Stuffed & Mounted @ Alberta Aviation Museum

It seems so long ago now. Time takes us way back to the spring of 2018 where we found ourselves up north in Alberta’s Capital documenting the Edmonton Pinball and Arcade Show. It’s was a full day of fun and frivolity hanging with fellow pinheads and recording it all for an article (link further down). Picture it…pins as far as the eye can see, old schools vids too, a flashback to far simpler times, so many quarters lost, endless hours wasted and for your author, a youth misspent. It can all be relived, here at this very show.

Now where the heck is that SOB Black Knight? We’ve a score to settle!

The YEGPIN 2018 event was held at the Alberta Aviation Museum located in some reused hangers at former Blatchford Field (aka Edmonton Industrial Airport) just north of downtown. The runways are gone, most of the support structures have been demolished and the land scheduled to be redeveloped but the museum’s going nowhere. But here it was all about the pinball, save for a break from the action where were paid a visit to some aircraft displays out front of the venue.

And what good timing. Look at that at sunset with the sky all ablaze with colour. Now on to the subject at hand, these things…

Once used to protect this country’s sovereignty, it’s a McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo. Built in the early 1960s, so at the height of the Cold War, these could be equipped with nuclear weapons if needed, to be supplied by the US, to counter the Soviet threat. Canada amassed some one hundred and thirty two of these “all weather interceptors” over the years across several sub models. Their purpose was simple and direct…hunt down enemy bombers coming in from over the North Pole and dispatch them with air to air missiles.

The Voodoos were eventually replaced in the 1980s (by CF-18 Hornets) with many finding their way to various museums with others being put on display at any number of military installations across the country. From British Columbia to Newfoundland, they’re a stark reminder of a chilling time when the world was on edge and the very end of civilization was a mere button push away.

It’s mounted as thought appearing to streak across the sky at supersonic speeds, to face a hated enemy…and perhaps a date with destiny. Nuke’s armed and ready…target acquired…fire!

Also a product of the Cold War, and similarly able to deliver an “atomic” payload it’s a Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc. It’s a long range SAM (Surface to Air) Missile. These were to be stationed all over the US and Canada but in practice few were ever made ready. By the early 1970s technology had changed and the Bomarcs were retired and destroyed with a few being put on display here and there. This bringer of death and destruction is now just a curious display.

Lastly there’s an aircraft most likely to be seen up in Canada’s Far North, a rugged Noorduyn Norseman bush plane. In production from 1935-1959 across a couple sub-models, it was for a time produced by Canadian Car & Foundry of Thunder Bay Ontario, a firm very familiar to OTBP-wC&C/BIGDoer.com readers. In addition to aircraft the company also made transit buses which we’re so enamoured with. See some here: A Tour of Sandon BC.

This particular Norseman is from 1955 and once operated in the north woods of Ontario and Quebec ferrying people and freight into remote northern communities, mining camps and fishing lodges.

Most recently it worked for Buffalo Airways of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. This firm is world famous for its fleet of vintage aircraft of various types (World War Two era DC-3s, C-54s and 1950s era Lockheed Electras among others). They’ve got stuff that you’d fully expect to find in a museum, not coddled but hard at work carrying cargo and charter groups and out fighting forest fires.

The Norseman could be outfitted with wheels, skis or as seen here floats. With so many lakes up north, the latter was a common option. In spite of the last example having been produced some sixty years ago, there’s a couple dozen still on the job in places across the north. Tough little cookies these Norsemen. An old school feature….parts of the plane are fabric covered most visible on the rear fuselage. This one appears as though taking off after having perhaps dropped off supplies to some remote wilderness camp.

And with the last rays from the setting sun, it’s back to the “grind”. There’s pinballs to see and players to chat with…God we hate our job. We’re witness to the pinball lifestyle, the vibe, the passion, the obsession, recorded by the Team and complied into the following piece: YEGPIN 2018. We missed YEGPIN 2019, but hope to make a triumphant return in 2020. If they’ll have us trouble makers that is. And you know one day we should pay the Alberta Aviation Museum a full visit. I could see a good article coming out of it.

More from the Edmonton Pinball Show…
Just Pins @ YEGPIN.

And more aircraft…
CF-5 Freedom Fighter.
Gravitas – A work of art from WW2 aircraft.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: May, 2018.
Location: Edmonton, AB.
Article references and thanks: YEGPIN 2018, Alberta Aviation Museum, NorsemanHistory.ca, BuffaloAirways.com,

For “bush” flying.

They call it Voodoo.

At the Alberta Aviation Museum shooting YEGPIN 2018.

A nice ride and a bringer of destruction.

It’s a Cold War relic.

Designed for Canada’s North.

The potential to deliver “Nukes”.