The first look inside the new home of the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
For the first time in years, a Beechcraft Musketeer aircraft is lifting off the ground. The flight is a short one – just to the second floor of the brand new Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
"This is a huge responsibility, and it's exciting at the same time," said Dale Tallas, president of Almont Industrial, the company responsible for moving the plane.
The Beechcraft Musketeer is one of many being moved into the new home of the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
The museum officially took possession of the new building about a week ago. Now the planes are being moved into their modern and spacious new home on the campus of Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.
"We still have amazing aircraft, in fact, we have even better aircraft. Aircraft we haven't displayed before," said Terry Slobodian, the president and CEO of the museum.
"But it's going to be the stories that have people spellbound and keep coming back."
And to see some of those stories, visitors will have to look up. There will be six aircraft hanging from the museum's ceiling.
To hoist the heavy aircraft into the sky once more, the museum consulted with the Smithsonian Museum in the United States to get advice, along with a museum in London to learn how they suspend their planes.
In the end, it was a Winnipeg-based engineer who found a way to do it safely here both for visitors and the planes themselves.
"You want to hang it in such a way that you don't destroy the artifact," said Slobodian. "Because it's an item of history."
A history that is almost ready for visitors to experience once again.
The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada will reopen its doors to the public in March 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.