GAHS Has A New Director On Its Board

We would like to introduce you to Captain Josiah (Joe) Goodyear, our newest director, to our board effective immediately. Many who are from the area may have known Joe, son of Joe & Claris Goodyear, as a young lad who grew up in Gander. Joe is a retired officer of the Canadian Forces and is now working as a reservist for 9 Wing as their Heritage Officer. Joe has come to our attention for his work with us in liaison with 9 Wing on our planned Sabena Memorial Anniversary to be held on Sept 18 this year.  Joe was invited to be a director on our Board and has accepted his appointment. Joe's family of the Goodyear Humber Stores fame, was an integral part in the history of Gander airport.

Something New Coming To The NAAM in Gander

GAHS is planning on bringing something new to the NAAM. In conjunction with the help of individuals at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWH), a digital model for the flight simulator is being constructed to portray Gander during WWII showing all the buildings and runway layout. In addition airplanes and buildings for additional models for the post war airport up to the new terminal opening and another for the present day. The 3 models will be incorporated into the present flight simulator to enable you to fly into and land at Gander in 3 different eras. These models  will also be displayed on a flat screen monitor, for those not familiar with flight simulators, to view a video of what the old airport town looked like, by taking a visual tour of the airport, to be shown in a continuous loop. This should be available in 2017, as well as a 3D table model of the airport, all to be displayed at the museum. Be prepared to take a trip back in time to the old Gander.

Canadian Geographic Magazine

The Canadian Geographic magazine's cartographer has informed us they working on an article about the evolution of Gander and its airport. They have asked us for some historical air photography to show how the town and airport have evolved. We here at GAHS are more than enthused with this project. We have spent the last few days uploading information to assist them. Unfortunately the better the quality the better the result. Most of our images of the airport are not in the best of condition but all we can do is try. Their main interest is aerial images from the late 30's, 40's and 50's to portray this evolution. If anyone has good quality aerial images they wish to share, please pass them along.

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Gander Airport Project

We have been in contact recently with the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton ON. They are seeking our assistance in compiling information on the graphical layout of Gander Airport during the war years for a project they are getting underway. Their intent is to present a 3D simulated version of Gander during the war years to be available for all to see. This is as big of a compliment to Gander’s history that we could ever imagine. We are so looking forward being a part of assisting in the creation of this project. We ask everyone’s assistance in passing along to us photographic information on Gander up until 1958. there is no such thing as a bad photo that shows our historical past.

B377 Stratocruiser

To give you an idea of what a B377 Stratocruiser, the world's first double decker airplane, looked like , inside and out, go to this link and watch a 1950 PAA promo film about this airplane . The B377 was used by both PAA & BOAC and made flying all the more comfortable for those that could afford the airfares. They were a frequent visitor to Gander Airport back then and they were a very impressive airplane to watch.