Canadian Air and Space Museum-25/08/2010

The Canadian AIR & SPACE Museum (formerly the Toronto Aerospace Museum) was founded in 1997 and is an important year-round attraction within Downsview Park, Canada’s first National Urban Park which is managed by the federal government.

The Museum is located in a building that isn’t just full of history it’s part of history - from the days of wood and fabric open cockpit biplanes of the 1920’s, to the dawn of the space age in the 1960s.
The building is the original 1929 home of the de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd., (one of Canada’s most successful aircraft manufacturers) and also the original home of Canada’s leading space technology company best known as SPAR.

In this unique and authentic setting, Canadian AIR & SPACE Museum celebrates the aerospace accomplishments of Canadians, and the long association of Canada with aeronautical innovation, aircraft manufacturing, military aviation, air transport and the pure joy of flight.

While the Canadian AIR & SPACE Museum prides itself on telling the distinctly Canadian stories of aerospace science and technology, it equally tells the stories of the people connected to these innovations. In doing so, the museum is not only chronicling their achievements, it is honouring these larger than life pioneers.

The Museum contains artifacts and full-size aircraft, showcasing the development of aviation and space innovations in Canada. One of our most ambitious projects has been the construction of a full-size replica of the magnificent Avro CF-105 Arrow supersonic interceptor that first flew at Toronto's Malton Airport in 1958.

The history of de Havilland Canada is depicted in a growing display, which includes photos, artifacts, and the last CS2F Tracker anti-submarine aircraft built at Downsview for the Royal Canadian Navy.

In the workshops, CASM staff and volunteers are restoring the City of Toronto's Lancaster bomber built by Victory Aircraft Ltd. at Malton in 1944.

Step back in time and see the original shop equipment used by Canadian Aeroplanes to build 1,200 Curtiss JN-4 biplanes in 1917-18. For more than 50 years, Downsview was an air force base and home for Canada's oldest air force squadron and other flying units. The diverse activities of RCAF Station Toronto are recalled with photos.

Other exhibits include sport aircraft and trainers, piston engines and Toronto-made jet engines, and rare flight training simulators used in the 1940s and 1950s.