Great War Flying Museum seeking new members, excited to welcome back visitors

August 4, 2022 · 0 Comments

By Zachary Roman

A museum in Caledon is working to ensure the sights and sounds of World War 1 aviation are never lost.

That museum is the Great War Flying Museum, and it’s located at the Brampton-Caledon Airport in Cheltenham.

Museum President Earl Smith explained the museum didn’t actually start as a museum.

In 1970, the Ontario Aviation Historical Society was incorporated as a non-profit. Soon after, those involved decided they really wanted to focus on World War 1 aviation, and the Great War Flying Museum was born.

In a hangar at the Brampton-Caledon Airport, museum members have built five flyable replica World War 1 aircraft and are currently working on the sixth and seventh. One of those replicas is a Fokker Dr. 1 Triplane, painted in the signature red of German World War 1 ace pilot Manfred von Richthofen, who secured 80 aerial combat victories throughout the war. The Dr. 1 was known to climb fast and be extremely maneuverable, thanks to its shorter wingspan.

“[The replicas] all fly, which is the part that makes us unique relative to most other museums that have static aircraft,” said Smith.

While the replicas are for the most part accurate, a few minor changes have had to be made to accommodate modern airports.

“We fly them off of runways and taxiways at airports, which they never had in the First World War, they flew off of square grass fields… and whatever way the wind was blowing, that’s the direction they took off today,” said Smith. “One of the changes we make is that we have tail wheels on these airplanes.”

Airplanes in World War 1 would not have had tail wheels, rather just a wooden skid at the tail that acted as a brake on the ground. Tail wheels are needed these days so the replica planes can get around the runways at airports. Another thing the replica planes have that the originals didn’t is brakes. The brakes are added since the wooden skid brake has been replaced by the tail wheels.

“The other thing is that none of these engines are from the First World War. They’re relatively modern, mostly from the 1930s — I like to joke that they’re modern,” said Smith.

He explained plane engines in the First World War would have spun around with the propeller.

But in the replica planes with the “modern” engines, only the propeller spins.

All the planes at the Great War Flying Museum are painted in the actual paint scheme of a real World War 1 ace pilot. An ace pilot is a military aviator who is credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft in aerial combat.

The only two-seater aircraft at the museum also happens to be the replica of the oldest aircraft in the museum.

The Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter is a British aircraft first introduced in 1915. While not as nimble as its single-seated counterparts, the Strutter made up for it with a tail gunner armed with a Lewis .303 Machine Gun and backup drum magazines. The Strutter was also the first British aircraft to have a machine gun synchronized to fire through its propeller arc. The pilot’s machine gun would only fire when the propeller would not get hit, thanks to intelligent camshaft engineering that stopped the gun from firing while the propeller crossed the path of its barrel.

“This concept of firing through the propeller made it very, very easy, because your pilot only had to point his aircraft at the enemy,” said Smith. An important thing for pilots and mechanics to remember about the Strutter was that if they took its propeller off, they needed to put it back on in the exact same place so the camshaft synchronization would remain correct.

At the beginning of the First World War, planes didn’t have machine guns. In fact, they didn’t have weapons at all.

Their original purpose was for scouting, and guiding artillery fire.

Each side of the war was doing the same thing with their aircraft, and pilots would sometimes wave at each other as they crossed paths. But as the war dragged on and animosity grew, eventually pilots began bringing up pistols and shooting at enemy aircraft as they passed by. While Smith said this was largely ineffective, it was the predecessor to machine guns being added to aircraft. By weaponizing aircraft and engaging in aerial combat, each side of the war sought to deny their enemies the ability to scout and direct artillery fire. Smith said that’s how single-seat scout aircraft, the fighter planes of the era, came to be. Their sole purpose was to take out enemy observation aircraft.

Smith is a pilot himself, and got his private flying license in 1971. He also got his commercial license, just for proficiency rather than for career purposes. Smith joined the museum in 1989 and he’s been flying planes there ever since, and said each one has its own unique characteristics. He said the first time he flew one of the First World War-replica open-cockpit planes, he experienced an increased sensation of flight.

“I was used to flying airplanes that were enclosed. I never felt the wind on my face. I wasn’t prepared for the extra noise… there was an element of noise that isn’t present in modern closed airplanes,” said Smith. “The airplanes basically handle the same as other airplanes in that their control system is exactly the same.”

With that increased sensation of flight came an increased sensation of fun — “Once the terror wore off,” said Smith with a laugh. When Smith was a child, his father was interested in building model airplanes, and built several World War 1 model aircraft. This, combined with Smith’s reading of books about legendary World War 1 pilots, sparked Smith’s lifelong interest in First World War aviation history.

Members of the Great War Flying Museum try to take the planes out to fly every weekend, as well as to special events like air shows. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do much flying during the pandemic and are trying to make up for it now that things are back open again.

Smith said he’s finding people have an increased desire to get out and do things post-pandemic, and that it has benefited the museum as more people have been coming to check it out. The museum is open on weekends and holidays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; however, there’s usually people at the museum on Tuesdays and Thursdays maintaining the aircraft and Smith said if someone showed up then, everyone would be happy to show them around.

Everyone involved with the Great War Flying Museum is a volunteer, and the museum is partially sustained through the membership fees its members pay. Smith said the museum is lucky to have many retired pilots and aircraft maintenance professionals involved, and views his role as President of the museum as a job that has to be done.

“I’m passionate about seeing this museum continue into the future. You know, we’ve been around for over 50 years now. There are a lot of other museums that have come and gone in a much shorter timeframe than that,” said Smith. “The work has to be put in, and the work has to be done in order to sustain us. I’m not a mechanic, so there’s not a lot I can do to actually physically keep these airplanes flying. But from an organizational point of view, I can contribute.”

The single biggest potential threat to the museum’s future is not having enough young people joining the museum, said Smith.

People interested in joining don’t have to have a pilot’s license or be a mechanic, all they have to have is an interest in the Great War Flying Museum and a desire to help it succeed in any way they can. Those interested in learning more about the museum can visit its website at greatwarflyingmuseum.org.