Between the mid 1940s and the late 1980s the Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Armed Forces operated a fleet of several hundred different airframes of the C-47 over the passing decades.

The reliable transports were based from coast to coast, with major bases including CFB Cold Lake, CFB Winnipeg, and CFB Shearwater, in addition to overseas assignments supporting Canadian troops in our NATO commitments at bases with Europe, primarily in the UK, France and Germany.

Canadian Armed Forces C-47 Dakota 12944 at Vancouver in May 1971.

Many of the aircraft were built by Douglas of Santa Monica during World War II, and after their retirement from Canadian military duty a good number of the C-47 Dakotas were sold into the civil market operating for smaller Canadian airlines. The C-47 aircraft were operated under several divisions including Rescue, Air Training Command, Maritime Command, and Mobile Command.

Most of these lovely images were taken by Dr. John Blatherwick during his Canadian travels in the 1970s.

Henry Tenby has been collecting aircraft slides since the early 1980s, and has amassed the collection of NASA flight test development aircraft slides in his collection as presented on this page.

I am looking to purchase 35mm Kodachrome aircraft slide collections. Please contact me: henrytenby at gmail dot com

Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!

Dr. John Blatherwick

Skycraft DC-3 C-GSCB YOO NOV 1979 (Photo by Dr. John Blatherwick)

Skycraft Air Transport was based in Oshawa to support its largest source of business, General Motors Canada, which operated two motor vehicle factories in the vicinity. The fleet was build around three main types, the DC-3s were for larger loads, Shorts 330s for mid sized loads and Embraer 110s for smaller loads.

The airline also offered a flying school and expanded into the air ambulance and ad-hoc passenger charter work, and a limited offering of scheduled routes radiating from their Oshawa base which included service to Ottawa, Montreal, Windsor, and Detroit.

The airline was notable for changing the type of aircraft operated on its passenger services to match the number of passengers booked for each flight.

Like many other small charter operators on the periphery of the auto industry, long term success is not always guaranteed and sadly, Skycraft filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992 and ultimately wound down their operations for good in February, 1994.

It subsequently obtained new financing and continued operations with a reduced fleet, but the new business plan was not successful. The airline finally shut down operations in February 1994.

I am looking to purchase 35mm Kodachrome aircraft slide collections. Please contact me: henrytenby at gmail dot com

Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!