial Training Centre for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and a number of barracks and other auxiliary buildings were constructed on the site.

William Brenton Boggs

He graduated from McGill University, mechanical engineering, and became an Engineering Officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940.

Winnipeg municipal election, 1986

He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as an Air Crew Officer after graduating from high school.


437 Transport Squadron

437 Squadron was formed at RAF Blakehill Farm in Wiltshire, England in 1944 as a unit of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and provided general transport until it was disbanded in 1946.

Allan A. Lamport

He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II and once rose in the legislature to denounce Henry Ford for his lack of support for the Canadian war effort calling him a "black-hearted American Quisling".

Canadarm

In the movie Iron Sky, a Royal Canadian Air Force version of the Canadarm, named Canadarm 3, is an armed spacecraft that fights against the Nazis during the battle for the earth.

CFAD Dundurn

Following unification of the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Army in 1968, No. 6 Ordnance Ammunition Depot was renamed Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot Dundurn (also CFAD Dundurn).

Christopher Tunnard

He was drafted into the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943 and after the war took a job teaching city planning at Yale.

Dommartin-Lettrée

The church is to be found in a central position in the village and the Commonwealth war graves of five airmen of the Royal Air Force and two of the Royal Canadian Air Force lie in the churchyard immediately behind the church.

Donald Ethell

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a nurse and a navy chief petty officer, he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1955 after being rejected by the Navy and rejected from the Air Force.

Greenwood, Nova Scotia

The Royal Canadian Air Force took over the facility in 1944, renaming it RCAF Station Greenwood, a name it maintained until the February 1, 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces which saw the airfield and associated facilities renamed CFB Greenwood.

Harold A. Terris

During World War II, Harold Terris served overseas as a Spitfire pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Jackie Rae

Rae flew Spitfires as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Longuyon

The apartment blocks on the southwestern edge of town, still called "La Cité Canadienne", were home to Royal Canadian Air Force staff and their families in the 1950s and 1960s, when the RCAF had an airbase at nearby Marville.

Newfoundland Ranger Force

Those members who had departed joined a variety of military forces, including the Newfoundland Heavy Artillery, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy.

Nieuport 12

This aircraft was donated to the Canadian Dominion Archive along with a Canon de 75 modèle 1897 cannon and an extensive collection of propaganda posters by the French Government in 1916 and was used for war bond drives until the 1918 flu pandemic resulted in it being placed in storage until the Royal Canadian Air Force tried to convert it into an RFC example for display.

No. 83 Group RAF

At the time of Operation Market Garden it consisted of the RCAF's 39 Reconnaissance Wing, 121, 122, 123 and 143 Wings flying Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers, 125 Wing with Supermarine Spitfire fighters, and the RCAF 126 and 127 Wings also flying Spitfires.

Northrop Delta

In 1935, Canada selected the Delta for use as a photographic survey aircraft for use by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), to be built by Canadian Vickers under license.

RAF Dishforth

The airfield opened in 1936 as use by Royal Air Force (RAF) until 1943 when the Royal Canadian Air Force took over but the airfield was returned in 1945 before the site was handed over to the British Army in 1992 and became Dishforth Airfield.

RCAF Station Grostenquin

RCAF Station Grostenquin, also known as 2 (Fighter) Wing or 2 Wing, was a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) station located five km north of the town of Grostenquin in the Moselle department, Lorraine, northeastern France.

RCAF Station Mount Pleasant

RCAF Station Mount Pleasant was a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) station in Mount Pleasant, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Rescue coordination centre

Canada - Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian Forces Search and Rescue (Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy) are partners in Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centres; CCG operates Maritime Rescue Sub-Centres to offload work from JRCC

Rural Municipality of Gimli

In the Gimli Glider incident on 23 July 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 en route from Montreal to Edmonton ran out of fuel and made an unpowered landing on a decommissioned runway (having been used as a drag strip) at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former RCAF base near Gimli with no control tower and no fire trucks available.

Saint-Victor, Quebec

A Royal Canadian Air Force pilot in World War II, he attacked a cargo ship along the Normandy coast, shot a Nazi airplane, and was credited for sinking a Nazi ship in the North Sea.