|Canadian Military Aircraft
with civil registration
owned by the Canadian Military
|The aircraft described here were
owned, leased or rented by a branch of
the Canadian military, but carried civil registrations. They were
operated by the Canadian military, or at least operated on
behalf of the Canadian military by organizations like the Canadian
Flying Club Association, forerunner of today's RCFCA, and the
office of the
Director of Civil Aviation ( a branch of the Department of National
Defense until 1936). They can be broadly
the categories listed below. Note that the civil registered
aircraft belonging to the Canadian Air
Board, and operated by the Canadian military, have their own
|Much of the
individual aircraft information on these pages has come from three main
|Pre Second World War - the flying clubs
Starting in 1926 and 1927, the Canadian government found itself facing a shortage of pilots for the rapidly growing government air operations, both federal and provincial, and for the booming commercial aircraft operations. This was the Roaring Twenties, and the Canadian economy was roaring along with most of the rest of the world. Based on recent successful flying club movements in Australia and the UK, it was decided that the government would foster a number of flying clubs across Canada. The intent was to create a supply of trained pilots, and build up a civilian air training infrastructure, at relatively low cost to the government. In addition, the flying fields created would form the basis of a new trans-Canada network of government supported airports. The government aid took a number of forms, and included government supplied aircraft for clubs meeting certain criteria. The aircraft were selected and purchased by the Department of National Defence.
The early success of the flying clubs caught the government by surprise, with sixteen clubs forming in 1928, and a further seven in 1929. The initial batch of de Havilland Moths ordered by DND were quickly snapped up, and further orders were placed with de Havilland Canada, Fleet, and Curtiss-Reid. In addition, the most successful clubs were able to raise their own funds to directly purchase additional aircraft. All this gave a powerful boost to the small Canadian aircraft manufacturing industry, and rebuilding flying club wrecks would help these struggling companies through the hard times of the early 1930s. Further help came from the RCAF in the early thirties. Faced with major budget reductions and a surplus of training aircraft because of staff cut backs, the DND decided to stretch its limited funds by transferring some of their elementary trainers to augment the existing fleet with the Clubs.
The original theory behind the creation of the clubs proved to be brilliantly correct, first when the RCAF expanded by creating the Auxiliary squadrons in the late 1930s, and again when Canada was called upon to further expand its operational capabilities, and to create the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, in 1939. The Auxiliary squadrons were generally collocated with flying clubs, and their early flying staff and ground staff came almost entirely from the clubs. The flying clubs helped to set up many of the early BCATP Elementary Flying Training Schools, at the airfields created for the clubs. In the early war years the clubs trained civilian instructors for the BCATP, under government contract. Throughout the war, flying club graduates served in large numbers as operational aircrew, instructors with the BCATP, and ground crew. Many rose to senior positions within the RCAF and the RAF.
other civil registered aircraft
Given the dual civil and military roles the CAF and RCAF performed in the 1920s and 1930s, it is not surprising that RCAF members would be found operating other government owned aircraft from time to time. The best known of these other operations, outside of the regular CAB and RCAF organization, was probably the Hudson's Strait Survey of 1927. The expedition was funded by several government departments, and was intended to determine the patterns and timing of ice movements in the approaches to Hudson's Bay. This was in support of the government funded construction of a new northern railway and grain port at Churchill, Manitoba. Although a multi-agency civil operation, the air crew and ground crew were mostly RCAF. The aircraft of the expedition are included in the lists below.
In addition to the Flying Club aircraft, a few light aircraft were purchased by the DND for use as staff transports and trainers by the office of the Controller of Civil Aviation, which was a branch of the DND up until the formation of the Department of Transport in 1936. These aircraft are included in the pre-war list below, up to 1936.
Some may argue that all these pre-war aircraft do not strictly fall within the scope of Canadian Military Aircraft Serials, even though the flying club and CCA aircraft were initially registered to the DND. However, when reading the history of these aircraft, one quickly recognizes the names of the young airmen operating them as the creators and leaders of the war-time RCAF. The same names often appear again in the early Cold War period, as very senior RCAF leaders. The history of these aircraft is thus, in my opinion, a vital part of the history of Canadian military aviation.
In the early years of the Second World War, before Pearl Harbor, it was a crime for American citizens to be involved in the delivery of warplanes to another country. This resulted from the US Neutrality Act of 1935, and its several amendments. Several methods were used to allow American built aircraft to be delivered to Canada without placing the ferry crew in legal danger. The best known dodge was probably the cross-border airport at Sweetgrass, Montana and Coutts, Alberta, where aircraft parked on the US side of the ramp might suddenly and mysteriously show up on the Canadian side. A lesser known technique was to issue Canadian civil registrations to the aircraft while they were still in the US. This permitted US or Canadian flight crews to deliver the "civilian aircraft" across the border without fear of arrest. Blocks of registration were assigned to the RCAF for this purpose, including CF-BPL to -BPO, CF-BPY to -BQD, CF-BQS to -BSP, CF-BSS to -BTQ, CF-BTS, and possibly others.
number of RCAF utility and transport aircraft were loaned to various
Canadian commercial operators during the war, probably to permit the
civil operators to carry out vital government contracts. These
aircraft were issued temporary civil registrations to permit the civil
crews to operate the aircraft, although they remained the property of
all these aircraft, it is
not clear in every case if the registrations were actually
marked. It is also possible that some of these registrations were
used on more than one aircraft. The detailed
allocation of these markings was sometimes left to the RCAF and not
recorded by the Department of Transport, and some records may not
have survived. Those that I have identified are listed below.
|Flying Club aircraft after World War 2
Based on the success of the pre-war Flying Club program, the RCAF continued to provide aircraft for selected Flying Clubs after the end of the war. In addition, some Army and Navy pilots received their initial flight training at the Flying Clubs, under DND contracts. All of the new aircraft owned by the DND, and used at the Clubs, were de Havilland Canada Chipmunks. In addition, war surplus trainers, such as Tiger Moths, were sold at very low cost by the War Assets Corporation directly to the Clubs. The aircraft owned by the Clubs and used for military training are recorded on a separate page of civil registered aircraft not owned by the government.
|When the new
technology programs of the late 1940s and early 1950s began to put
pressure on the RCAF budget, it was decided that it would be more cost
effective to let the Flying Clubs select and buy their own aircraft,
pay them by the hour to train selected members of the military and the
The decision may have been helped by the fact that the Chipmunks were
not generally popular with the Flying Clubs. This resulted from a
combination of high hourly costs, and the changing expectations of the
post-war recreational flyer (very few people wanted a tail wheel and
tandem seating). The Chipmunks were sold to the Clubs, and then
quickly replaced by a mundane
collection of Wichita spam cans. The aircraft used today are
owned or leased by the Flying
Clubs, and are used for a variety of roles besides pseudo-military
training. For these reasons, I have not tracked these aircraft in
my database. Besides, they are boring.
funding of pilot training for the best of the Air Cadets continues
today, and many of these
young people have gone on to very successful careers within the
Canadian Forces. The best known example is probably Chris
Hadfield. Canada's third astronaut, he started flying gliders
with the Air Cadets at age 15, in 1974, and earned his powered plane
1976, on an Air Cadet scholarship. He would go on to a career as
fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut, and the first Canadian space
walker. He retired from the Canadian Forces in 2003, as a full
Colonel, and now works for the Canadian Space Agency, on loan to
NASA. Many other alumni of the Air Cadets flying program
currently serve in senior positions within the Canadian Forces.
aircraft, post integration
The general run down of the Canadian military since the 1970s has again forced military planners to come up with innovative ways of stretching their dollars. Starting in the early 1990s, several aircrew training schools were privatized, using civil registered aircraft leased to the Canadian government, and sometimes operated and maintained by civilian contractors. The Jetranger helicopter fleet was transferred to the civil register, and other aircraft were purchased by private contractors, principally Bombardier, for lease to the Canadian military.
has it that this move was not entirely popular within that old DND spin
off, the aircraft certification branch of Transport Canada. Some
within TC felt that these types of aircraft, and their operation, were
outside of their expertise, and they saw considerable expense to the
Federal Government resulting from the certification and continuing
airworthiness activities for these aircraft, without the taxation
revenue stream that usually accompanied the introduction of new civil
aircraft of this complexity. TC apparently drew the line when it
came to aircraft with no civil counterparts or potential civil
use. The CT-155 Hawks and CT-156 Harvard IIs are commercially
aircraft, leased to the government, but they carry military serial
numbers in the current Canadian Forces
|In November 2005 the
DND primary training contract was shifted to Kelowna
Flightcraft, replacing Bombardier. K.F., operating as Allied
Wings Holdings, uses the Grob 120A aircraft in place of the
Fireflies. This is a
single engine, low wing composite aircraft, made in Germany. More
The original King Airs were replaced with new built aircraft, and the
Jetrangers were all transferred in ownership. From 2007, a number
of CH-146 Griffins were transferred to the civil register, for use by
Allied Wings. I think my detailed list below now captures all the
details of the change in operator.
Air Cadet League
The Air Cadet League of Canada was formed early in the Second World War, to provide a place for young Canadians to gain exposure to the aeronautical world, in a military environment before moving on to the RCAF. (See the The Air Cadet League web page, and click General for a more detailed history.) From the earliest days, surplus RCAF aircraft, usually time expired training aids, were made available to the local Cadet Squadrons for instructional purposes. I have identified these in the detailed aircraft history pages under the original RCAF serial number when I am aware of them, and they will soon have a page of their own.
|The Air Cadet
League always took every opportunity to give Cadets some flight time in
RCAF aircraft, when they were available. This usually meant a
ride or two in a local Base Flight, Com Flight
or Transport Squadron aircraft. Many ex-Cadets in their 60s and
today have fond memories of rides in Expediters, Dakotas, Otters, and
even the occasional North Star, Box Car, or helicopter. Most RCAF
transport pilots from the early post war era will also have a few
stories to tell of these familiarization flights, from bases and civil
airports across the country. By the mid 1960s reductions in the
RCAF and in the number of bases was making it hard for the Air Cadet
League to get every Cadet into an aircraft. In 1967, the decision
was made to "put the Air back in Air Cadets", and the Air Cadet
League launched a program of procuring and operating a fleet of light
aircraft and gliders. Many were obtained second hand from the
military or from gliding schools across the country.
|Today the various
local committees of the Air Cadet League own a number of glider tug
aircraft (L-19s, Bellancas, and one Wilga)
and Schweizer gliders, that are used for familiarization flights and
initial training with Air
Cadets across Canada. Operated by volunteer civilian pilots for a
few weeks at a time from
airports and small grass strips across the country, this roaming fleet
sure that nearly every Cadet today gets a ride, and gets an opportunity
to work around aircraft in a structured learning setting. The
best Cadets can go on to earn a glider pilot's license, and the best of
the best still get scholarships to earn a power license, as described
above. Ownership of these aircraft lies, in the
the Federal Government, and the Department of National Defense is
responsible for maintenance and airworthiness of the
fleet, instructor and staff pilot standards, and daily tasking of the
aircraft. For these reasons, the aircraft are classed as
"military conveyances" under Article 18(1) of the Canadian
Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, despite
their civil registration.
In 2007 the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan, headed by the Honourable John Manley, recommended that heavy lift helicopters be procured for use in Afghanistan, as a requirement for extending the Canadian military presence there. Two types of helicopters were obtained in response to this recommendation. US Army CH-47Ds were purchased second hand (see the post integration serial page), and civil registered, Russian built, Mil Mi-8Ts were leased. The Russian helicopters were leased through Sky Link of Toronto, who has been placing East European and Asian helicopters with UN operations for several years. Sky Link in turn sub-contracted with the Russian firm Aviakompaniya Aerostan, which supplied crews and Kyrgyzstan registered helicopters. Civil registrations identified so far are EX-503 and EX-504. Both helicopter types are operated by the Joint Task Force Afghanistan Air Wing at Kandahar. Operations with the Mi-8Ts at Kandahar began on 17 November 2008.
A further quantity of fully militarized Mi-17s were quietly leased sometime in 2010. Because they received CF military serials, they are covered on the post integration serial page under their CF designation of CH-178.
information on these aircraft is probably far from complete, especially
from the earlier days of the program. I'm always glad to receive
additions and corrections from my readers who have any information on
below will connect you to detailed listings of these
aircraft, in the various categories discussed above.