By DAVE O’MALLEY
THE ROAR OF THE MERLINES
No rest for
Vintage Wings of Canada is a public charitable foundation founded by Ottawa high-tech entrepreneur Mike Potter, of Cognos fame. Potter turned his life-long passion for high performance aircraft into a world class collection of Second World War fighters and trainers as well as Cold War aircraft. All of the flying machines of the collection are the finest examples of the most important single-engine aircraft in Canadian military history – and they are maintained in pristine operating condition and flown regularly by Canada’s top pilots – including Commander Chris Hadfield. The entire collection is housed in a purpose-built, state-of-the-art hangar and maintenance facility at the Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport.
On the Wings of History, go the Leaders of Tomorrow – Vintage Wings of Canada’s bold and poetic mandate is to inspire Canadian youth to contribute positively to their families, their communities and ultimately their country, and to consider an education and career path in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This youth orientation is backed up by a strong offering of
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Vintage Wings of Canada animates the skies over Ottawa… and you can be part of it!
youth development events and programs such as Yellow Wings and The CAE Hadfield Youth Leadership Summit.
Pilots of the Yellow Wings program bring a squadron of Second World War trainers (The name comes from the fact that all trainers were painted yellow in the war) to various RCAF bases across the country and, at no cost, take deserving air cadets on a flight in a time machine. This program is designed to inspire young cadets and reinforce the path that they have chosen. In 2013, Yellow Wings pilots and aircraft operated from seven RCAF bases, in five provinces, on two coasts and flew an astonishing 520 young boys and girls.
The premier event of the Vintage Wings calendar year is the CAE Hadfield Summit on July 30. As many as 600 kids from the region, selected from Boys and Girls Clubs, cadet programs and other groups who normally would not have access to such an event, convene at the Vintage Wings facility for an intensive one-day program, designed to inspire them to the highest goals. The event centres around Canadian superstar astronaut Chris Hadfield who
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