Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

SHOOTOUT AT GENESEO

Geneseo is a magical place. A place where time seems to have not only stood still, but to have reversed itself. Each summer, the small village of Geneseo in west-central New York State puts out a welcome …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THE BOTTLE OF BRITAIN

Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of Great Britain by German armed forces was, in effect, cancelled because the Luftwaffe was unable to establish air superiority over southern England…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

RANDOM BEAUTY 1

Over the past year and half of Vintage News stories, there has been much research to verify facts and find images that help tell the remarkable stories of Canada's aviators. …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THE BCATP IN WATERCOLOUR

While scrambling through the internet this past month in search of relevant images for last week's story on the filming of “Captains of the Clouds” I discovered a wonderful place and an amazing set of images…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

CUE THE HARVARDS, LIGHTS, CAMERA… ACTION!

Back in 1941, long before United States of America joined the Allies in the war, Hollywood was already sending its best to fight tyranny - in a little known aerial battlefield deep …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

SHEET METAL MAGIC

Driving east down the wide Ottawa River valley, heading away from the setting sun, Randy and I soon find ourselves running out of urban sprawl. The township road rolling due east out of Navan…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

WIZARDS AND MERLINS

Recently, Vintage Wings visited the Canada Aviation Museum to learn first hand about Project North Star - the Museum's supervised volunteer pilot program to help them restore not only a Canadair North Star, but several aircraft …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

SAVED FROM THE BRINK

Unlike a painting which is the artist's perception of what he sees, a photograph captures that moment in time when the shutter is released. Photography, especially that of its early practitioners,…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

DUX UNLIMITED

Several months ago, there was to be a foreign exchange of sorts at Vintage Wings of Canada. Howard and Peta Cook would come to Ottawa to fly and share the fun of the Classic Air Rallye…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THAT LITTLE FOKKER — Models and Vintage Wings

A year and a half ago, we ran with a little April Fools story about the Royal Newfoundland Air Force. It was done with great respect, a smidgeon of humour and lots of supporting historical data ..

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

RANDOM BEAUTY 3

Over the past three years of Vintage News stories, there has been much research to verify facts and find images that help tell the remarkable stories of Canada's aviators. Throughout that time,…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

No one has ever accused me of being a religious man. Not in the last four decades anyway. Perhaps it was all those years as an altar boy trudging to church through ice pellets and snow squalls at 5 AM …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

FUNBAG

Sometimes, amidst all the self-imposed and real deadlines, the e-mails that buzz around like flies at a picnic, the passing of yet another cherished warrior, the technical hoohaw, the incessant rivet-counting…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

YELLOW IN MONTEBELLO

The Ottawa Valley in the 1940s thundered and clattered to the sounds of the yellow training aircraft of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. In fact, it was one of the busiest pieces of flying real estate…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

BADASS INVADER FROM MANITOBA

Though they are in fact machines, each and every aircraft type, by virtue of its design, its purpose and its history, carries with it a unique signature which gives it its own personality. …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THE HIGH WAR

For weeks on end every spring, air forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization send fighter elements to train in the unlimited, unregulated and unsullied skies of Northern Alberta as part of a multi-national fighter training exercise known as Maple Flag. …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THE OTHER ONE

Of the hundreds of thousands of pilots and aircrew who participated in training and/or combat operations during the Second World War, a mere handful can find an airplane from their log book entries that is still flying today…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

BE AN AIRMAN

In 1941, young airmen-in-training enrolled in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan were thousands of miles and months away from the hardships, deprivations and mortal dangers of the aerial battlefront. …

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