As Canada prepares to celebrate its sesquicentennial today, the 150th anniversary of confederation, there will be massive celebrations across the country, and especially in the nation’s capital of Ottawa, Ontario. Amongst the many events will be a significant flyover over Parliament Hill featuring aircraft from the Royal Canadian Air Force’s past and present. Vintage Wings of Canada, based nearby in Gatineau, Quebec, will play a significant role in this flypast, both contributing vintage military aircraft from their own collection, as well as playing host to those visiting from afar. One of those aircraft to take part will hopefully be VWoC’s newly restored Spitfire Mk IX TE294. We thought it would make a fitting tribute to show Vintage Wing’s boss and founder, Mike Potter, during his recent first flight in this marvelous machine on June 19th. The aircraft has been under restoration at various locations for a couple of decades, but it was at Vintage Wings where she underwent the bulk of that work, including the entire refabrication of her wings, amongst many other difficult tasks. As is true of all of Vintage Wings of Canada’s aircraft, the Spitfire is dedicated to a single Canadian airman, by way of his story serving as testament to the countless sacrifices of so many other Canadians in preserving Canada’s freedom. Spitfire TE294, marked as Y2-K, represents the life of RCAF 442 Squadron pilot Flt Lt Walter Arnold “Rosie” Roseland who gave his life for King and Country over France on July 13th, 1944. For more on the life of ‘Rosie’ Roseland, please click here to read the Vintage Wings of Canada article on him, beautifully written and illustrated by Dave O’Malley.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this photo essay, and want to thank VWoC mechanic Pat Tenger for taking these beautiful images, and to Vintage Wing’s Dave O’Malley who graciously provided them to us. Many congratulations to Vintage Wings for their marvelous achievement, and to their newly reinvigorated road forward. And Happy 150th Canada!
