Hello to all our great CANAV Books blog fans. Apologies … I know you haven’t noticed anything new for months. Why? I’ve been swamped working on CANAV’s centennial history of the RCAF. That’s been taking up every working hour, 7 days a week for the last 5 years. Crazy, eh! But that’s the aviation history and book biz for you — if your plan is to get out the best such book possible. By sticking at it, I’ll be publishing the book later in the fall. Not a huge deal when you consider that our monumental RCAF 60th anniversary book (Sixty Years: The RCAF and CF Air Command 1 ..read more

Welcome one and all to the CANAV Books Blog for Fall 2023. It’s another fascinating offering of solid reading and amazing photos for serious aviation history fans. The first of several books to celebrate the RCAF’s 2024 Centennial is available from CANAV. Pathway to the Stars is a 264-page, large-format, hardcover rich in text and photos produced by the RCAF Foundation. If your interest is RCAF history, you’ll definitely want this major production, especially if you already have our 1984 Sixty Years and Canada’s Air Force at War and Peace series. Order from CANAV Books by sending CAD$52.00 (Ca ..read more

450 Squadron CH-147F Chinook 147213 on the ramp at CFB Petawawa on June 7, 2023. Then your always keen-to-fly publisher during one of our landings in the field that day to train medical personnel on Chinook operations. Finally, here I am firing a C-6 machine gun in the 450 Squadron simulation centre operated by CAE Inc. RCAF Centennial Book on the Go Welcome back to the CANAV Books blog. Too bad how it’s been dormant for so many weeks, but I’ve been swamped getting our grand RCAF Centennial book researched, written, edited and (now) into layout. As with earlier CANAV projects, this one has ent ..read more

Many are saddened to hear that the great R.D. “Dick” Richmond has passed. Dick holds a high place on my list of true ” Kings of Canadian Aviation”. I first interviewed him for my North Star book in 1981, when he was 2 i/c at Canadair and embroiled in the struggle to save the Canadair Challenger. I was lucky to get a half-hour of his time. On North Star book launch day on Toronto’s airport strop Nov. 4, 1982, we had a big crowd out by the airport on a stormy night. As things were picking up, the doors opened and in came a somber-looking crowd of Canadair old timers led by Dick. He had corralle ..read more

2022 Canav-Booklist 1-canav-booklist-fall_winter-2022Download One of history’s all time great airplanes is the Cessna Ce.172. First flown on June 12, 1955, into 2022 more than 45,000 have been produced. One of the  claims about this very pretty, lovely-to-fly 4-seater is that it is the most successful airplane in world history. Confederation College at the Lakehead recently re-equipped with 5 new “172s”.   In 1955 the fly-away price for a new Ce.172 from the factory in Wichita (initial 1955-56 production run totalled 1178) was $8750. Here’s a photo of Canada’s very first Ce.172, CF-I ..read more

November 13, 2022. Very sad news … yesterday B-17 N7227C and P-63 N6763 collided over Texas. All six aboard the two aircraft were lost. I was familiar with both of these historic aircraft. Here are three photos that I took of the B-17. The first time I saw it was on July 2, 1966 at North Philadelphia Airport during its aero surveying career. I took these two Kodachromes during an airport tour with my sidekick, Nick Wolocatiuk. Then, on May 27, 1972 I shot N7227C at Dulles Airport in its new Confederate Air Force colour scheme. You can find much detailed history for N7227C on the web.Here are t ..read more

Remembrance Day 2022 was well celebrated from coast to coast in Canada. This year I attended the service at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, the final resting place of many Canadian aviators. The service centred on the mausoleum where Canada’s great W/C William G. “Will” Barker, VC, DSO, MC and 2 Bars, is entombed. A wide spectrum of Canadians attended to honour Canada’s veterans from wars down through the generations, including the Commander of the RCAF, LGen Eric Kenny, and other dignitaries, to a Guard of Honour from 16 Wing Borden, and Air Cadets from 330 and 631 squadrons. On the dot a ..read more

RCAF 435 Squadron C-130H 130336 on the ramp at 17 Wing Winnipeg on September 28, 2022. This is one of the “H-models” delivered in 1986 as aerial tankers, but also to do the other many duties demanded of Canada’s Herc fleet. This day ‘336 was slated for a search and rescue training exercise in the Lake Winnipeg area. Also shown is the crew for the day. 435’s five Hercs have logged more than 100,000 flying hours, including 27,000+ for ‘336 when I photographed it this day. It’s been so long since we’ve had the time to post anything new. Finally, here’s a bit of an update. First of all, I hope you ..read more

Just so you have your copy and haven’t missed anything, here’s our current main booklist: canav_booklist_october2020_lowresDownload Part of the scene at the spectacular De Havilland of Canada “send-off” event held at Downsview on June 11, 2022. History and nostalgia really came together this day. A day to remember! Introduction Greetings from CANAV Books World HQ, where we’ve been publishing since 1981. Who knows how long we’ll be keeping this up, but certainly long enough to publish the grandest ever single volume history of the RCAF. We did this in 1984 with the RCAF’s 60 th anniversary titl ..read more

Our feature aircraft for this cycle of the CANAV Blog are the De Havilland D.H.104 Dove and D.H.114 Heron, two beloved types from the UK’s aircraft industry in early post-WWII times. Naturally, they were of great interest to DH in Canada, which in the initial flurry of publicity sold more than a dozen as corporate aircraft. Needless to say, the Dove and Heron were real treats for we aircraft spotters. Canada’s first two Doves: In March 1946 DHC acquired Canada’s first Dove c/n 4015 CF-DJH. No one was surprised to see that DHC soon tried “DJH” on floats, although no Dove ever operated this way ..read more