All of a sudden the Canadian Air and Space Museum found itself evicted from its 1929 vintage building and losing the historic Avro Arrow (CF-105) at the Downsview Park, the former air base. It is to be replaced by four skating rinks.



The park is owned by the federal government but managed iby a hands off policy by former city councillor David Soknacki who wields a lot of power. Soknacki maintains the four ice rinks that replace the museum will be of greater use to the recreation scheme. Downsview Park is large enough to accommodate both ice rinks and the museum.

The museum began in 1979 with volunteers (and still subsists with volunteers) in the hangars first used by the bomber, the de Havilland Tiger Moth which was used as a basic trainer during WW II, then the de Havilland Mosquito, after the war the DHC-1 Chipmunk (first Canadian designed aircraft), the subsequent DHC-2 Beaver and the DHC-3 Otter.

The number of aircraft kept growing and included the exact size replica of the Avro Arrow which took eight years (of volunteer) effort. The point being that the hangar and the aircraft reek of Toronto aircraft history. A copy of the four-engine Avro Lancaster WW II which placed as a permanent exhibit by the CNE

Schoolchildren come to the museum in their yellow buses to learn about Toronto's air history without which they would have to hike to Hamilton (the next nearest air museum), which of course the schools wouldn't do.

The museum management is asking people to contact their federal member of parliament and request them to intercede on the museum's behalf.

The bottom line is that we need a full-scale copy of the Avro Arrow, an aircraft that is still technologically advanced and what better location than the hangar that gave birth to the first aircraft designed and built in Canada. Plus of course all the other aircraft.

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