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.

Slide Show of Paul Bunyan In Action

Recently, a lady from Ontario was going through some photographs of her late father Ted Kelly. She knew that during the mid 50’s he had worked in Gander installing Radar equipment at the RCAF base and assumed that some of his photos were taken at Gander. She contacted us to ask,if we were interested, she would contribute his photos for our website. We jumped at this opportunity. The photos were of a Seaboard & Western DC4 that went into a ditch while taxing. What these photos shown mainly was DOT’s crane Paul Bunyan lifting the DC4. We have made a slide show of these photos on our website which shows the Paul Bunyan in action . This indeed warrants a look by anyone interested in the airport’s history.

Phyllis (Penney) Gaul - NL’s First Female Pilot

Last August (2015) we put a page on our website with reference to Phyllis (Penney) Gaul who in 1947, while working with KLM in Gander, became the first female in Newfoundland to get her pilots licence. Maybe a few of you have already read about her. This is to advise everyone that we have updated this page to include a better photo of her, documents showing her letters of permission from the Newfoundland Civil Aviation Authority to take flying lesson, permit to fly solo and a recent video of a BC CTV feature of her still flying at the age of 88. This item is definitely a worthy item in Gander Airport’s history.

Inflight Refuelling

It will take some time but we will eventually relate to everyone, the important role Newfoundland played in the startup of world wide commercial aviation. We Newfoundlander’s are more known for our role in nautical history, especially telling it’s story of the settling of North America by Europeans. Little do people realize that Newfoundland’s role in aviation outweighs this nautical story. As an example, today’s military air force use of inflight refuelling, in the strategic planning of world wide conflicts, was as a result of attempts to start a commercial aviation industry to transverse the North Atlantic back in the 30’s. In flight refuelling was started during the late 1930’s to solve the problem of those giant flying boat’s take off weight problems with extra fuel loads. Eventually larger land based aircraft eliminated this problem but the military caught on to this development and perfected it to transport fighter jets over long distances for present day military situations. It just blows our minds as to how happenings at Botwood and Gander in 1939 led to military procedures that we take for granted as ordinary aviation evolution. When you talk about the startup of commercial aviation, include the word ‘Newfoundland’ in your story.