Stellar Aviation Conference at Winnipeg Aviation Museum

Story by John Chalmers,
CAHS Membership Secretary
posted March 2023

On April 14-15 the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada in Winnipeg will host a special aviation conference about the development of civil, commercial and military aviation in Canada from 1918-1924.

Invited speakers will contribute to a program with topics on three main subjects: People, Planes and Places. Although the conference is not associated with the CAHS convention in June, a number of the speakers are well-known to members of the CAHS. They include Richard Mayne, Allan Snowie, Diana Trafford, Matthias Joost, Chris Terry, Ruth Groome, Pierre
Thiffault, and Robert Galway.

“While we were digging into the first trans-Canada flight of 1920, from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, to Richmond B.C., we encountered a wealth of material of which we had not previously been aware. These were not necessarily new discoveries; they were largely re-discoveries,” says Terry Slobodian, president and CEO of the museum. “It dawned on us that it would be important to review the events that led to the development of Canadian civil, commercial and military aviation in the critical period from 1918-1924.”

A fine article about the 1920 cross-country flight, organized by the Canadian Air Board to publicize the value and versatility of aviation, was written by Col (Ret.) John Orr and appeared in SKIES magazine, which can be seen when you click here. John is one of the featured speakers for the conference.

Although there is no direct link of the conference to the CAHS or the 100th Anniversary of the RCAF, there is definitely a tie-in with the establishment of the RCAF on April 1, 1924. “We hope that the conference will facilitate research into Canadian aviation from 1918-1924,” says Terry Slobodian.

Full information about the conference, speakers and sessions can be found on the museum’s web site when you click here.

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