Ground crew servicing a Fairchild Cornell I aircraft, No 19 Elementary Flying Training School, RCAF, Virden, Manitoba, 1944
Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada
The Canadian aircraft manufacturing industry struggled to survive the Great Depression of the 1930s. With the increased risk of conflict in Europe, in 1937 the RCAF placed orders for new military aircraft with Canadian factories based on British designs, which were supplemented by additional orders from Great Britain which viewed Canada as a safe second-source for military aircraft.
The aircraft built in Ontario included the Hawker Hurricane, built by Canadian Car & Foundry in Fort William and the Westland Lysander built by the Aircraft Division of National Steel Car at newly opened Malton Airport (today’s Lester B. Person International Airport).
A British contract for 180 Handley Page Hampden was awarded to two Ontario and Quebec led consortiums. The Ontario consortium included the Aircraft Division, National Steel Car, Fleet Aircraft Ltd. and Ottawa Car and Aircraft Ltd. and had a final assembly line at Malton.
Three months after Canada declared war against Nazi Germany on September 10, 1939, the governments of Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand created the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train wartime pilots and aircrew in Canada. This saw larger orders for training aircraft placed with many Canadian companies.
De Havilland Aircraft at Downsview won a contract to build DH 82C Tiger Moth trainers and Fleet Aircraft in Fort Erie contracts to build the Fleet Finch biplane and later Fairchild PT-23 and PT-26 Cornell to equip the many Elementary Flying Training Schools.
The Federal Aircraft was established by the government to make Avro Anson II trainers with five final assembly lines established including three in Ontario (Downsview, Malton and Ottawa) as well as Amhurst, Nova Scotia and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
As the war progressed, Canadian factories shifted from building trainers to modern fighters, bombers and patrol aircraft of British and American design for combat use by the Royal Canadian Air Force, Great Britain, the United States Army Air Corp and US Navy, Australia and New Zealand. This included the Avro Lancaster, Curtiss Helldiver, Consolidated PBY-5A Canso and De Havilland DH98 Mosquito.
In 1943-1944 the Canadian government took over the ownership of two large Canadian aircraft factories: National Steel Car’s Aircraft Division in Ontario was nationalized in late 1942 and renamed Victory Aircraft Limited, then sold to UK interests postwar to establish Avro Canada. The aircraft division of Canadian Vickers in Quebec was renamed Canadair Ltd. in 1944 and sold postwar to American interests.
– Kenneth Swartz
Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working together on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.