December 2014 to
Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
CF-THS - c/n 279 - a V.757 series Viscount
Canada registered
19 December 2014
Museum re-named 'Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada' as granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
A ceremony was held at the museum presided over by Museum Executive Director Shirley Render, with a large gathering of museum staff and invited guests.
The museum is located at Hangar T-2, 958 Ferry Road, Winnipeg Airport, Manitoba R3H 0Y8.
23 March 2016
The registration was finally cancelled by Transport Canada and later re-issued to a Murphy SR2500.
12 June 2017
Cabin stripped out by specialists from AirBase Services Inc and museum volunteers.
Air Canada has funded the complete refurbishment of the seats, panelling, curtains and carpets.
12 September 2017
Completion of the refitment of the refurbished cabin by specialists from AirBase Services Inc and museum volunteers. The result is superb!
3 October 2017
Temporarily moved outside to allow other exhibits to be rearranged prior to a special gala event.
It now occupies a new position and other exhibits have also moved to new positions or left outside for the immediate future. This includes Bristol 170 Freighter Mk.31(M) CF-WAE which will endure the winter weather outside.
22 October 2018
The museum closed its doors to the public as the historic hangar T-2 and the original terminal building will be demolished to allow a modern aircraft maintenance centre to be constructed.
23 October 2018
The Viscount was moved outside. At this stage only the Junkers Ju52-1M replica CF-ARM remained inside.
24 October 2018
The Viscount was towed to a maintenance facility ramp owned by Air Canada / AirBase Services Inc.
The Viscount will sadly be stored outside within the airport boundary and all steps will be taken to protect it from the harsh winter(s).
24 November 2018
Robert W Arnold and fellow museum volunteers carried out some winter protection work by applying a special self-adhesive plastic sheeting to each of the cockpit and cabin windows. These will protect the windows from water ingress and reduce the damaging effect of ultraviolet light on the refurbished cabin interior. Robert also dug out a set of wheel covers and nacelle covers from his aviation collection. Unfortunately two of the nacelle covers were found to be in poor condition and were taken away to be used as patterns to make new ones. Robert will return when these are made and fit them to the inner engine positions. Dedication indeed!
The new museum facility, again within the airport boundary has not yet been finalised or the construction of a purpose built building started.
This October 2018 statement from Helen Halliday, the museum's president and CEO appeared on the museum's facebook page: -
The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada is in a holding pattern, waiting to start building its new home while its current location marks its final day of being open to the public.
The Winnipeg based museum, which dates back to 1974, is still awaiting a major piece of government funding. Negotiations for funding from the provincial and federal governments has been ongoing since the NDP was in power in Manitoba and the Conservatives in Ottawa.
Those talks were sidelined when both governments changed in recent years.
"This has been a big effort, working with two different parties, both federally and provincially".
"We absolutely feel very good that this is going to get done. It's just been in an extended process that has been difficult."
Finally, in October 2016, the federal government awarded $1.2 million to the museum with the promise of matching a provincial commitment.
That provincial funding of $8.75 million was confirmed in December 2017 with another $1.25 million if private donation targets are met.
"All that's missing now is the federal government's matching $8.75 million for construction to take off".
"It's been a monthly process of negotiations," she said. "The federal government is the missing piece".
Halliday hopes to break ground as soon as possible and be open 18 months later.
Federal money to help new aviation museum take off.
Winnipeg museum recalls era of airline freebies, smoking on planes.
The current location, since 1984, is an original Trans-Canada Air Lines hangar dating from the 1930s.
The lobby area was designed to resemble a departure terminal with the ticket counter serving as the place to buy admission.
But it must be empty by month's end, said Halliday.
The aviation collection — the second largest in Canada — will be scattered around the province with some stored near the new location on the Winnipeg Airports Authority campus, others in St. Andrews, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, and some private hangars.
That includes several one-of-a-kind aircraft such as Canada's first helicopter, the CL-84 "Tilt-wing", Avrocar "flying saucer", historic military jets, bush planes, and commercial aircraft.
There are also 2,700 boxes of library and archive materials that will be stored at Magellan Aerospace on Berry Street.
It just can't stay in its present space any longer after reaching the end of its lease with the building's owners.
"We want to assure you that EIC (Exchange Income Corporation), which owns the Ferry Road hangar has been an excellent partner and has allowed the museum to stay 19 months longer than the original timeline," states a message on the museum's website.
"We are most grateful for their flexibility and understanding while being a champion and major donor for the new museum."
The proposed 105,000-square-foot museum will be located on Wellington Road, not far from the airport and feature nine exhibition galleries, a kids centre, library, and workshop, among other facilities.
23 July 2019
The funding to enable the building of the new museum facility was finally completed with the Federal Government contribution confirmed.
1 May 2020
Construction of the new museum facility on a 56 year ground lease was finally started at 2088 Wellington Avenue, Winnipeg International Airport.
16 October 2021
The Viscount was installed into the new museum facility as one of the last exhibits to do so. This was because a lot of the smaller aircraft had to be suspended from the roof interior first.
It had survived three winters with relatively little damage but some of the tyres needed changing and some of the blue coverings over the cabin windows had now stuck fast and will need some persuasion to get them off without causing any damage to the perspex windows.
A few days later it did make one more trip outside as more smaller aircraft were suspended from the roof interior.
28 October 2021
The Viscount was finally pushed back inside the new museum facility to take up its permanent position as the centre of attraction with access to the cabin.
It will only move back outside in the future to allow for a change in exhibits which could include different smaller aircraft being hung up on wires.
21 May 2022
The new museum opened to the general public with the Viscount restored to its former glory.
|
