Aviación Naval y del Ejército Canadiense
Canada once had two air arms that were not the air force: a carrier navy that flew Seafires, Sea Furies, Banshees, Trackers and Sea Kings from HMCS Warrior, HMCS Magnificent and HMCS Bonaventure, and an army aviation branch of gunner pilots in Austers and Bird Dogs — and both were closed on 1 February 1968, when the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force were merged into a single service.
The Canadian naval and army aviation story: two air arms that were not the air force, closed on the same day
1918: a naval air service that lasted five months
Canadian naval aviation began as an emergency. In the spring of 1918 Britain warned Ottawa that a new class of long-range U-boat could reach the Canadian coast, and the Royal Canadian Navy recommended air patrols over the convoy assembly ports. The Americans supplied the aircraft and the crews while Canada recruited and trained its own: the United States Navy opened Naval Air Station Halifax at Baker Point in Eastern Passage in August 1918 and a second station at North Sydney, flying Curtiss HS-2L flying boats under Lieutenant Richard Byrd. The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service was authorised on 5 September 1918 and its first cadets were sent to the US Navy ground school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It never flew an operational sortie of its own. The Armistice came first, the service was disbanded on 5 December 1918, and the Air Board took the stations over. No U-boat was ever found, although 110,000 tons of shipping went down in North American waters in the last two months of the war.
1919–1945: no aircraft of its own, and Canadians in somebody else’s Fleet Air Arm
For the next twenty-seven years Canada had no naval aircraft. Baker Point became the Dartmouth Air Station, then RCAF Station Dartmouth, and every Canadian in uniform who flew over salt water did it in an air force aeroplane. Canadians who wanted to fly from carriers went to the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm instead, and a great many did. Two Canadian-manned escort carriers, HMS Nabob y HMS Puncher, were commissioned in 1943 and 1944 with Royal Canadian Navy ships’ companies and Fleet Air Arm aircrew — Lend-Lease rules forbade transferring the ships to a third navy, so the compromise was Canadian sailors under a British ensign. Nabob was torpedoed by U-354 in the Barents Sea on 22 August 1944 during the Tirpitz strikes, lost twenty-one men and never sailed again. The most famous Canadian naval aviator of the war never served in a Canadian squadron at all: Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, RCNVR, flying a Corsair of 1841 Squadron off HMS Formidable, sank the escort ship Amakusa in Onagawa Bay on 9 August 1945 and died doing it. His was the last Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian.
1946–1957: Warrior, Magnificent, and a navy learning to fly
The real Canadian naval air arm was born out of a plan for a Pacific war that ended too soon. In April 1945 Britain agreed to lend Canada two light fleet carriers, and four Fleet Air Arm squadrons were re-formed with Canadian crews to fly from them — 803 and 883 with Seafires, 825 and 826 with Fireflies. HMCS Warrior was commissioned at Belfast on 24 January 1946 and 803 and 825 went with her; she reached Halifax on 31 March. It went badly. Warrior had been built for the tropics, with no heating for much of her equipment, and a Canadian North Atlantic winter found every gap in her; she spent the winter of 1946–47 at Esquimalt instead, and was handed back to the Royal Navy at Portsmouth on 23 March 1948. HMCS Magnificent replaced her, commissioned on 21 March 1948 and at Halifax by 1 June. On 1 December 1948 the navy took over RCAF Station Dartmouth and commissioned it as HMCS Shearwater, and on 1 May 1951 the borrowed Royal Navy squadron numbers were swapped for Canadian ones: 803 became 870, 883 became 871, 825 became 880 and 826 became 881. Eighteen months later the navy adopted American designations as well, and VF 870, VF 871, VS 880 and VS 881 are the names the arm is remembered by.
1940–1968: the army’s own air arm, from the Auster to the Bird Dog
The army’s air arm started somewhere else entirely, in a field behind the guns. In 1944 Parliament voted three Air Observation Post squadrons for First Canadian Army: 664 formed at RAF Andover on 9 December 1944, 665 on 22 January 1945 and 666 on 5 March 1945, flying Auster IVs and Vs. The pilots were not airmen but artillery officers of the Royal Canadian Artillery, taught to fly at Cambridge and Andover so they could correct the fall of shot from a hundred metres up; the squadrons were RCAF on paper and gunners in practice, which makes them the first Canadian unified units by a generation. It cost them. Captain Tony Eaton, MC, chosen to take 665 to war, was killed near RAF Middle Wallop on the night of 1 March 1945. B Flight of 665 fired the last Canadian shot of the European war, at Dunkirk on 7 May 1945. One of 666’s flight officers, Captain James Doohan, later played Scotty in Star Trek. Because the AOP observers sat outside the aircrew establishment the air force recognised after the war — a small, mean detail that the pilots remembered for decades.
1957–1967: Bonaventure, the Banshee, the Tracker — and the Beartrap
HMCS Bonaventure was the only carrier Canada ever owned outright. She had been laid down at Harland & Wolff as HMS Powerful in 1943, launched in 1945 and abandoned half-built; Canada bought the hull on 23 April 1952 for 21 million dollars and spent another 10 million finishing her to a modern standard, with an angled flight deck, a steam catapult, a mirror landing aid and American radar. She was commissioned at Belfast on 17 January 1957 and reached Halifax on 26 June. Her first air group was sixteen F2H-3 Banshees and eight CS2F Trackers, with HO4S helicopters as plane guards. The Banshees were a tight fit and a hard aeroplane, and Canada lost twelve of the thirty-nine it bought; the fighters were withdrawn on 12 September 1962 and never replaced, leaving Bonaventure a pure anti-submarine ship. What the navy did instead was quietly more important. Through the late 1950s it worked out how to land a big helicopter on a small, moving deck, using a haul-down cable and a rapid-securing trap — the Beartrap. It made the helicopter destroyer possible, and every navy that flies a helicopter off a frigate today is using a Canadian idea.
1964–1970: unification, Landymore, and the end of Canadian naval flying
The end came from Ottawa, not from the sea. Paul Hellyer’s white paper of 26 March 1964 proposed merging the three services, and the naval staff read it correctly as the end of the navy as an institution: the post of Chief of the Naval Staff was abolished that year, and with no carrier replacement in any plan, naval aviation had nowhere to go. Rear-Admiral William Landymore refused to sell the policy to his officers, canvassed the fleet, and was relieved of command on 12 July 1966. The Canadian Forces Reorganization Act, passed by the Commons in April 1967, came into force on 1 February 1968; the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force ceased to exist as legal entities the same day. The aircraft did not stop flying — VS 880 and HS 50 simply carried on under Maritime Command — but they were no longer navy aircraft, and there has been no Canadian naval air branch since. Bonaventure came out of an 18-month refit that cost more than twice its estimate, flew her last deck landing on 12 December 1969, paid off on 3 July 1970 and was scrapped in Taiwan. Canadian fixed-wing flying from ships ended with her.
The Canadian Naval and Army Aviation in numbers
Servicio
- Estado
- Closed on 1 February 1968This is a historical order of battle, not a current one. The Canadian Forces Reorganization Act took effect on 1 February 1968 and merged the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force into a single Canadian Armed Forces. Neither a naval air branch nor an army aviation branch has existed in Canada since. Everything Canada flies today — including the shipborne CH-148 Cyclones and the army’s CH-147F Chinooks — belongs to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
- Two arms, one page
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- The air branch of the Royal Canadian Navy, 1918 and 1946–1968
- Canadian Army aviation, 1944–1968: the Air Observation Post squadrons and the postwar light aviation
They are on one page because they ended on the same day, for the same reason, and because neither was ever large enough to stand alone. At its peak the naval air branch had roughly fifty aircraft in the air and the army’s own pilot strength never reached two hundred.
- Fundado
- 5 September 1918 (navy); 9 December 1944 (army)The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service was authorised on 5 September 1918 and disbanded on 5 December 1918, five months later, without flying an operational sortie of its own. Naval flying resumed on 24 January 1946 with the commissioning of HMCS Warrior. Canadian Army aviation dates from No. 664 (Air Observation Post) Squadron RCAF, formed at RAF Andover on 9 December 1944.
- Disbanded
- 1 February 1968Fixed-wing flying from Canadian ships ended later, on 12 December 1969, when the last aircraft landed on HMCS Bonaventure; the ship paid off on 3 July 1970.
- Carriers
-
- HMCS Warrior — 24 January 1946 to 23 March 1948 (loaned, returned to the Royal Navy)
- HMCS Magnificent — 21 March 1948 to 14 June 1957 (loaned, returned to the Royal Navy)
- HMCS Bonaventure — 17 January 1957 to 3 July 1970 (bought outright)
Three ships, all built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast, all of the 1942 Design Light Fleet type. Only Bonaventure was Canadian property; the other two were on loan from the Royal Navy with an option to buy that Canada never took up.
- Main station
- HMCS Shearwater, Dartmouth, Nova ScotiaThe former RCAF Station Dartmouth, handed to the navy and commissioned as HMCS Shearwater on 1 December 1948. It is the same ground as the 1918 United States Naval Air Station Halifax at Baker Point — the second-oldest military aerodrome in Canada. It is still flying today as Shearwater Heliport, home of 12 Wing, which is an air force wing doing the navy’s work.
- What replaced it
- Maritime Command 1968, Air Command 1975, the RCAF again from 2011On unification the naval aircraft went to Maritime Command and the army’s to Mobile Command. On 2 September 1975 every aircraft in the Canadian Forces was gathered into a new Air Command, which was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force on 16 August 2011. The practical result is that Canada has one flying service and no others.
Fortaleza
- Naval aircraft, peak
- about 50 in the air at onceCanada’s Aviation Hall of Fame records 56 aircraft on the naval air branch’s strength by 1949. Bonaventure’s air group from 1957 was sixteen Banshees and eight Trackers plus helicopters; from 1962 it was eight Trackers and up to a dozen HO4S. These are small numbers by any standard, and the arm knew it.
- Army pilots
- about 140 qualified officersThe figure is from the Canadian Joint Air Training Centre at Rivers, Manitoba, which trained them. They came mostly from the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery and the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, and they flew light aircraft and light helicopters, never combat aircraft.
- Aircraft types flown
- more than forty across both armsFrom the Curtiss HS-2L flying boat of 1918 to the Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King and the Boeing Vertol CH-113A Voyageur. The naval list alone runs to twenty types.
- Banshees bought and lost
- 39 bought, 12 lostThirty-nine ex-United States Navy F2H-3 Banshees for about 25 million dollars, delivered from November 1955. Twelve of the thirty-nine were written off in Canadian service. They were Canada’s only naval jet fighters and the only jets ever to fly from a Canadian deck.
- Trackers built in Canada
- 99de Havilland Canada built 99 CS2F Trackers under licence at Downsview, serials 1502 to 1600, the first flying on 31 May 1956. One American-built S2F-1 was bought for manufacturing verification, making 100 airframes in Canadian naval service. Seventeen CS2F-1s went to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1960 and 1961.
- Sea Kings
- 41The CHSS-2 was chosen on 20 December 1961 and the first of forty-one delivered from 1963, most assembled by United Aircraft of Canada at Longueuil, Quebec. Redesignated CH-124 at unification, the type flew until 2018 — fifty-five years, longer than the navy that bought it existed.
Infraestructura
- Naval air stations
- One, plus detachmentsHMCS Shearwater was the only naval air station Canada ever ran. RCAF Station Patricia Bay in British Columbia hosted VU 33 on the west coast, RCAF Station Summerside took VF 870 from September 1953 until it stood down in March 1954, and the aerodrome at the former RCAF Station Debert was attached to Shearwater in the 1960s for carrier landing practice.
- Army aviation centre
- Canadian Joint Air Training Centre, Rivers, ManitobaBuilt out of No. 1 Airborne Research and Development Centre at Camp Shilo in October 1945 and at Rivers from April 1947, reorganised as the Joint Air Training Centre in March 1949. Roughly 800 permanent staff, split about half RCAF and half army. It trained more than 13,000 paratroopers and over 5,500 air-supply students, and it is where army pilots did their operational flying training. The station closed in 1971.
- Air Observation Post flights
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- No. 1 AOP Flight — Camp Petawawa, Ontario, from November 1954
- No. 2 AOP Flight, later Troop — Camp Shilo, Manitoba, from November 1954
- No. 1 AOP Troop — Germany from March 1960, with 4 Canadian Infantry Brigade Group
Three flights in all, the third being the one in Europe. The Germany troop moved to Lahr in 1970 with the brigade, and on 1 October 1972 it and the other army aviation elements of 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group were folded into 444 Tactical Helicopter Squadron.
- Flying squadrons at the end
- Six naval squadrons on 1 February 1968VS 880 with CS2F Trackers, HS 50 with CHSS-2 Sea Kings, HU 21 with utility helicopters, VX 10 on trials and VU 32, all at Shearwater, and VU 33 at Patricia Bay. VU 32 and VU 33 were struck off in February 1968; VX 10 moved to Cold Lake and was disbanded in June 1970. VS 880 and HS 50 carried on under Maritime Command as air force units.
- Carrier deck landings
- 10,000 on Bonaventure by April 1962The ten-thousandth deck landing aboard Bonaventure, by a Tracker, was recorded in April 1962 — five years after she commissioned. The last deck landing of any kind on a Canadian ship was on 12 December 1969.
- What survives
- Shearwater Aviation Museum, and a heliport still flyingThe Shearwater Aviation Museum at Shearwater holds the naval aviation collection, including Bonaventure’s bell, Magnificent’s bell and a Banshee. Bonaventure’s port anchor stands in Point Pleasant Park in Halifax as the Bonaventure Anchor Memorial, dedicated in 1973 by Rear-Admiral Robert Timbrell, who had commanded her; it carries 131 names of Canadian naval personnel who died in peacetime between 1948 and 1994.
How the Canadian Naval and Army Aviation is organised
How the two arms were organised on the day they closed. Neither of these organisations exists. Both were abolished on 1 February 1968, when the Canadian Forces Reorganization Act merged the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force into one service. Everything below is a historical order of battle.
Royal Canadian Navy air branch
Never a separate service and never a named command with a flag officer of its own. Canadian naval aviation was a branch of the Royal Canadian Navy, run from Naval Service Headquarters in Ottawa and through the Flag Officer Atlantic Coast at Halifax, with all its squadrons based at one station. The post of Chief of the Naval Staff was abolished in 1964 and the operational navy was gathered into Maritime Command in January 1966. On 1 February 1968 the Royal Canadian Navy ceased to exist as a legal entity and its aircraft became Canadian Armed Forces aircraft.
HMCS Shearwater
The former RCAF Station Dartmouth, commissioned into the navy on 1 December 1948 and the shore base of every Canadian naval flying unit. Squadrons lived here and embarked in the carriers for weeks or months at a time. Satellites: RCAF Station Patricia Bay for VU 33 on the west coast, RCAF Station Summerside for VF 870 in 1953 and 1954, and the aerodrome at Debert for carrier landing practice in the 1960s.
19th, 30th and 31st Carrier Air Groups
The fighter and anti-submarine squadrons grouped for embarkation. The 19th Carrier Air Group was formed in 1947 around 803 and 825 Squadrons for HMCS Warrior and HMCS Magnificent; the 30th took VF 871 and the Avenger squadrons in Magnificent. Numbers and composition changed often, and after the fighters went in 1962 the whole idea lapsed: Bonaventure’s last air group was one Tracker squadron, one helicopter squadron and a plane guard.
HMCS Warrior, HMCS Magnificent, HMCS Bonaventure
Three light fleet carriers between 1946 and 1970, all built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast. Warrior y Magnificent were on loan from the Royal Navy; Bonaventure was bought outright in 1952 and completed with an angled deck, a steam catapult and a mirror landing aid. Home port Halifax throughout, except for Warrior’s winter at Esquimalt in 1946 and 1947.
VC 920, VC 921, VC 922, VC 923 and VC 924
Five composite squadrons at the naval reserve divisions, flying Harvards, Avengers and Expeditors from nearby airfields. The Directorate of History and Heritage records VC 920 authorised 1 May 1953 and disbanded 20 March 1964, VC 921 authorised 30 September 1953 and disbanded 3 March 1959, VC 922 authorised 1 December 1953 and disbanded 31 March 1964, and VC 923 authorised 2 May 1954 and disbanded 20 February 1959. They belonged to HMCS York at Toronto, HMCS Cataraqui at Kingston, HMCS Malahat at Victoria, HMCS Montcalm at Quebec and HMCS Tecumseh at Calgary.
Canadian Army aviation
The Canadian Army never had an aviation corps. What it had was a handful of air observation post flights belonging to the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, a helicopter troop in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, and about 140 officers with pilot qualifications. All of them were trained by the Royal Canadian Air Force and most of the aircraft that flew for the army belonged to the air force. This is the reason the army’s aviation story is short and the air force’s is long.
Canadian Joint Air Training Centre
The one place where the arrangement was made to work: a station at Rivers, Manitoba with about 800 permanent staff, roughly half Royal Canadian Air Force and half Canadian Army, running the airborne, air supply, land and air warfare, helicopter and light aircraft schools plus a flight of six T-33s for tactical air demonstrations. Formed out of the Joint Air School in March 1949 and renamed the Army Aviation Tactical Training School for its flying side in 1961. Closed 1971.
Nos. 664, 665 and 666 (Air Observation Post) Squadrons RCAF
Three squadrons voted by Parliament in 1944 for First Canadian Army, formed at RAF Andover on 9 December 1944, 22 January 1945 and 5 March 1945. They were Royal Canadian Air Force units flown by Royal Canadian Artillery officers under No. 84 Group of Second Tactical Air Force — a unified unit a generation before unification. 665 disbanded at Apeldoorn on 10 July 1945, 666 on 31 October 1945 and 664 at Bad Zwischenahn on 31 May 1946.
Maritime Command and Mobile Command, then Air Command
On 1 February 1968 naval aircraft went to Maritime Command and army aviation to Mobile Command, with the rest of the Royal Canadian Air Force split between Air Defence Command, Air Transport Command and Training Command. On 2 September 1975 every aircraft in the Canadian Forces was gathered into a single Air Command, which was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force on 16 August 2011. 1 Wing at Kingston, formed on 1 April 1993, is the direct descendant of Canadian tactical helicopter aviation; 12 Wing at Shearwater is the descendant of the naval air branch. Both are air force.
Every type the Canadian Naval and Army Aviation has retired
49 types, from the Curtiss HS-2L to the Sikorsky HO4S-2 and HO4S-3. Las cifras máximas corresponden a las aeronaves puestas en servicio durante toda su vida útil, no al número total de efectivos de la flota en una fecha concreta.
| Tipo | Role | Cima | Servido | Reemplazado por | Notas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sikorsky HO4S-2 and HO4S-3 | Carrier plane guard and anti-submarine helicopter | 13 | 1952–1970 | Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King | Thirteen aircraft: three HO4S-2 and ten HO4S-3, the two surviving HO4S-2s brought up to HO4S-3 standard in 1955 and 1956. The RCAF flew a related H-19 with a different engine. | |
| de Havilland Canada CS2F-3 Tracker | Carrier and shore-based anti-submarine aircraft | 43 | 1966–1968 | Passed to Maritime Command on 1 February 1968 | Forty-three CS2F-2 airframes rebuilt with new electronics from 1964. Redesignated CP-121 on 27 July 1970 after the carrier went. | |
| Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King | Shipborne anti-submarine helicopter | 41 | 1963–1968 | Passed to Maritime Command on 1 February 1968 | Forty-one aircraft.
MásChosen on 20 December 1961 over the Kaman HU2K, which trials showed to be heavier than promised; first delivered in 1963, most assembled by United Aircraft of Canada at Longueuil, Quebec. Redesignated CH-124 at unification and retired in 2018. |
|
| Canadair T-33 Silver Star | Jet trainer and target facilities | 16 | 1955–1968 | Passed to the Canadian Forces on 1 February 1968 | Sixteen aircraft, taken over from the Royal Canadian Air Force. The type stayed in Canadian service until 2002, long after the navy that flew it was gone. | |
| de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk (CT-120) | Elementary and pilot-grading trainer | — | 1948–1968 | — | No army figure is published.
MásOne hundred Chipmunks served across the Canadian forces from 1948 to 1972; only a fraction were on army pilot selection and grading at any one time, so no number is given in the column. |
|
| Cessna L-19A and L-19E Bird Dog (CO-119) | Air observation post and liaison | 25 | 1954–1968 | CH-136 Kiowa, after unification | Twenty-five aircraft on the serial evidence: 16 L-19A, serials 16701 to 16716, and 9 L-19E, serials 16717 to 16725.
MásOther published counts give 29 and 32, the latter from a serial range running to 16735; the figure here is the one the individual serials support. Canadian airframes were later renumbered in the 119xxx series. |
|
| Hiller CH-112 Nomad | Light observation and liaison helicopter | 27 | 1961–1968 | CH-136 Kiowa, after unification | Twenty-seven aircraft, serials 10261 to 10287, in service from August 1961.
MásSources differ on whether 27 or 28 were bought and on how many were to Royal Canadian Air Force specification; the serial range supports 27. |
|
| Piasecki H-21A (CH-125) | Medium transport and rescue helicopter | 15 | 1954–1968 | Vertol CH-113A Voyageur | Fifteen aircraft, 1954 to 1973. | |
| Sikorsky H-34A (CH-126) | Helicóptero de transporte utilitario | 6 | 1955–1968 | — | Six aircraft, 1955 to 1971. | |
| Boeing Vertol CH-113A Voyageur | Medium tactical transport helicopter | 12 | 1964–1968 | Passed to Mobile Command on 1 February 1968 | Twelve army-tasked CH-113A Voyageurs, the usual figure, within a confirmed Canadian total of 18 CH-113 airframes covering both the army Voyageur and the air force Labrador.
MásDelivered in 1963 and 1964. |
|
| de Havilland Canada Otter (CSR-123) | Light transport, army support and United Nations service | 69 | 1953–1968 | de Havilland Canada Caribou and Buffalo | Sixty-nine aircraft in Canadian service between 1953 and 1984, on Royal Canadian Air Force charge throughout. | |
| de Havilland Canada Caribou (CC-108) | Transporte táctico | 9 | 1960–1968 | de Havilland Canada Buffalo | Nine aircraft, 1960 to 1971. | |
| Douglas Dakota (CC-129) | Transport and paratroop training | — | 1945–1968 | Lockheed CC-130 Hercules | No army-support figure is published.
MásOne hundred and sixty-nine Dakotas passed through Canadian service between 1943 and 1988 across every role; only a handful were on airborne and air-supply training work at Rivers at any one time, so no number is given in the column. |
|
| Canadair T-33 Silver Star, army co-operation | Tactical air support demonstration and reconnaissance | 6 | 1953–1968 | — | Six aircraft held by the Tactical Fighter Flight at the Canadian Joint Air Training Centre, within the 656 Silver Stars built in Canada. | |
| Beechcraft Expeditor (CT-128), army support | Transporte ligero y comunicaciones | — | 1951–1968 | — | Within the 398 Expeditors on Canadian charge between 1941 and 1972. No separate army-support figure is published. | |
| Bell CH-118 Iroquois | Helicóptero de transporte táctico | 10 | 1968–1968 | CH-135 Twin Huey | Ten aircraft, delivered in 1968 — the year the army aviation branch ceased to exist. The last nine were retired in 1997. | |
| de Havilland Canada CS2F Tracker COD | Carrier onboard delivery | 2 | 1964–1968 | — | Two CS2F-1 airframes stripped of armament and anti-submarine electronics in 1964 and converted to transports. | |
| de Havilland Canada CS2F-2 Tracker | Carrier anti-submarine aircraft | — | 1960–1967 | de Havilland Canada CS2F-3 Tracker | Part of the same 100-aircraft programme. Forty-three CS2F-2s were later rebuilt as CS2F-3s from 1964. | |
| Bell HTL-4 and HTL-6 | Helicóptero utilitario y de entrenamiento | 8 | 1951–1967 | Sikorsky HO4S | Eight aircraft. Three Bell helicopters were introduced in 1951 and the type stayed on charge until 1967. | |
| Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (CC-119) | Paratroop and air supply transport | 35 | 1952–1967 | Lockheed CC-130 Hercules | Thirty-five aircraft, 1952 to 1967. | |
| Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw | Helicóptero de transporte utilitario | 15 | 1954–1966 | Vertol CH-113A Voyageur | Fifteen Royal Canadian Air Force H-19s with the Wasp engine, plus the thirteen Royal Canadian Navy HO4S with the Wright engine counted separately in the naval list above. | |
| Bell 47D and 47G | Light helicopter, training and observation | 9 | 1948–1965 | Hiller CH-112 Nomad | Nine aircraft across the Canadian forces between 1948 and 1965. | |
| Sikorsky H-5 Dragonfly | Utility and rescue helicopter, conversion training | 7 | 1947–1965 | Hiller CH-112 Nomad | Seven aircraft, 1947 to 1965. Royal Canadian Air Force machines used at Rivers for joint training. | |
| North American Harvard, army pilot training | Advanced trainer for army pilots | — | 1947–1965 | Tutor Canadair CT-114 | Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft on air force charge. Army officers were streamed through air force flying training before their operational course at Rivers. | |
| Piasecki HUP-3 Retriever | Plane guard, rescue and utility helicopter | 3 | 1954–1964 | Sikorsky HO4S | Three aircraft, transferred from the United States Army as H-25As in May 1954 and modified to United States Navy HUP-3 standard on delivery. | |
| Sikorsky HO4S-3 Beartrap trials aircraft | Shipborne landing trials | — | 1956–1963 | Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King | Within the thirteen HO4S the navy held. The trials also used a larger Sikorsky H-34 to prove the device against a heavier aircraft. | |
| McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee | Carrier all-weather fighter and NORAD interceptor | 39 | 1955–1962 | Nothing — the fighter role was abandoned | Thirty-nine second-hand United States Navy aircraft for about 25 million dollars, delivered from November 1955. Twelve of the thirty-nine were lost in Canadian service. | |
| Grumman Avenger AS.3 (TBM-3E) | Carrier anti-submarine aircraft | 125 | 1950–1960 | de Havilland Canada CS2F Tracker | One hundred and twenty-five Avengers of all Canadian marks, bought from the United States Navy from April 1950 and rebuilt in Canada for anti-submarine work. | |
| Grumman CS2F-1 Tracker | Carrier anti-submarine aircraft | — | 1957–1960 | de Havilland Canada CS2F-2 Tracker | Part of the 100-aircraft Canadian Tracker programme; 42 of the 99 licence-built airframes were CS2F-1s.
MásSeventeen were transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1960 and 1961 and two were stripped out as carrier onboard delivery transports in 1964. |
|
| Beechcraft Expeditor (CT-128) | Light transport and multi-engine trainer | 10 | 1952–1960 | — | Ten aircraft, taken over from the Royal Canadian Air Force. | |
| Grumman Avenger AEW Mk 3W2 | Airborne early warning and radio relay | — | 1955–1959 | Nothing — the capability lapsed | A flight of four aircraft added to VS 881 in March 1955, within the total of 125 Avengers. No separate fleet figure is published. | |
| Harvard norteamericano | Trainer | 36 | 1946–1958 | Canadair T-33 Silver Star | Thirty-six aircraft. Not to be confused with the modern CT-156 Harvard II, which is a different aeroplane entirely. | |
| Auster AOP.6 and T.7 | Air observation post and liaison | 42 | 1948–1958 | Cessna L-19 Bird Dog | Forty-two aircraft: 36 AOP.6, serials 16651 to 16686, and 6 T.7 trainers, serials 16687 to 16692. | |
| Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 | Carrier fighter-bomber | 75 | 1948–1957 | McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee | Seventy-five aircraft. The Sea Fury entered Royal Canadian Navy service in August 1947, a month before the Royal Navy had it, and left in 1956 and 1957.
MásOne published figure gives 53 rather than 75; the higher number is the one in the Royal Canadian Navy aircraft list. |
|
| de Havilland DH.82C Tiger Moth | Elementary trainer | 3 | 1948–1957 | — | Three aircraft, ex-Royal Canadian Air Force. | |
| Supermarine Seafire F.XV | Carrier fighter | 35 | 1946–1954 | Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 | Thirty-five aircraft, on loan from the Royal Navy rather than bought. Canada never owned a Seafire. | |
| Fairey Firefly AS.5 | Carrier anti-submarine and strike | 65 | 1946–1954 | Grumman Avenger AS.3 | Sixty-five AS Mk 5 aircraft between 1946 and 1954, within a total of 76 Fireflies of all marks; the whole fleet was on loan from the Royal Navy.
MásCanada chose the Firefly over American types on the advice of its own veteran pilots. |
|
| Auster AOP.6, Korea | Air observation post on operations | — | 1952–1953 | — | No Canadian-owned aircraft. Four Canadian Army pilots flew British Auster Mk VIs on attachment to 1903 Air Observation Post Flight, Royal Air Force, from 1952. | |
| Avro Anson Mk V | Utility and training | 2 | 1946–1952 | Beechcraft Expeditor | Two aircraft, ex-Royal Canadian Air Force. | |
| Fairey Firefly FR.I and F.I | Carrier fighter-reconnaissance | — | 1946–1949 | Fairey Firefly AS.5 | A handful of Mk I aircraft, within the 76 Fireflies of all marks the navy held on loan. No separate Mk I total is published. | |
| Fairey Albacore | Training and utility | 6 | 1943–1949 | — | Six aircraft.
MásThe dates published for them, 1943 to 1949, sit oddly beside a naval air branch that did not exist until 1946; they are most likely airframes taken over with the wartime Canadian-manned carrier establishment. Treat the start date with caution. |
|
| Schweizer SGS 2-12 | Training glider | 1 | 1946–1949 | — | One aircraft. | |
| Fairey Swordfish Mk II and Mk III | Training and utility, target-towing | 22 | 1946–1948 | Grumman Avenger AS.3 | Twenty-two aircraft, used for training and second-line work rather than for anything resembling a torpedo attack. | |
| Supermarine Walrus | Utility amphibian | 4 | 1946–1946 | — | Four aircraft, held for a single year. | |
| Taylorcraft Auster Mk IV and Mk V | Air observation post — artillery spotting | 42 | 1944–1946 | Auster AOP.6 | Forty-two aircraft on the strength of the three Canadian Air Observation Post squadrons, with five Canadian aircraft lost. No.
Más666 Squadron’s sixteen Auster Mk Vs began arriving in the last week of March 1945. |
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| Vought F4U Corsair, Fleet Air Arm | Carrier fighter-bomber flown by Canadians in British squadrons | — | 1944–1945 | — | No Canadian-owned aircraft. Flown by Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve officers serving in Royal Navy squadrons, because in 1945 Canada had no naval squadrons of its own. | |
| Grumman Wildcat and Fairey Barracuda, HMS Puncher | Carrier fighter and torpedo bomber | — | 1945–1945 | — | Royal Navy aircraft of 881 and 821 Squadrons, flown from a carrier crewed by the Royal Canadian Navy. | |
| Grumman Avenger, HMS Nabob | Carrier anti-submarine and mining aircraft | — | 1944–1944 | — | Royal Navy aircraft of 852 and 856 Squadrons, flown from a carrier with a Royal Canadian Navy ship’s company.
MásLend-Lease rules prevented the ship or the aircraft from being transferred to Canada. |
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| Curtiss HS-2L | Anti-submarine patrol flying boat | 12 | 1918–1918 | Nothing — the service was disbanded | Twelve aircraft in all: six at Naval Air Station Halifax and six at Naval Air Station Sydney, supplied and flown by the United States Navy.
MásNone of them ever belonged to Canada, and the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service was still training its own crews when the war ended. The six at Sydney were shipped to Halifax and stored when the Americans handed the stations over. |
Where Canadian naval and army aviation flew from
Hollow pins are stations that have closed; the black ones are ground still in military use, under other owners and other names. There was only ever one Canadian naval air station, HMCS Shearwater at Dartmouth, and the carriers had no fixed position at all — they are listed under HMC Dockyard Halifax, the base they worked from.
Canadá
Three of the fourteen stations above are in Europe, so the world map has to pull back until the Canadian ones cannot be told apart. The same pins again, without the Dutch landing ground and the two German garrison towns.
| Base | OACI | Estado | Pista | Unidades y aeronaves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camp GagetownNuevo Brunswick | CYCX | Activo | — |
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| Camp PetawawaOntario | CYWA | Activo | 17/351.158 mgrass (closed to fixed-wing) |
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| Camp ShiloManitoba | CKM3 | Activo | — |
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| HMC Dockyard Halifax — the carriersNueva Escocia | Activo | — |
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| HMCS ShearwaterRoyal Canadian Naval Air Station ShearwaterNueva Escocia | CYAW | Activo | 16/342,742 masphalt (closed after 2002)10/281.735 masphalt (closed after 2002)16H/34H1.067 masphalt (heliport strip today) |
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| Base de la Real Fuerza Aérea Canadiense en Patricia BayColumbia Británica | CYYJ | Activo | 09/272.134 metros03/211.532 m14/321.524 m |
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| Estación Namao de la Real Fuerza Aérea CanadienseAlberta | Cerrado en 1994 | 12/304.267 mhormigón (retirado) |
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| RCAF Station SummersideIsla del Príncipe Eduardo | CYSU | Cerrado en 1991 | 05/232.438 m12/301.615 masfalto (cerrado)18/361.664 masfalto (cerrado) |
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| Base de la Real Fuerza Aérea Canadiense en DebertNueva Escocia | CCQ3 | Cerrado en 1971 | 09/271.524 m16/341.524 m05/23914 metros |
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| RCAF Station RiversCanadian Joint Air Training CentreManitoba | Cerrado en 1971 | 08/261.006 m12/30997 m03/21997 m |
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| Soest — 4 Canadian Infantry Brigade GroupNorth Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | Cerrado en 1971 | — |
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| Werl — Canadian Army garrisonNorth Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | Cerrado en 1971 | — |
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| Base de la Real Fuerza Aérea Canadiense en RockcliffeOntario | CRIOGRAFÍA | Cerrado en 1964 | 09/271.006 m |
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| Gilze-Rijen (B.77) and the Dutch landing groundsNorth Brabant, the Netherlands | EHGR | Closed 1945 | 10/282.750 m |
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Ninguna base aérea coincide con esa búsqueda.
Who is stationed where in the Canadian Naval and Army Aviation
Flying units by station as they stood in the 1950s and 1960s, in grey because none of them is a naval or army unit any more. Canadian naval squadrons carried Royal Navy 800-series numbers until 1 May 1951, then Canadian ones, then American-style prefixes from November 1952: 803 became 870 became VF 870, and 825 became 880 became VS 880. All three names are the same squadron.
- Royal Canadian Naval Air Service1918–1918
- Curtiss HS-2L
- 803 Squadron1946–1951
- Supermarine Seafire F.XV, Hawker Sea Fury FB.11
- 825 Squadron1946–1951
- Fairey Firefly FR.I, Fairey Firefly AS.5
- HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22)1957–1970
- McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, de Havilland Canada CS2F Tracker, Sikorsky HO4S-3, Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King
- HMCS Magnificent (CVL 21)1948–1957
- Supermarine Seafire F.XV, Fairey Firefly AS.5, Hawker Sea Fury FB.11, Grumman Avenger AS.3
- HMCS Warrior (R31)1946–1948
- Supermarine Seafire F.XV, Fairey Firefly FR.I, Hawker Sea Fury FB.11
- No. 1 Air Observation Post Flight, RCA1954–1968
- Cessna L-19 Bird Dog, Auster AOP.6
- No. 2 Air Observation Post Flight, RCA1954–1968
- Cessna L-19 Bird Dog, Auster AOP.6
- Royal Canadian Horse Artillery air observation aircraft1958–1968
- Cessna L-19 Bird Dog
- VU 331954–1968
- Grumman Avenger AS.3, Piasecki HUP-3
No se encontró ninguna unidad que coincida con esa búsqueda.
Canadian Naval and Army Aviation milestones, 1914 to today
5 September: the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service is authorised, to take over the anti-submarine patrols the United States Navy is flying from Baker Point near Halifax and from North Sydney. Its first cadets go to the US Navy ground school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
5 December: the service is disbanded, four weeks after the Armistice and without having flown an operational sortie of its own. The Air Board takes the stations over. No U-boat was ever found, although 110,000 tons of shipping went down in North American waters in the last two months of the war.
7 September: HMS Nabob is commissioned with a Royal Canadian Navy ship’s company and Fleet Air Arm aircrew. Lend-Lease rules forbid transferring her to a third navy, so Canada gets the sailors and Britain keeps the ensign.
22 August: Nabob is torpedoed by U-354 in the Barents Sea during the Tirpitz strikes, with the loss of twenty-one men. She reaches Scapa Flow under her own power five days later and never sails again.
9 December: No. 664 (Air Observation Post) Squadron RCAF forms at RAF Andover under Major D. Ely of the Royal Canadian Artillery, the first of three squadrons voted by Parliament for First Canadian Army.
April: Britain agrees to lend Canada two light fleet carriers, and four Fleet Air Arm squadrons are re-formed with Canadian crews — 803 and 883 with Seafires, 825 and 826 with Fireflies. The war ends before the ships are finished.
7 May: B Flight of 665 (AOP) Squadron fires the last Canadian shot of the European war, at Dunkirk, from an Auster.
9 August: Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, RCNVR, flying a Corsair of 1841 Squadron from HMS Formidable, presses home an attack on shipping in Onagawa Bay and sinks the escort ship Amakusa, which goes down with 71 of her crew. His aircraft is hit and crashes into the bay. It is the last Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian.
24 January: HMCS Warrior is commissioned at Belfast under Captain Frank Houghton, with 803 and 825 Squadrons embarked. She enters Halifax harbour on 31 March. Canadian naval aviation has begun for the second time.
31 January: an 825 Squadron Firefly is lost with its pilot off Portland Island, British Columbia. Warrior is on the Pacific coast because she has no heating and cannot cope with a Canadian Atlantic winter.
21 March: HMCS Magnificent is commissioned. Two days later HMCS Warrior is handed back to the Royal Navy at Portsmouth: Canada cannot afford two carriers.
1 December: the navy takes over RCAF Station Dartmouth and commissions it as HMCS Shearwater. It will be the only naval air station Canada ever has.
20 March: thirty-two aircraft handlers aboard Magnificent briefly refuse an order to turn to cleaning stations, one of three near-simultaneous incidents in the fleet. Her captain calls it an incident rather than a mutiny, which keeps the men out of court.
1 May: the borrowed Royal Navy squadron numbers are replaced with Canadian ones. 803 becomes 870, 883 becomes 871, 825 becomes 880 and 826 becomes 881. American-style prefixes follow in November 1952: VF 870, VF 871, VS 880, VS 881.
Four Canadian Army pilots begin flying Auster Mk VIs with 1903 Air Observation Post Flight, Royal Air Force, in Korea. Captain Joe Liston is shot down and captured on his twelfth mission in August and spends a year as a prisoner; Captain Peter Tees flies 211 missions and is the last Canadian awarded the Commonwealth Distinguished Flying Cross.
23 April: Canada authorises 21 million dollars to buy the unfinished hull of HMS Powerful from Britain, and about 10 million more to complete her as a modern carrier.
November: No. 1 Air Observation Post Flight at Camp Petawawa and No. 2 at Camp Shilo take the Cessna L-19 Bird Dog, the aeroplane that will define Canadian Army aviation.
July: HS 50 forms at Shearwater with the Sikorsky HO4S, the first Canadian helicopter squadron with a combat role.
1 November: VF 870 re-forms with ten McDonnell F2H-3 Banshees under Lieutenant-Commander Robert Falls — the first and only jet squadron in the Royal Canadian Navy. Thirty-nine aircraft are bought second-hand from the United States Navy for about 25 million dollars.
31 May: the first Canadian-built CS2F Tracker flies at Downsview. All 99 are built to the shorter early airframe so that they will fit in Bonaventure’s hangar.
10 October: the last fixed-wing flight from HMCS Magnificent, an Avenger. In December she embarks 406 soldiers, their vehicles, four RCAF Otters and an HO4S helicopter for Port Said and the first United Nations Emergency Force.
17 January: HMCS Bonaventure is commissioned at Belfast, the only aircraft carrier Canada ever owned outright, with an angled flight deck, steam catapults and a mirror landing aid. She reaches Halifax on 26 June.
16 March: VF 871 is absorbed into VF 870, leaving one Banshee squadron. On 7 July VS 881 merges into VS 880, leaving one Tracker squadron of 24 aircraft and 450 people.
20 December: the Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King is chosen after trials show the competing Kaman HU2K to be substantially heavier than promised. Forty-one are ordered.
April: HMCS Bonaventure records her ten-thousandth deck landing, by a Tracker.
12 September: the Banshee is withdrawn without a replacement. Canadian naval fighter aviation ends after seven years; VF 870 disbands on 7 September. Bonaventure becomes a pure anti-submarine ship. Two weeks later, on 13 October, Bonaventure and the 1st Canadian Escort Squadron are recalled from British waters as the Cuban missile crisis deepens.
27 November: the first operational landing of a production CHSS-2 Sea King on a destroyer deck, aboard HMCS Assiniboine, using the Beartrap. It is the moment small-ship helicopter operations become possible.
26 March: Paul Hellyer’s white paper on defence proposes merging the three services. The post of Chief of the Naval Staff is abolished the same year. There is no carrier replacement in any plan.
30 March: Bonaventure lands 95 soldiers of the Royal 22e Régiment, 54 vehicles and 400 tons of stores at Famagusta for the United Nations force in Cyprus, in Operation Snow Goose.
12 July: Rear-Admiral William Landymore, Commander of Maritime Command, refuses to resign over unification and is relieved of command. He resigns on 19 July with effect from 5 April 1967. On 23 February 1967 Hellyer tells the Commons defence committee that Landymore was dismissed for eighteen months of consistent disloyalty, and retracts it four days later.
April: the Beartrap enters service, cleared for day and night operations in sea state 6 with 30 degrees of roll and 9 degrees of pitch. August: Bonaventure emerges from an eighteen-month mid-life refit that cost more than seventeen million dollars against an estimate of eight or nine.
1 February: the Canadian Forces Reorganization Act takes effect. The Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force cease to exist as separate legal entities. Naval aviation and army aviation are abolished as branches; VU 32 and VU 33 are struck off, and VS 880 and HS 50 carry on as Canadian Armed Forces units under Maritime Command.
12 December: the last aircraft lands on HMCS Bonaventure. Fixed-wing flying from Canadian ships is over.
3 July: Bonaventure pays off at HMC Dockyard Halifax and is sold for scrap; she is broken up in Taiwan in 1971. Parts of her steam catapult are used to repair HMAS Melbourne.
2 September: every aircraft in the Canadian Forces is gathered into a new Air Command, restoring a unified air force inside the unified service. It is renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force on 16 August 2011.
Canadian Naval and Army Aviation news from Afterburner
Everything MiGFlug’s magazine has published on the Canadian Naval and Army Aviation and the aircraft it flies. Esta lista se actualiza automáticamente: las nuevas historias de Afterburner aparecen aquí de forma automática.
Everything people ask about the Canadian Naval and Army Aviation
¿Tenía Canadá portaaviones?
¿Canadá aún cuenta con una rama aérea naval o una rama de aviación del ejército?
What aircraft did the Royal Canadian Navy fly?
Was the Banshee the only jet Canada flew from a ship?
What is the Beartrap, and why does it matter?
Who was Robert Hampton Gray?
Why do Canadian naval squadrons have three different names?
What was HMCS Shearwater, and is it the same place as Dartmouth?
What did the Canadian Army fly?
Did Canadian Army pilots fight in Korea?
Why was Rear-Admiral Landymore dismissed?
Why did Canada give up its aircraft carrier?
What happened to the aircraft after 1968?
Where can I see Canadian naval aircraft today?
Is this page about a service that still exists?
Did Royal Canadian Navy pilots fly in Korea?
Read the aircraft the Canadian Naval and Army Aviation flew
Cada tipo tiene una página en el Libro de las Bestias, primero en servicio y luego por el año en que abandonó la flota.
Todos los datos, verificados
- Directorate of History and Heritage: 920 Composite Squadronofficial lineage: authorised as 920 Composite Squadron 1 May 1953, disbanded 20 March 1964, no badge or battle honours recorded
- Directorate of History and Heritage: 921 Composite Squadronofficial lineage: authorised 30 September 1953, disbanded 3 March 1959
- Directorate of History and Heritage: 922 Composite Squadronofficial lineage: authorised 1 December 1953, disbanded 31 March 1964
- Directorate of History and Heritage: 923 Composite Squadronofficial lineage: authorised 2 May 1954, disbanded 20 February 1959
- Directorate of History and Heritage: official lineages, flying squadronsthe index of Canadian official squadron lineages, used to check every squadron number on this page
- Royal Canadian Air Force: 12 Wing Shearwater historyofficial history: Baker’s Point becomes United States Naval Air Station Halifax in August 1918; HMCS Shearwater the birthplace of Canadian naval aviation and home of the naval air squadrons 1948 to 1968; Shearwater becomes a CFB at integration in 1968
- Royal Canadian Navy: HMCS Shearwater ship historythe navy’s own history of the establishment and the sloop it was named after
- Royal Canadian Air Force: wings and squadrons todaywho does the naval and army flying now: 12 Wing Shearwater, 443 Squadron at Patricia Bay, 1 Wing’s tactical helicopter squadrons at army bases
- Royal Canadian Air Force: Canadian airmen and airwomen in Koreaofficial account of Canadian flying in Korea, used to check the air observation post attachments
- Veterans Affairs Canada: Bonaventure Anchor Memorial131 names covering 1948 to 1994, 46 added in the 2019 restoration; dedicated 1973 by Rear-Admiral Robert Timbrell; anchor 12 feet tall and about nine tons
- Veterans Affairs Canada: Bonaventure Anchor Memorial, Canadathe inscription and the dedication to naval personnel who died in peacetime
- Veterans Affairs Canada: Canada and international peacekeepingbackground on the United Nations operations Canadian carriers and aircraft supported, including UNEF in 1956 and Cyprus in 1964
- The Royal Canadian Air Force Journal: Seasprite to Sea King — the RCN’s shipborne antisubmarine helicopter capabilitypeer-reviewed service account of the destroyer helicopter programme and the haul-down cable problem
- Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame: Royal Canadian Naval Air Branch, 1945 to 196856 aircraft on strength by 1949, the transfer of RCAF Station Dartmouth in 1948, VX 10 credited with developing the haul-down system, disbandment at unification
- J. F. Chalifoux: Royal Canadian Navy air squadronsformation and disbandment dates, aircraft and bases for HS 50, HU 21, VT 40, VU 32, VU 33, VX 10 and the VC squadrons. An enthusiast compilation; where it disagrees with the Directorate of History and Heritage we have used the official lineage
- Canadian Military History: Sailors with wings — the rise and fall of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Fleet Air Armcarrier dates, the 1950 purchase of 75 Avengers, the Banshee acquisition, RCAF Station Debert attached to Shearwater in 1960
- Canadian Military History: Going down with the ship — the principled sacrifice of Rear-Admiral William Landymorethe sequence of the affair: the November 1964 briefing, the canvass of officers in 1965, the altered June 1966 testimony, the dismissal of 12 July 1966 and Hellyer’s retracted disloyalty charge of 23 February 1967
- Canadian Military History: abandoned Canadian bases outside Canadathe Canadian stations in Germany and France with opening and closing dates
- BAOR Locations: Canadian Infantry Brigadethe Canadian camps in Germany by town and unit, 1951 to 1971: Fort Henry and Fort York at Soest, Fort Victoria, Fort St Anne and Fort St Louis at Werl, Fort Prince of Wales and Fort MacLeod at Hemer, Fort Beausejour at Iserlohn
- Vanguard: From sea to sky — 65 years of naval aviationthe Royal Canadian Naval Air Service authorised 5 September 1918 and disbanded 5 December 1918, HMCS Shearwater commissioned 1 December 1948, 125 Avengers, 39 Banshees from November 1955, 100 CS2F Trackers, 41 Sea Kings from May 1963
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian Warplanes — Cessna L-19 Bird Dog16 L-19A serials 16701 to 16716 and 9 L-19E serials 16717 to 16725; No. 1 Air Observation Post Flight (Type A) (Army Component) RCA renamed 15 February 1957; the move to Germany in March 1960 and to Lahr in 1970; amalgamation into 444 Tactical Helicopter Squadron on 1 October 1972
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian Warplanes — Taylorcraft Auster and Auster AOP.642 aircraft on the strength of the three wartime AOP squadrons with five Canadian losses; postwar 36 Auster AOP.6 serials 16651 to 16686 and 6 T.7 serials 16687 to 16692
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian Warplanes — Hawker Sea Fury, RCNCanadian Sea Fury serials and squadron allocations
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian Warplanes — Supermarine Seafire, RCNCanadian Seafire Mk XV serials and the loan arrangement with the Royal Navy
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian warplanes preserved at the Shearwater Aviation Museumthe surviving Canadian naval airframes and what is on display at Shearwater
- SilverHawkAuthor: RCAF, RCN and Canadian civil aviation history, 1 January 1946 to 31 December 1950a dated chronology of the first five years of the naval air branch and of postwar army flying
- RCAF.Info: CJATC Riversthe Canadian Joint Air Training Centre: formation from No. 1 Airborne Research and Development Centre at Shilo in October 1945, Rivers from April 1947, Joint Air Training Centre from March 1949, about 800 staff half RCAF and half army, 13,000 paratroopers, 5,500 air supply students, six T-33s, four C-119s, the helicopter school converting to the CH-112 in autumn 1961, about 140 army pilots
- Canadian Warplane Heritage CASPIR: Cessna Bird Dogthe unit list for the Canadian Bird Dog: No. 1 AOP Flight at Camp Petawawa and No. 2 at Camp Shilo from November 1954, CJATC and the Army Aviation Tactical Training School at Rivers, the RCHA regiments, CEPE at Namao and Uplands, the Air Force Headquarters Practice Flight at Rockcliffe, and service with 4 CMBG in Germany 1959 to 1972
- Canadian Warplane Heritage CASPIR: Hiller CH-112 Nomadserials 10261 to 10287, in service from August 1961, Rivers and the Army Aviation Tactical Training School, the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps Helicopter Troop in Germany from 1962, the last aircraft retired at Lahr on 12 June 1972
- Vintage Wings of Canada: Cessna L-19A Bird Dogthe career of a single Canadian Bird Dog through CJATC, the Light Aircraft School, the Army Aviation Tactical Training School, 3rd Regiment RCHA at Shilo and 4 CMBG in Germany. It gives 29 aircraft where the serial lists give 25, which is why this page reports the discrepancy
- Korea Veterans Association Unit 27: Canadian airmen and airwomen in the Korean Warthe Canadian Army air observation post pilots with 1903 AOP Flight RAF from 1952, Captain Joe Liston shot down and held prisoner, Captain Peter Tees and his 211 missions, and Lieutenant Joe MacBrien RCN on exchange in USS Oriskany
- Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada: So Long Bonnie — the decommissioning of HMCS Bonaventurethe refit estimated at 9 million dollars and billed at over 17 million, the Public Accounts Committee criticism, Captain Lynch’s view that the navy rushed the schedule, and the 1968–69 defence review option that had no carrier in it
- Hamilton Naval Association: Naval Air VC 920the five naval air reserve squadrons and their divisions: VC 920 at HMCS York with a detachment at HMCS Star, VC 921 at HMCS Cataraqui, VC 922 at HMCS Malahat, VC 923 at HMCS Montcalm, VC 924 at HMCS Tecumseh; VC 920’s three Avengers, two Harvards and one Expeditor
- The Canadian Encyclopedia: Canadian Forces in Europe during the Cold Warthe shape and dates of the Canadian army and air force commitment in Germany
- Canada’s History: Revolt of the Admiralsthe Canadian naval officers’ resistance to unification in 1966 and its consequences
- US Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1967: Unification in Canada — fait accomplia contemporary outside assessment of what unification meant, written while it was happening
- RUSI Vancouver: The Navy Speaks Out — oral history on Canadian Forces unificationrecorded recollections of serving officers on what unification did to the navy and its air branch
- Crowsnest, March–April 1965: The Beartrap — a Canadian inventionthe navy’s own magazine on the development: the Buckingham trials with an HO4S and then an H-34, the Fairey Aviation of Canada redesign, the Assiniboine installation, the CHSS-2 trials from late 1963, and the five-minute recovery cycle
- Skies Magazine: Canadian innovation on display — the Beartrapan accessible account of the device and its adoption abroad
- Vertiflite, May–June 2016: The CH-148 Cyclone heads out to seathe Beartrap entering RCN service in April 1967 and its clearance limits, and the continuity from CH-124 to CH-148
- ReadyAyeReady: Rear-Admiral Bill Landymorea naval biography of Landymore used to cross-check the dates of his commands and his departure
- CBC News: memorial anchor in Halifax park undergoing repairsthe condition and restoration of the Bonaventure Anchor Memorial and what it commemorates
- Canadian Military Engineers Association: engineers repair the Bonaventure memorialthe 2019 restoration and re-dedication of the anchor memorial
- Canadian War Museum: Canada’s air force in war and peacenational museum overview used to cross-check the institutional history around unification
- Fleet Air Arm Archive: HMS Powerfulthe British construction record of the hull that became HMCS Bonaventure
- OurAirports: aerodrome databaseused only for the Shilo heliport position, CKM3 at 49.7999 north, 99.6333 west, elevation 1,225 feet. Stated because it is an open database and not a Canadian government aeronautical publication
- NAV CANADA: aeronautical information productsthe authoritative source for Canadian aerodrome data. It is named here because the coordinates, elevations and runway figures on this page were taken from encyclopedia infoboxes, an open aerodrome database and an earlier verified MiGFlug dataset rather than from the Canada Flight Supplement, and most of these fields are historical and no longer published at all.
- UN Air Power: Wings for Peace — Canada’s air support for the UN Organization in the Congoused to establish that Canada’s United Nations air support in the 1960s was flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force and not by army or naval aviation
- Museo de Aviación Shearwaterthe museum that holds the Canadian naval aviation collection, including Bonaventure’s bell, Magnificent’s bell and Banshee 126402
- Canada Aviation and Space Museum: collectionholds Banshee 126464 and the national aviation collection in the hangars of the former RCAF Station Rockcliffe
- The Military Museums, Calgaryholds Banshee 126334, one of the three surviving Canadian airframes
- Korea Veterans Association: Canadian airmen and airwomen in the Korean War
- Canadian Aviation Serial Photo and Information Resource (CASPIR), Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
- Directorate of History and Heritage: 880 Squadron lineage
- Directorate of History and Heritage: 924 Squadron lineage
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian Warplanes — McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee
- SilverHawkAuthor: Canadian Warplanes — Sikorsky H-19 and HO4S-3
- Royal Canadian Navy squadrons reference list
Cifras verificadas el 21/09/2026. Las páginas de Orden de Batalla se regeneran a partir de un único conjunto de datos; si algún número aquí no coincide con el de una página del Libro de las Bestias, esta página es la más reciente de las dos.
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