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Canada Aviation & Space Museum, Ottawa
- Thread starter sksvlad
- Start date
sksvlad
Well-Known Member
You may have noticed a large black German WWI bi-plane bomber called A.E.G.IV, I took several photos of it. It is supposed to have 2 engines with 2 propellers, but presently has only 1 engine on display. Well, I had to ask why only 1 engine and got a cool story from the museum's staff.
It was captured intact with 2 engines and loaded onto a ship with 2 engines to bring it to Canada. When the ship arrived to Canada, the plane had NO engines (translation: they were stolen). It was brought to a military airfield with other German planes to be tested for any new features. Since Canadian pilots were not trained to fly these planes, they made mistakes and some died. The British (Canada was a Dominion at the time) issued a decree stating that all FLYABLE German planes were to be destroyed so nobody would die. They did burn other planes but this one was left alone because it had NO engines (was not FLYABLE). So it survived the destruction. The museum placed 2 NON original engines of WWI vintage for display purposes. Now it appears that there is ONE original engine somewhere, and the museum removed ONE engine in anticipation of getting a real thing (even though only one).
And that's why there is only 1 engine on display.
It was captured intact with 2 engines and loaded onto a ship with 2 engines to bring it to Canada. When the ship arrived to Canada, the plane had NO engines (translation: they were stolen). It was brought to a military airfield with other German planes to be tested for any new features. Since Canadian pilots were not trained to fly these planes, they made mistakes and some died. The British (Canada was a Dominion at the time) issued a decree stating that all FLYABLE German planes were to be destroyed so nobody would die. They did burn other planes but this one was left alone because it had NO engines (was not FLYABLE). So it survived the destruction. The museum placed 2 NON original engines of WWI vintage for display purposes. Now it appears that there is ONE original engine somewhere, and the museum removed ONE engine in anticipation of getting a real thing (even though only one).
And that's why there is only 1 engine on display.
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sksvlad
Well-Known Member
This section covers a guided tour of a hanger where the museum keeps things either not ready for display or things which will never be displayed (like Avro CF-105 Arrow wings standing along the wall). This hanger is about 100 metres away from the main museum.
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