The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (formerly the Western Canada Aviation Museum) is a museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The museum opened to the public in its new location on 21 May 2022.
The Western Canada Aviation Museum was incorporated in 1974. In November of that year, it submitted an application to the federal government for a grant to set up a 19-acre (7.7 ha) site at St. Andrews Airport. However, the museum ended up in downtown Winnipeg near the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature. The museum had 25 military and civilian aircraft in its collection by the following year. In the mid-1980s, the museum moved to a former Trans Canada Air Lines and Transair hangar, T-2, at Winnipeg International Airport.
The museum developed a master plan for a new facility in 2013 with the design firm Reich&Petch.
The museum received the Royal designation on December 19, 2014, to become the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. The museum closed its Ferry Road site in October 2018 after the lease on the hangar expired. However, following a grant from the federal government in July 2019, construction of a new 8,000-square-metre (86,000 sq ft) museum building began in May 2020. By November of that year, construction was more than half complete, and construction of the facility was completed on August 4, 2021.
Exhibits
The museum has a large hangar floor and a mezzanine with a view of the adjacent Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport runways. Aircraft are displayed on the floor and suspended from the ceiling, including one-of-a-kind aircraft, military jets, bush planes, and commercial aircraft. Exhibits are clustered in zones representing aspects of aviation history, such as Canadian Innovation, Northern Connections, and Military Skies. Interactive displays such as Experience Flight and the Mechanics Workshop present a hands-on educational experience.
Archives and Library
The comprehensive aviation reference library housed at the museum is one of the country’s largest holdings of books, magazines, technical manuals, and drawings, as well as some 40,000 photographs, films, and audiotapes, many of which cannot be found anywhere else.
One item in the archives is a rare, five-minute film of Amelia Earhart embarking on her solo trans-Atlantic flight from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, on May 21, 1932. The library is open to the public on an appointment basis, and photos, films, and audiotapes are loaned or copied on request.
Collections
- Auster AOP.6
- Avro CF-100 Canuck 5 18674
- Avrocar – replica Beechcraft CT-134 Musketeer 134235
- Beechcraft Expeditor 3N 1477
- Bellanca 14-13 1208 Bellanca Aircruiser Eldorado Radium Silver Express – under restoration
- Bristol Freighter 31 9699
- Canadair CL-84 CX8403
- Canadair Sabre 6 1815
- Canadair Silver Star 21075 Bed Bug Exterminator Winnipeg
- Canadair CT-114 Tutor 114004
- Canadian Vickers Vedette Composite
- CASA 352L T.2B-148 – converted to resemble Ju 52/1m
- de Havilland Fox Moth Composite
- de Havilland Tiger Moth
- de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver 1500
- Fairchild 71C 516
Address: 2088 Wellington Ave, Winnipeg, MB
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