Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum Closed

Story and photos by John Chalmers,
CAHS Membership Secretary
posted November 2022
Attendees at the 2022 Canadian Aviation Historical Society annual convention were among the last to tour the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon before it closed temporarily due to structural damage. On 1 October, conventioneers travelled by bus to tour the museum, where its aircraft are housed in a Second World War hangar of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Established some 40 years ago, the museum’s theme is developed around the war and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), which helps explain the abundance of yellow aircraft seen in the museum. Several types of aircraft flown in the BCATP during the war were painted yellow. The hangar is the largest of five wartime type buildings that comprise the complete museum.
Yellow aircraft included in the collection include a Fairchild Cornell, above, as well as a Fleet Fort, a Fleet Finch, a Bristol Bolingbroke, a North American Harvard, a de Havilland Tiger Moth, a Cessna Crane, a Stinson 105 and an Avro Anson, all of which saw service during the Second World War at BCATP training stations across Canada. Several of those aircraft are airworthy and flown. Under normal circumstances, visitors can book flights in them.
Like many such hangars built across Canada for the BCATP, the one at Brandon uses Warren trusses for roof support. Patented in 1846, by a British engineer, James Warren, his design is based on equilateral triangles of cross members between longitudinal beams, appropriately looking like the letter W… as in Warren! Shown here is the museum’s Bolingbroke, and above the aircraft can be seen the Warren truss structure supporting the roof of the hangar.
The cost of repairs is not known at this time. As the museum’s executive director, Stephen Hayter explains, “At this stage we are unclear about the overall cost but know that it will be significant.” In years past, similar problems have been encountered and repaired in the 82-year old hangar when failed rafters were reinforced with steel. “A recent engineering study of the problem has discovered two additional failed rafters. It is our hope that a suitable method of repair can be established,” says John McNarry, president of the museum’s board of directors.

Successful repairs will ensure that the historic building will continue to remain the home of aircraft and artifacts dedicated to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and its vital role during the Second World War. Anyone wishing to contribute to the cost of repairs can do so at the museum’s website and specify that the donation is for hangar repairs when you click here.
Although the museum is closed until repairs are made, visitors can still see the splendid RCAF Memorial at the museum. A component of the memorial is a larger-than-life bronze statue of an airman striding out to his aircraft for an operational flight during the war. The Memorial includes 64 large black granite panels stretching 90 meters beside the museum, and are inscribed with the names of more than 18,000 airmen of Commonwealth air forces, mostly RCAF, who were lost while serving with the RCAF during the Second World War. The Memorial, called “They Grew Not Old,” was unveiled and dedicated on September 10, 2014, the 75th Anniversary of Canada’s entry in the war.

For more information, see a story about the museum’s closure in the Brandon Sun when you click here.
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