Читать книгу Toronto Sketches 12 - Mike Filey - Страница 10

June 24, 2012

Several weeks ago I had a note from a reader asking if I had any recollection of a Second World War fighter aircraft that was on display somewhere close to Ontario Place. He seemed to recall that it was located near HMCS Haida, the iconic Canadian warship that had been given a home along the Ontario Place waterfront back in 1970 after five years moored at the foot of York Street.

And, his note went on, not far away there was another artifact from the Second World War, an Avro Lancaster bomber that had sat, rather forlornly, perched atop a concrete pedestal since the mid-1960s.

Having joined the staff of the CNE in 1974, I was familiar with the small collection that had accumulated just across Lake Shore Boulevard, a collection that, to some people, was starting to look like a museum dedicated to the Second World War. And perhaps that was the problem. War is not something certain people wish to celebrate, even though it brought the lifestyle we now treasure.

But back to the gentleman’s original question: the fighter in question was, in fact, one of the more than twenty thousand Spitfires produced between 1936 and 1947. The “Spit” was a favourite of many RCAF pilots.

This Second World War Supermarine Spitfire was on display next to HMCS Haida at Ontario Place from 1972 to 1973. (Photo courtesy Richard E. Dumigan.)

The same aircraft is now a feature attraction in an aviation museum in Malmslatt, Sweden.

The Internet advises that the model on display on the Toronto waterfront was a rare Mark XIX variant (designated numerically as PM627), of which only 225 were produced. It served with the Royal Air Force from 1945 to 1951, then with the Indian Air Force from 1953 to 1957, after which it was displayed in a museum in New Delhi.

In 1971, the aircraft was purchased by a member of the Canadian Fighter Pilots Association and shipped to Toronto, where it was put on display at the recently opened Ontario Place. There it sat from 1972 until 1973, when it was relocated to the Ontario Science Centre, where it remained until 1980. It then spent a couple of years in California before becoming part of a complicated trade that had “our” Spitfire sent to an aviation museum in Sweden in exchange for five (!!) other vintage aircraft.

As for the Malton, Ontario–built Lancaster (designated FM104) it was taken down from its pedestal in 1999 and transferred to the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview. The future of this artifact, and the museum itself are, pardon the expression, up in the air.

In 2003, HMCS Haida, now a National Historic Site, began welcoming appreciative visitors at its new and friendlier home located at Pier 9 in Hamilton Harbour.