Key moments in aviation history at Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

It was a day many longtime members of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum will never forget.

In the predawn hours of Feb. 15, 1993, flames erupted in hangar No. 3, home to the Avro Lancaster and several other aircraft.

As word of the fire spread, hundreds of museum members rushed to the site, standing by helplessly as some 55 firefighters from four fire departments battled the blaze.

My aunt who lived in Mount Hope called me and said, you better get out here, one of your hangars is on fire'," recalled longtime member/volunteer and CWH pilot Bill McBride.

The fire was on the north side of the hangar while the Lancaster was sitting on the south side.

The doors on the south side hangar were partially open and the members could see the Lanc amid the smoke and flames.

Only a concrete block wall, a barrier from when the hangar was home to a paint shop, protected the Lanc from destruction.

When I showed up, the north side was completely engulfed," said museum manager Al Mickeloff?.

Miraculously, fire crews were eventually able to get the blaze under control.

Museum officials were allowed in to attach the wheels (the Lanc had been sitting on jacks) and using a tow-motor, the soot-covered bomber, sitting in about eight inches of water, was pulled out of harm's way.

There was a round of applause," McBride said. Guys were crying, they were so relived, they thought they were going to lose it."

Five aircraft were lost in the fire that left about $3 million in damage.

But out of that fire came the museum that exists today.

Thanks to funding from Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Works Program, a 108,000-square-foot, delta wing facility was built and officially opened by museum patron Prince Charles on April 26, 1996.

Terry Cooke was chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth regional council that approved the project.

Our council was convinced that CWH had a world-class collection of Canadian history that properly displayed could become a significant cultural asset and attract tourism and economic development spending," Cooke said.

Museum president and CEO David Rohrer noted emerging from the fire was another example of the resiliency the CWH has shown over the years.

Despite losing a founding father in a tragic accident involving our first aircraft, or the tragic fire in 1993 where we lost a hangar ... or the severe financial stress of the late 1990s that led to the sale of the Corsair .... or the government-imposed extended closing of the museum in 2020 and 2021 due to the current pandemic; we have always found a way to navigate through these challenges and become stronger," Rohrer said.

The museum was founded in 1972 by Dennis Bradley and Alan Ness.

They approached friends Peter Matthews and John Weir to become partners with them to acquire the museum's first aircraft, a Fairey Firefly.

Ness and the Firefly were lost in 1977 when it crashed into Lake Ontario during the Canadian International Air Show.

Dennis Bradley died in 2018.

Since setting up in hangar No. 3, the museum expanded, and scores of other aircraft were acquired with the goal of keeping them in the air or restoring them to flying condition.

Perhaps the most significant acquisition was the Avro Lancaster.

Sitting on a pedestal outside Royal Canadian Legion branch 109 in Goderich, the museum acquired the aircraft in 1977.

It was delivered in 1979, hanging from a Chinook helicopter.

After nearly a decade of restoration work, the CWH Lanc flew officially for the first time in September 1988 in front of 20,000 spectators, including many former Lancaster pilots and aircrew from the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Air Force.

There were guys with tears running down their faces," recalled McBride who was the public address MC for the event.

It remains the only flying Lancaster in North America.

Nearly 50 years later, the museum has nearly 50 aircraft, most of which still fly or are being restored to flying condition.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: As the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum heads into its 50th year, Hamilton Community News wanted to look at some significant events during the museum's history.