London museum raising funds to get grounded Snowbird aloft
It’s a lofty new year’s goal, one that would make a London museum a first in Canada. London’s Jet Aircraft Museum is trying to raise $60,000 to get a vintage jet — the same model the Snowbirds fly — that’s grounded in eastern Ontario up in the air once again.
The non-profit wants to get the CT-114 Tutor jet to its London airport location, where it would begin fully restoring the decadesold piece of Canadiana to flying condition.
There are shells of the Canadianmade jets in other museums, but none that non-military personnel can take for a spin.
“The only aircraft like that that are flying now are with the Canadian military’s Snowbirds,” said Scott Ellinor, president of the Jet Aircraft Museum.
“It’s an incredibly rare aircraft to get a hold of ... I’m sure it will be on a lot of people’s bucket lists to go flying in a Tutor jet,” he continued.
The volunteer-run museum has set up an online crowdfunding campaign to raise $60,000. The money would cover the purchase of the Canadian-built plane, the cost of shipping it from Campbellford, Ont., and to help pay for a new engine, Ellinor said. Already, the museum’s flight maintenance engineer has inspected the plane and determined that, with a lot of work, it can be restored to flight-ready status.
“It will have to be totally rewired, we’ll have to have some parts made. It will be a couple of years before it’s restored to flying condition,” Ellinor said.
Once enough money is raised, a London crew will head to Campbellford, carefully take the plane apart, load it on a trailer and truck it back to the museum beside the London International Airport, Ellinor said.
The jet was used as a Canadian Forces training plane from the 1960s until 2000. The Tutor has side-by-side seating and a single turbojet engine built by Orenda Engines in Canada.
When the military decommissioned the planes, the aircraft were altered so they couldn’t be flown, Ellinor said.
The plane’s original engine is gone and its wiring has been cut, but that’s not enough to deter the museum and its volunteers. Project organizers already have sourced a new engine from the United States, Ellinor added. Getting the plane airborne would be a years-long project made possible by thousands of hours of work, in-kind contributions and community donations. Once the plane is bought and brought to London, the restoration would cost an estimated $150,000 Ellinor said.
In lieu of the Snowbirds’ white, red and blue hues, the museum’s restored Tutor would be painted gold and dark blue — the same colours and style of the Golden Centennaires, the aerobatic military flying team that performed at Expo 67.
Under the direction and supervision of the flight maintenance engineer, museum members would be able to participate in restoring the Tutor jet, Ellinor said.
“We do instructions and courses on how to maintain the aircraft, how to get the aircraft ready to fly,” Ellinor said.
“If one of the things they’ve always wanted to do is see what the guts of an airplane look like and work on it, they can.”
For more information, go to www.jetaircraftmuseum.ca