CALGARY – It took The Hangar Flight Museum almost a year to raise the $400,000 needed to restore its CF-100 Canuck and now aircraft maintenance engineers are taking the aircraft apart so it can be shipped north.
Work on removing the wings started Thursday ahead of the aircraft's move to Wetaskiwin where the restoration will be completed.
"We just wanted to get good access to the wing bolts," said Ted Reynolds with Historic Aviation Services Inc. "So we have all the closing strips off on both sides which you know if anyone has tried to remove a rusted screw they know what that is so lots of drilling and everything but we got all that sorted out."
Brian Desjardins, executive director of The Hangar Flight Museum, says the plan is to have the aircraft restored to full static display quality. The City of Calgary contributed 75 per cent of the restoration budget.
"We are a civic partner, civic attraction so most of Calgary’s assets are stewarded, protected and preserved by the hangar flight museum," said Desjardins.
The Canadian-built fighter holds a proud history. Fewer than 700 were built and patrolled the skies over various parts of the world. It first flew in the 1950s and had a 30 year military career. The CF-100 Canuck was constructed to handle the extreme weather of Canada’s north but facing the elements in Calgary for upwards of 50 years has taken its toll.
Herb Grieder, events and operations manager at the museum, says the aircraft is rare. "Our aircraft is the CF-100 D and that stands for dual-control and that is the only one left that is a dual-control."
The restoration of the Canuck is expected to take three to four years and it will be shipped to Wetaskwin next week.
