Two Fine Books Telling the Story of the Earliest Days of Aviation

Birdman: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss and the Battle to Control the Skies

by Lawrence Goldstone

This fantastic best seller is one that will satisfy any serious fan of aviation history. Beginning with such pioneers of flight as Otto Lilienthal in Germany and Octave Chanute in the US, Goldman quickly comes to the Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio and Glenn Curtiss of Hammondsport, New York. Showing how Lilienthal and Chanute influenced these three innovators, he then details how each persevered in flying America’s first powered airplanes.

This book is downright exciting – a “page-turner”, as they say. The author delves deeply into each participant’s human side, warts and all. Often these heroic figures are at loggerheads – the Wrights clash with each other, let alone with Curtiss, whom they accuse of stealing their patents. They strive to virtually patent the airplane. Their battles rage for years in the courts.

Leading the way in powered airplane flight, the Wrights engender a whole new world of entertainment – exhibition flying. From 1909-14 they and Curtiss bring their performing troupes to city after city all the way west to Los Angeles and Seattle. This is a magnificent era, but it comes at a huge cost. The touring flyers introduce millions to the airplane and make piles of money. But by 1912 more than 100 have lost their lives, mainly at public appearances. Airplanes fall apart in flight, turbulence hurls pilots from their seats, planes crash into crowded bleachers, the first bird strike kills a famous pilot, etc. All along the crowds are loving it all. The great Lincoln Beachey, who performed some of the earliest airshows in Canada, grows disgusted at how the hordes come out mainly to see him die. And so they finally do in 1915, when his plane disintegrates during a show at the great San Francisco exposition.

Another major theme is the years-long lawsuits pursued almost insanely by the Wrights against all other aeronautical enterprizers. Obsessed by their patents and paranoid about these being infringed upon, the Wrights spent a fortune in the courts. While aeronautics was progressing at Hammondsport, in the UK and across Europe, the Wrights dithered and lost their chance. Their Wright Flyers, in the meantime, became known as death traps. Dozens of airmen and passengers died in Wright Flyer crashes, while Curtiss machines gained the opposite reputation. In the end, Goldman concludes that the Wrights held up America in its quest to advance in aviation. Curtiss on one hand and Europe on the other set the pace in advancing aviation’s cause. Ironically, in the end the two warring sides made peace through a 1929 corporate alignment creating the Curtiss-Wright Co., which survives to this day.

Don’t miss this exceptional book that brings to life the great years of powered flight!

Birdman: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss and the Battle to Control the Skies

230 pages, hardcover, photos, notes, index $34.00, CANAV price $21.00 + $12.00 Canada Post + $2.10 tax. Total for Canada $35.10 Mail your cheque or pay by PayPal to larry@canavbooks.com. USA and overseas please enquire for a price: larry@canavbooks.com

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Aviation in Canada: The Pioneer Decades

By Larry Milberry

Complementing Birdmen is this detailed history of the early years of flight in Canada. Beginning with Canada’s first flight – a balloon ascent in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1840, The Pioneer Decades explains how aviation went decade by decade in America’s next-door neighbour. Ballooning alone was a huge public fascination that produced one Canadian “first” after another, whether the Saint John ascent, the “first” aerial crossing between Canada and the US, the first powered airship appearances or the first parachute jump.

The Pioneer Decades then introduces heavier–than-air flight with teenager Larry Lesh’s daring glider experiments in Montreal in 1907. While Birdmen does tell a bit about Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association, The Pioneer Decades covers the AEA program in detail, ending with the dramatic first powered airplane flight by the “Silver Dart” at Baddeck in 1909. There also is much of Glenn Curtiss and Hammondsport, where the “Silver Dart” was built and first flew.

The Pioneer Decades continues with the great years in Canada of the exhibition flyers, nearly all of whom are also covered in Birdmen. For example, Toronto’s first airplane flight is made by Charles Willard – a Curtiss-trained pilot flying his Curtiss-made “Golden Flyer”. The great Montreal and Toronto air meets of 1910 and 1911 are also here, with tales of the famed Curtiss and Wright pilots, many of whom would give their lives in the cause from 1907 onward – Lincoln Beachey, Cromwell Dixon, Eugene Ely, Ralph Johnstone, Phil Parmalee, etc.

The Pioneer Decades tells how McCurdy and Baldwin of the AEA tried selling their designs to the Canadian military, how Canada’s first WWI airmen trained at Curtiss and Wright schools, then how they excelled “Over the Front” in the first great aerial conflict. Many would fly the great Curtiss JN-4 and Curtiss’ renowned long-range, anti-submarine flying boats, about which, a few years earlier, the Wright camp had been scoffing. You’re bound to enjoy this beautifully-produced CANAV title.

Aviation in Canada: The Pioneer Decades

176 pages, large format, hardcover, photos, bibliography, index. $50.00 but with this offer $35.00 + $12.00 for Canada Post + $2.35 tax. Total for Canada $49.35 Mail your cheque or pay by PayPal to larry@canavbooks.com. USA and overseas please enquire for a price (email me at larry@canavbooks.com).

BOTH these leading titles: $56.00 + $15.00 for Canada Post + $3.55 tax. Total for Canada $74.55. Mail your cheque or pay by PayPal to larry@canavbooks.com. USA and overseas please enquire for a price: larry@canavbooks.com

CANAV Books, 51 Balsam Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 3B6

Email: larry@canavbooks.com

Tel: (416) 698-7559

Pierre Gillard’s Blog Features Ralph Clint’s Long-Lost Airliner Photos, A310s to the Boneyard, Readers React to Norseman Vol.2 + Initial Errata Details

The demise of Norseman 495, about which Bob Cameron of Whitehorse adds some details. (John Biehler Collection)

All the best to CANAV’s great supporters over 2014! Thanks hugely to one and all of you solid folks, who go back to the birth of CANAV in 1981, but also to you many new fans/younger readers who are gradually getting to know CANAV and all it has to offer via its top-notch book list and always-informative blog.

For January 4, 2014 please note that I’ve added an addendum to blog posting “The Wartime Era Fades”. This is based on an obituary that I spotted in today’s newspaper. You’ll absolutely enjoy this item. Find it easily by using the search box.

Blog followers will love what Pierre Gillard is doing with Ralph Clint’s collection of old slides. Born in 1935, Ralph passed away in 2013. A long-serving TCA/Air Canada radio operator, Ralph was the commensurate aviation fan (nothing shallow for him) and one of CANAV’s hard-working researchers, proof readers etc. since the days of our Canadair North Star book.

Three cheers for Pierre, a professor at E.N.A. at St. Hubert, who does such a fantastic job with his blog. To see his fine gallery of Ralph’s airliner photos, have a look at this week’s headline offerings at his blog. Looks like most of Pierre’s “Ralph” photos were taken in the 1960s-70s at Toronto YYZ, mainly from the upper parking level of the original (now recycled) “Aeroquay” passenger terminal. This is really a great trip back into the days of such types as the stubby DC-9-15 and such Classic 747s as CF-TOA, a vintage -133.  Each photo was decently taken by Ralph and and has been nicely “tweaked up” by Pierre. As to “tweaking”, Pierre explains: “Most of Ralph’s slides are easy to scan and process because they are not Kodachromes. So, I can use a function to virtually wipe dust and remove scratches, which is totally impossible to do with Kodachrome slides. This saves a lot of time.”

This week Pierre also covers the dismantling of a couple of Air Transat Airbus 310s (“On démantèle à Mirabel”, A310 “au recyclage”, etc.). Who would believe that these seemingly modern airliners so soon could be over the hill but … I guess we’re all getting there. Something to think about, eh!

“Merci bien” CANAV people and good reading (as usual) to one and all … Larry

A Norseman Aficionado Weighs In

Norseman readers are gradually getting back to me with their comments about our new books. I’ve just heard from Bob Cameron of Whitehorse. Bob led a small team back in the 1990s restoring Fokker Super Universal CF-AAM (dormant since a 1937 accident) to flying condition. He and his pals then toured Canada in this astoundingly historic plane, a photo of which graces the cover of Aviation in Canada: The Formative Years. CF-AAM today is permanently on show at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg. Last year Bob’s grand book, Yukon Wings, was published. You can read my review of this big-time beauty for more details.

Bob also is a veteran Norseman pilot, so who better to pass judgment on a Norseman book? Off the top, this is what he has to say: “The hi-lite of my Christmas was the arrival of your magnificent Norseman Vol. I! It is fabulous, and I am absorbing every millimeter of it!”

Encrusted remnants of Norseman 495 as they sit today on the bottom of Tagish Lake. (via Bob Cameron)

Bob adds some historic tidbits about the dramatic wreck of RCAF Norseman 495, pictured on p.151 of Norseman Vol.1: “That happened 40 miles south of here on Tagish Lake on St. Patrick’s Day, 1950. One guy was checking out another on skis. Unfortunately, they chose to shoot a landing too far off shore, in flat light, rendering depth perception next to impossible.” He then explains the final fate of 495. The RCAF salvage team stripped it of useful parts, then abandonned the wreck to settle to the lake bottom with the spring melt. If one flies over Tagish Lake today, the outline of 495 may still be spotted in the shallow water. Bob finishes: “Anyway, good work, Larry, I’ve waited a long time for a pictorial history of one of my favourite airplanes!”

 The Gremlins are About!

Several typical typos have been pointed out in the Norseman volumes. These inevitably seem to occur no matter how hard we try to correct them before printing. Thanks to former Norseman pilot Rodney Kozar for spotting these. The real clanger is the one referring to the great Dishlevoy/Magnusson Norseman website as noorduynnorseman.com, when that should be norsemanhistory.ca. So please make a note (but do use both sites, eh).

In Vol.1: In Norseman Vol.1 p.119, the correct date for the Hazelton crash is the one shown on the grave marker.

For p.120 somehow the caption for Norseman 2477 got transposed. In an earlier version of the galleys the correct caption is in place — can you believe it! So how in the world did it end up with a caption for Norseman 2469. The desired caption is: Camping with 2477 at Crystal 1 in March 1942. From February 6 to April 4, 1942 this Norseman was on loan to Ferry Command for the Eastern Arctic airstrip/weather station survey. Postwar, it was CF-PAB. While serving Associated Airways of Edmonton, in August 1954 it was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident. (A.W. Baker Col.)

p. 197 – the correct month for the Nelles incident is August.

In Vol. 2 – p.11, line 2 of caption, change RCAF to RCMP

p.13 – lower caption, change Ontario to Canadian

p.14 – top caption for CF-OBG incorrectly gives the info for CF-OBF

p.17 – in the chart, change CF-UDD to CF-UUD

p.20 – lower caption change CF-SAN to CF-SAH

p.41 – at end of  CF-GUE entry, the Huron Air mention applies to above entry for CF-GSR

pp.62/63 – all registrations should read CF-EIH, delete CF-EIN

p.74 – CF-GUM Mark IV, change to UC-64A; CF-HFV change serial no. to N29-50; CF-SAHI V, change to CF-SAH  IV; CF-SAM Mark IV, change to V.

p.123 – lower caption change OK-XDB is OK-XBD

p.194 – lower caption, change CF-ORD to CF-OBD

p.239 – 2nd para, col.3 CF-DRD went on permanent display in 1992

p.246 – top caption change CF-GTN to CF-GJN

p.286 – lower photo, Norseman shown is CF-JIN, not CF-JEC

Pierre Gillard Reviews Norseman Vol. 2

 Probablement que, pour Larry Milberry, les 232 pages du premier volume consacré au Noorduyn Norseman avait un “goût de trop peu” car il a immédiatement embrayé, en solo cette fois-ci, avec un second volume ne comprenant pas moins de 304 pages ! Il restait donc beaucoup de choses à dire encore au sujet de cet avion de brousse produit à Cartierville. Et vous n’allez pas me croire quand je vous dirai que l’auteur a reçu des commentaires acerbes de certains frustrés mentionnant qu’il manquait de détails au sujet de quelques opérateurs “oubliés” par le récit!

Toujours est-il que ce second volume traite essentiellement des Norseman utilisés après la Seconde guerre mondiale par la Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC-RCMP), les opérateurs civils canadiens ainsi que les opérateurs étrangers, toujours avec le souci du détail et la minutie que l’on connaît à Larry Milberry. Une place importante est réservée aux résultats de nombreuses entrevues et échanges que l’auteur a eus avec des personnes pour qui cet avion était le gagne-pain. C’est ainsi que j’ai retrouvé une belle participation de mon ami Paul Gagnon, à ses débuts en qualité de pilote de brousse, dont des récits de quelques “aventures” vécues avec des Norseman.

Sur le plan des illustrations, un grand nombre de photos en couleur, dont certaines sont absolument magnifiques et relèvent du grand art, complètent les archives extraordinaires en noir et blanc publiées dans les deux volumes. Comme toujours, à la lecture des ouvrages de Canav Book, on peut se demander comment il est possible de rassembler autant de documents photographiques inédits. Avec ces deux volumes au sujet du Norduyn Norseman, Larry Milberry et Hugh A. Halliday ont définitivement comblé un vide historique pour cet avion construit au Québec.

For Pierre’s review of Norseman Vol. 1, click here.

Reminder to  UK and EuroZone bibliophiles … pick up your copy of Norseman Vol.1 and Vol.2 at  Simon Watson’s Aviation Bookshop in Tunbridge Wells, UK. Email:  simon@aviation-bookshop.com. Or … visit Henk Timmers’ Aviation Megastore at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport. Email: henk@aviationmegastore.com.

Scale Aviation Modeller International Notices “Norseman Vol.1”

One of the world’s most popular aviation monthlies, Scale Aviation Modeller, has picked up on Aviation in Canada: The Noorduyn Norseman, Volume 1 in its October 2013 issue.

These days it’s a minor miracle for a publisher to get so much as a two-line mention for a new book, let alone a “Highly recommended”. Besides this, it’s encouraging to see that reviewer Paul Lomas understands that books stand uniquely alone, i.e. that not everything is “on the web”. It’s just a brief bit, so have a read! Also, be sure to check up on Scale Aviation Modeller at www.sampublications.com

A New Review from Pierre Gillard

Fighter Squadron: 441 Squadron from Hurricanes to Hornets: Here is a new book review from aviation bibliophile Pierre Gillard, aeronautical professor at Quebec’s renowned Ecole National d’Aéronautique. Fighter Squadron is one of the most refined squadron histories ever published, so you are unlikely to ever kick yourself for ordering a copy. Usually $75.00, on sale at $30.00 ++. Canada all-in price $44.10 (cheque or PayPal, no plastic); USA & overseas all-in $55.00 (IMO, cheque on any US/CDN bank, or PayPal).

See Pierre’s amazing blog with some of the best photography on the internet, particularly his photos of the 441 Squadron.

Fighter Squadron – 441 Squadron From Hurricanes to Hornets

5 décembre 2012, par Pierre Gillard

Tout amateur d’aviation militaire canadienne connaît les avions de l’Escadron 441 “Silver Fox” arborant de façon plus ou moins visible les fameux damiers noirs et blancs distinguant cette unité. Le moins que l’on puisse dire, c’est que celle-ci en a vu du pays depuis le moment de sa fondation en Angleterre durant la Seconde guerre mondiale où elle succède à l’ancien 125ème Escadron de chasse. Durant le conflit, le 441 est aussi basé en France et aux Pays-bas où, notamment, il participe à la bataille de Nijmegen. Il effectue également un bref passage à Anvers en Belgique avant de rejoindre l’Angleterre où l’escadron est dissous. En mars 1951, l’Escadron 441 revoit le jour à Saint-Hubert où il vole principalement sur Vampire. Mais, très vite, il change de monture pour le Sabre et est affecté à North Luffenham au Royaume-Uni. Puis en 1954, il sera brièvement basé à Zweibrucken en Allemagne avant de rejoindre Marville en France où il restera jusqu’en 1963. Ensuite, ce sera à Baden-Söllingen en Allemagne que le 441 établira ses quartiers alors que l’escadron vole maintenant sur le CF-104 Starfighter. Enfin, en 1986, l’escadron est transféré à Cold Lake en Alberta et y demeurera avec ses CF-18 jusqu’à sa dissolution en 2006 avec, toutefois, une participation à la guerre en ex-Yougoslavie depuis la base italienne d’Aviano. Le livre de Larry Milberry retrace méticuleusement l’épopée de cette unité depuis les origines du 125ème Escadron. De nombreux récits de combats et de missions enrichissent les chapitres relatant la participation du 441 au second conflit mondial en Europe. La suite est du même calibre; l’auteur excelle tant sur la narration historique que sur les aspects humains de la vie en unité déployée à l’étranger. L’ouvrage se termine en 2003, moment de la publication de ce livre qui est un autre incontournable de Canav Books à consommer sans modération.

Canav Books, Toronto, ON, 2003, 320 pages, plus de 700 photos.

ISBN 978-0-921022-16-6.

New from the CANAV Books “Situation Room”

… Bombing and Coastal Operations gets noticed in Scale Aviation Modeller International. In its March 2012 issue, “SAM” — the most highly touted publication in worldwide modelling — gives the nod to our latest title. Have a quick read, and be sure to check out this indispensable  magazine at www.sampublications.com. UK and EU readers note that you now can order the Aviation in Canada series locally (and avoid costly shipping from Canada) — contact the Aviation Books Centre in Atherstone.

 

Bombing & Coastal Operations Overseas is Classic Aircraft’s “Book of the Month”

Classic Aircraft chooses its March “Book of the Month” — it’s Aviation in Canada: Bombing and Coastal Operations Overseas 1939-1945. Have a look and enjoy! UK readers note that you now can order the Aviation in Canada series locally (and avoid costly shipping) — contact the Aviation Books Centre in Atherstone. Check out http://www.aviationabookcentre.com.  North American readers order your copy here.

And be sure to subscribe to Classic Aircraft, one of the world’s  top aviation monthlies. Check out the website at www.aircraftmagazine.co.uk. This is one of those great “must have” action-packed reads — absolutely wonderful, so get on board.

More “Thumbs Up” for Bombing and Coastal Operations

Canadian-built Lancaster Xs with 419 Sqn at Middleton St. George in May 1944. (RCAF Photo)

In the latest edition of the “971 Air Marshal Slemon Wing,” RCAF Association (Colorado Springs), George Sweanor — aka “Ye Olde Scribe” (of Great Escape fame) — included a few words about “Bombing and Coastal Operations”:

This massive work contains 661 photographs and mentions 1388 individuals. There are several pages devoted to the crew of one minor contributor known today as Ye Olde Scribe. This book, embracive as it is, can only begin to depict the slaughter, the sacrifice and the material destruction seen by two Canadian WWII operational commands.

While Bomber Command suffered the highest casualties – 59 percent, Coastal Command ranged further afield. So many stories that Larry has revived for us. There are copies of log book entries, letters home, leaflets, church memorials, newspaper columns, and a list of the 24 officers commanding 6 Group squadrons who became casualties: 18 killed, 4 POWs, 1 evaded and 1 an escaped POW.

It is simply impossible to adequately thank Larry for the years of research and interviewing (the vast majority now dead) he has devoted, at small financial return, to broadcasting Canada’s aviation history.

The Readers Are Getting into It … The Latest “Bombing and Coastal” Commentary

For any book publisher reviews are part of the business. On the whole, however, the book reviewing trade has been sliding for years. While the daily press used the revere its full-time and professional book editors, today many dailies have pitifully watered down this important arts feature.

Book editors/reviewers are more than ever inclined towards fiction, so that makes it harder than ever to get any Canadian history book noticed. Right off the top, Canadian dailies are almost guaranteed these days to ignore anything to do with an aviation book. Apparently, this is drab, démodé stuff. But give them something in the line of fiction — some easy reading, nothing to tax the brain — then you might catch their eye. Or maybe a nice shallow cook book or some Hollywood starlet’s latest sexercise book, or something really intellectual, maybe about ultimate fighting or hockey violence. Above all, give them something out of New York vs any hopeless Canadian effort, right! This said, there always will be serious reviewers seriously reading serious books. The smaller Canadian dailies and weeklies seem to attract this sharper type of book critics. These fine citizens  are rarely arrogant the way our “supporters” in the mainstream press tend to be.

CANAV has had a few hundred solid reviews over 30 years, and only the one dud, that from Aeroplane Monthly by some poor sod who does not appear to have done any serious history or arts studies.

Many fine comments have already reached CANAV about Aviation in Canada: Bombing and Coastal Operations Overs 1939-1945. On the whole people are getting the big picture — this is a good book. Roger Lindsay in the UK submits the comments below — his first impressions. Roger knows a bit about books, having toiled at serious research and writing for decades. His publications about such aircraft as the Javelin, Lightning and Venom are classics. His latest — Cold War Shield — is simply magnificent. Here is Roger’s take on Bombing and Coastal Operations:

Hi Larry … your new “Bombing and Coastal Operations Overseas” arrived today by post. I’ve spent the best part of a day drooling over the photos and absorbing the personal recollections covering so many of your courageous countrymen who served in the RCAF. The book is magnificent and already a total joy, a stellar production. As usual I’m in awe at the detail, the exceptionally high standards of layout, design and printing, and can only imagine the effort expended in putting it together.

I feel that we Brits owe a huge debt to the thousands of Canadians who came across to our side in the last war, not least those who served in Bomber Command at such great sacrifice. Your book brings that terrific contribution into focus with more impact than many other publications.

I’m also greatly enjoying your Coastal Command coverage, which never receives the publicity it warrants. You’ve found some super photographs, almost entirely new to me, and I suspect most readers. 

Finally, I must congratulate CANAV Books on achieving 30 years of fabulous top quality publishing, in spite of all the problems. I hope the book sells in truck-loads and brings in a small fortune!

What great stuff, Roger. This worn-out old publisher is grateful.

Another note comes from Ron Butcher, who served his tour on Lancasters with 408 Squadron. I cover a bit about his crew on pp 133-34. Ron requests an amendment ref. p.133. In the centre column he has asked that I add how his crew completed two operations on D-Day. Then, he correctly raps my knuckles for saying that his crew completed their tour February 20, when the date should be June 11. Somehow the odd such gaff creeps into every such book, to say nothing of ordinary typos which always evade the proof readers. We spot them in the highest quality books and everyone understands how those nasty little cockroaches creep in. Ron notes some of these, which I’ll add to the errata list and send to my readers at the next mailing. I’ve asked Ron to join my cadre of intrepid proof readers. One can never have too many eyes checking manuscript and galleys.

CANAV “Readers’ Choice” for today …

The world famous TCA Super Connie CF-TGE is featured on the cover.

The Wilf White Propliner Collection is one of “the best in class” of this type of aviation book. Wilf spent decades taking the very best in aircraft photos, whether throughout his native Scotland, down at London in the 1950s-60s, at Farnborough in the same period, or across Canada and the United States. If you are a fan of the great era of propliners, this is a book you’ll enjoy for years. And … if you are looking for a gift for any aviation fan for any occasion, could you pick a nicer one at a nicer price!

A CPA Britannia taxies at London among the other great types of the day that Wilf always revelled in photographing. Look at the super job he did!

WWPC is 176 pages, softcover, large format, 100s of photos with detailed captions, index. The price in 2019-2020? Usually $40.00, yours for half price — $20.00 + $14.00 Canada (Mafia) Post + 5% tax $1.70 = $35.70 CAD (US or overseas CDN$42.00 all in per book). We accept PayPal (click here) or old fashioned cheque/money order mailed to CANAV Books, 51 Balsam Ave. Toronto, ON M4E 3B6. Here’s one of the reviews of this lovely production, and some sample pages. Reviewer Dennis J. Calvert is one of those rare types who looks at every aspect of a book. He clearly knows his stuff and isn’t one to raise a new title onto a pedestal without good reason. In this case he designated WWPC as the Aircraft Illusatrated “Book on the Month”, rounding up his thoughtful commentary: “This volume, beautifully produced, offers the very highest quality in nostalgia and comes confidently recommended.” So don’t delay and get in on this special deal!

You can download the review here.

And for a little taste of the book itself, check out these select pages from The Wilf White Propliner Collection…

The Book Review Hangs In

Some people are saying that the book and the book review are both dead. After all, so many newspapers and magazines have dropped their review columns — even the great Legion Magazine no longer runs book reviews. Even more startling, some of the best UK aviation magazines have jumped on the “Let’s dumb everything down” wave and have abandoned covering the current aviation literature scene. How pitiful, but editors and publishers continue to buy into the stupid view that “Nobody reads books any more, so we can use that space to review something really intellectual like the latest flight simulator games.” Give us a break!

Happily, the occasional review still is turning up. Terry Higgins of Aviaeology in Kitchener has published some exceptional books. A serious aviation history fanatic and meticulous publisher, his titles include Canadian Aircraft of WWII (Carl Vincent) and (recently) Early Canadian Military Aircraft (John Griffin and Tony Stachiw). Any true fan of Canada’s aviation past would not quibble for a second in adding these to the bookshelf. Treat yourself and have a look at aviaeology.com.

Here is Terry’s in-depth review of CANAV’s current title Aviation in Canada: Evolution of an Air Force. This has just come out in Vol.48 No.1 of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal. By now you really ought to be on the “Aviation in Canada” band wagon. Why? It’s simple … contrary to the word that a lot of dopes are mindlessly spouting these days (no apologies to the dopes) everything is not on the internet. In-depth aviation aficionados know this. These are the folks who simply cannot imagine a world without good books … they want it all.

So thank you Terry for “tearing apart” Aviation in Canada: Evolution of an Air Force in such a way as to make the poor old author’s Canada Day extra fine!

Many are wondering, “So where is ‘Aviation in Canada’ Vol.4”? Hold on, it’s almost ready for the printer. The last part of the book is in galleys with my proof readers. Final corrections should be done in 2-3 weeks, then come indexing, a quick final look, and off to the printer it goes. Aviation in Canada: Bombing and Coastal Operations 1939-1945 ought to be in your hands by the end of September. Check canavbooks.wordpress or canavbooks.com in about a month for further new.

Happy Canada Day!

Larry Milberry

Download review here or read it below: