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Hello again, my reading friend, and welcome to this second and final part of our all too brief look at a Canadian icon, the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver bushplane – a part devoted to the very prototype of that machine, the Beaver of the amaaazing Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, Ontario. As was mentioned in the first part of this article, the first Beaver flew for the first time on 16 August 1947, a teeny, tiny bit more than 75 years ago today. The chief test pilot of de

August 1947 was / is the month during which the prototype of a Canadian icon, the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver bushplane, first took to the sky. The happy day was in fact 16 August 1947. The story of that aerial icon began before that happy day, of course. What is this I hear? Can it be true? Really? Yes! To paraphrase the Thing, one of the Fantastic Four, a superhero team you should know and love, it is pontificating time! Sorry. Realising full well that it would probably / almost certainly

Greetings, my reading friend. How are you this week? May I offer you the caption of the photographs you just saw, my reading… Err, why the puzzled look? Please do not tell me that the names Heath Robinson and / or “Rube” Goldberg do not ring a bell. It is too early in the day for such a shocking revelation. Sigh… What do children learn in school these days? You do realise that, by forcing me to explain who William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) and Reuben Garrett Lucius “Rube” Goldberg (1883-1970)

Oyez, oyez, oyez, my reading friend, yours truly has the infinite pleasure of presenting to you another edition of our fabulicious blog / bulletin / thingee. I will confer with you today about a question which had haunted your mind night and day for like, forever: how can one steer an airship / dirigible in the vertical plane, in other words in pitch? In 1902, shortly after the 20th century had begun, in 1901 of course, a modeler, sculptor, stonemason or worker living in Montréal, Québec

The Avro Lancaster was a large British bomber airplane, manufactured by A.V. Roe and Company (Avro), that entered the Second World War in April 1942 and was best known for nighttime bombings of German cities. It was one of the first British bombers to feature four engines, which allowed it to carry a very large bombing load, more than 6,000 kg, as well as enough fuel to fly more than 2,600 km in a single flight. The Lancaster could reach speeds of 438 km per hour and had a high-altitude ceiling

Welcome back, my open-minded reading friend. Shall we continue our look at the way French language daily and weekly newspapers in Québec dealt with flying saucer sightings in their neck of the wood during the 3 three or so weeks which followed Kenneth Albert Arnold’s epoch-making experience of 24 June 1947? Good for you. A sighting occurred in Montréal, Québec, in the early evening of 8 July 1947. Thirty or so people observed a very large and dark object which consisted of two superposed discs

Greetings, my reading friend, greetings. As many people around the globe take stock of the 75th anniversary of Kenneth Albert Arnold’s now famous 24 June 1947 sighting of 9 unidentified flying objects, soon described as flying saucers, moving at very high speed near Mount Rainier, in the state of Washington, it would be interesting to look at the early days of the modern flying saucer phenomenon through the eyes of the papers aimed at the major segment of the population of what could be

Greetings, my reading friend, and welcome to the second and final part of the tiny gift that yours truly is offering himself as a kick off to this month of April 2022. As was said (typed?) in the first part of this article, the 1940 American embargo and confiscation of its war supplies put the Swedish government in a real pickle. The British aeroengine produced under license by the only manufacturing firm of its type in the country, Nohab Flygmotorfabriker Aktiebolaget, a subsidiary of Swedish

Ahh, you are back. What a pleasant surprise. Would I be correct in assuming that you wish to see (read?) the second and final part of this article on the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of the fantabulastic Canada Aviation and Space Museum of Ottawa, Ontario? Wunderbar! The story of that particular example of the B.E.2 began in England, in the factory of British & Colonial Aeroplane Company Limited, as most of Europe was busy tearing itself to pieces during the First World War. Completed in late

With your permission, or without it if need be, my reading friend, I would like to launch this issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee with a question. Do your like mysteries and / or oddities? Me too. By the way, did you know that, as late as 2017, the Public Works & Environmental Services of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, the nonbilingual capital of a bilingual country, sometimes used divining rods to locate an underground pipe suspected of leaking? I kid you not, but I do digress. Now that yours