A while back(maybe 15 or 20 years)I was at the airport at Abbotsford,BC when I noticed a large biplane flying boat. It appeared to be airworthy and was resting on a dolly. Does anyone know what might have happened to it. Where it might be now? I'm not sure whether it ever was an airliner but it was big enough that it might have been.
Lee McKinney

Lee,

Abbotsford has a site:

"Abbotsford Airport, British Columbia"

I found their home page by scrolling down to:


Abbotsford Airport......Ground Transportation.

Someone there may know of someone else who remembers this aircraft.

Doug

The Stranraer was the final development of the Southampton flying boat to be put into production and was one of the world’s last biplane flying boats, and used for reconnaissance.

The Stranraer which was being utilised by the RAF, was selected by the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the type was put into production by Canadian Vickers (Supermarine), who built forty of them.

Eight were in service with the Canadians at the outbreak of war. These aircraft were used for patrol duties both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. They were finally retired from service in February 1945.

After retirement from service use, several Stranraers were registered for civil use. Queen Charlotte Airlines continued to use Stranraers into the 1950s, operating from Vancouver and providing a service along the pacific coast of British Columbia.

Several Stranraers are located in aviation museums around Canada. The one you spoke of is possibly the former Queen Charlotte Airlines example, CF-BXO, which was still seen around the old seaplane ramps at Vancouver Airport well into the 1960s.

In recent years this particular aircraft was transported to the RAF Museum at Hendon in London, and restored to represent a RCAF example. This could be the one you saw.

Tracey

"Several Stranraers are located in aviation museums around Canada."

As far as I know the one in the RAF Museum at Hendon is the ONLY survivor. This was once CF-BXO of QCA and sat derelict for a few years at Vancouver finally leaving (dismantled) in the early 1970s. Certainly could not have been at Abbotsford any later than 1968 and it sure sounds like you are describing a Strannie. Perhaps memories are fading a bit ? Been there

You're right Brian. After I had posted, my wife(she who must be obeyed) told me that the year I visited Abbotsford was either 1968 or 1969. After all I only missed it by about 15 years. Thats not too bad.
Lee

Brian.

I did not state that the Canadian survivor(s), other than the RAF Hendon machine were 'whole aircraft'.

For example, the Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley in British Columbia have the rear fuselage and wings of another Queen Charlotte Airlines Stranraer, the former CF-BYL. This one crashed into a watery grave, on 24th December 1948, and these sections of it were recovered.

Tracey

My reference to the Canadian Museum of Flight should have said CF-BYJ, not CF-BYL.

Tracey

An interesting book is the accidental airline written by the founder of queen charlotte airlines. He called the stranraer the whistling ****house! As I remember one of the pilots landed the old amphibian byplane towards a dock and went crashing into the fbo, restaurant bar!

It wasn't a Strannie that Jim Spillsbury deposited in the office, but his personal Aeronca.

Does anyone remember if the Canadian Stranairs used Pratt Whitneys? I was a bit distracted at the time.It was parked near a Canadair CL-44 or a Britannia. I think Douglas should have gone that route with their DC-7. I know this is just an excercise in "coulda woulda shoulda" but I do enjoy thinking back about how things might have been if we all lived in a perfect world.
Lee

A nice pair of Bristols . Pegasus X to be precise.

Nice one Brian.....reminds me of one of the "T" shirts sold at various airshows by the group that rebuilt (twice!!)that lovely Blenheim (Bolingbroke)in England several years back - it read "Happiness is....A Pair of Big Bristols"
I never did manage to aquire one, they were always sold out!!
Colin.

Colin. I assume you are refering to the t shirt not the Bristols.
Lee

Saw one a few years back at an airshow that had a picture of a large radial engine on it, and written below the engine were the words "If God had intended for airplane engine to have horizontally opposed cylinders, Pratt & Whitney would have made them that way."

It was faded, and I didn't think to ask the wearer wher it came from.

I hve a photo of this aircraft when it was parked at YVR.

my dad often talks about when he flew on Stranairs for 3 years from Euculet and Tofino BC in WW II and I would like to get a photo to show him. Any ideas?
thanks,
Tom Hoy