Warbird Information Exchange

Heya,

I'm wondering if anyone has been to and has pictures from the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

On the "Alberta Locator" is says that they have he following at the museum:

Harvard, Anson, B-25, Beech 18, Staggerwing, Stearman, Bolingbroke, DH-60, DH-82, DH-100, DHC-1, DC-3, H-34, Hurricane, L-5, CF-101, CF-104, PT-19, PT-26, CT-133, TBM, CT-134

That's a very impressive list. I've always heard about this museum, but have never seen pictures of their intreging collection. Their museum website has no pictures on it.

Can anyone help me out with either URLs, posting pics, or e-mailing me pics?

Thanks!

David

Dave--

Got 'em, but they're 12-year-old 4x6s from my Jurassic era Minoltas...Can get stuff scanned though if you like. BTW, at that time, and possibly still, there were (or are) two Reynolds Museums about a kilo or so apart on the same road in Wetaskiwin. One is the original Stan Reynolds pioneer museum; the other is the much newer Reynolds-Alberta Museum built cooperatively with the provincial government. In 1995, at least, there were collections of aircraft at both locations (and also at the Reynolds' private airfield which I didn't visit). In '95, the old museum had Harvard, Cirrus Moth, Miles M11A, Travel Air E4000, B-25, Lodestar, Bolingbroke, etc. The new one had Hurricane XII, Bellanca Skyrocket, DC-3, Yale, Crane, JN-4 Canuck, etc. Both museums also held numerous land vehicles, everything from antique tractors and snowmobiles to a Duesenberg Model J...

You know, I think one of the FP forumites--a chap from Sweden--posted some pix from Reynolds after a western Canada tour he did a year or two ago. Might be worth hunting that thread down too...

S.

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out.

Cheers,

David

There are some good pics here:
http://www.ruudleeuw.com/alcan06-reynoldsmuseum.h

I've got a few more of inside the storage building taken in 2004:













It's a excellent museum. Hope these are helpful.

Sean

Hey Sean,

Thank you very much for that link and all the pictures you supplied.

I sure wish their website had pictures like that, because I was living in Northern Alberta for a while and knew the museum existed, but honestly had no idea that their collection was that vast and interesting. So, I never ended up going. Darn it.

I've got a question for you though. There's one picture of yours that is of an unrestored biplane. It's the third to last picture that you posted and I'm wondering what the heck it is. I'm guessing Gloster Gladiator? Can you tell me what it is?

Thank you again.

Cheers,

David

The unrestored biplane is a Swordfish. Here are a couple more pics:




enjoy,
Sean

A Swordfish, Oh boy that is an awesome collection!

I need to make my way over there sometime.

-David

I forgot to add... With regards to the Swordfish, what's with its canopy. I thought they were all open cockpit airplanes. Was this one converted for crop spraying or some other civilian use before ending up at Reynolds?

Thanks,

David

What's the deal with the Avro Arrow... I am guessing that it is a replica (obviously) but is it a full scale replica? I know that the TAM built a full scale replica, but I thought it was the only one...

Thanks!

_________________
Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

from what I understand it is a full scale wooden replica (with saggy wings).

It was at the Abbotsford Airshow many years ago as part of a tour and I guess it ended up at Reynolds.

Then again, it could be RL-206... haha

-David

The Arrow was used in the 1997 TV movie “the Arrow” with Dan Aykroyd. The Canadian Museum of Flight brought the replica to the Abbostford airshow back in Aug 1997, putting it back together was a major undertaking. After that, it ended up at Reynolds.

I posted this before on WIX, the photo below is the replica at Abbotsford. Other than the saggy wings, it looked pretty impressive.

Brian....

I wondered the same thing after I saw it. I don't know anything of its history, but I don't think its a civilian mod. I found some info on it before(can't seem to remember where) that it was for cold weather operations.



As for the arrow, I believe that it was built by a gentleman by the name of Alan Jackson here in alberta. The story I heard was that He was part way through construction and someone involved with the movie heard about it, helped finish it and used it in the movie. I saw it in manitoba after the movie was shot. Very cool except for the droopy wings.

A note about visiting, as far as I know the hanger with the swordfish and the Arrow is usually not open to the public, except on a few special occasions. Still an excellent museum without it, but worth going when they have it open.

Sean

Dave et al--

That Arrow replica is about 7/8 scale...I vividly remember the engineer "Kate" in that CBC miniseries walking under the Arrow and running a hand along the bottom of the fuselage...she'd have to have been one tall lady to have done that on a real Arrow (or TAM's replica as it now stands, which is 1:1 scale). The actual Arrow was longer and taller than the Lancaster Xs built in the same plant a decade or so earlier!

The Swordfish canopy was a mod designed for the batch being sent to Canada for training use. Unofficially the canopy-equipped version was referred to as a Mk.IV, but officially they were just modified Mk.IIs. Most were operated by #1 Naval Air Gunnery School at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. (Ernie Simmons, postwar, got his mitts on eight of them; he's why there are more than a couple Swordfish extant! Ditto for the NAA Yale, of which he had some three dozen.) BTW an interesting tidbit about the "Mk.IV" Swordfish, the airframe on which the canopy mod was tested was HS553--a single airframe away from HS554 which Bob Spence and crew spent 21 years restoring to fly. (554/C-GEVS is now in Gatineau with Mike Potter).

S.

Cool stuff - now what's the little red remnant second from the bottom, an early Fairchild maybe?

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Chris--

Yep, Fairchild 51 or 71, or maybe an FC2; a popular choice of bush operators in Canada through the 30s. Nice to see one in the Reynolds collection. Don't recall knowing they had one...

S.