Profile: The Great War Flying Museum

Great War Flying Museum Team

The Great War Flying Museum’s aim is to “keep alive, by preservation and education, the memory of those daring young men who served Canada so valiantly, and all the brave young men who pioneered military aviation”.

Recently they celebrated the expansion of their hangar and we took the opportunity to learn more about this Caledon gem.

Tell us about your business.

The Great War Flying Museum, operated by the Ontario Aviation Historical Society, is a not-for-profit volunteer member organization.

The GWFM was founded in 1970 by a group of Brampton Flying Club members. All of the founders were pilots, mostly private but several airline pilots as well. Besides being pilots all absolutely loved airplanes and WW1 airplanes in particular.

We open on the Victoria Day long weekend in May and close in mid September following our grand annual Fly-In and air display. Everyone is welcome, weekends and holidays throughout our season. Bring your cameras, children and grandparents.

What can people expect when they visit?

When you enter the grounds at the Brampton Flying Club there is a wooden structure designed to resemble a typical airfield flight hut in France or England at the time of the First World War.

Once inside, instead of the expected clutter of old office furniture, discarded flight jackets and tea- stained desks, the visitor will be led on a journey of discovery through various galleries and displays showing all aspects of military air life during that early period.

The collection ranges from flags and uniforms to models and fragments, from machine guns to lovingly embroidered mementos from wives and sweethearts.

The art collection alone is worth a visit, with prints, photographs, limited editions and posters of the era.

Our aim is to keep alive, by preservation and education, the memory of those daring young men who served Canada so valiantly, and all the brave young men who pioneered military aviation.

Tell us about the extension to the hangar?

We made the decision for the extension due to the extreme lack of floor space needed for aircraft storage and maintenance and because we are open to the public we needed an accessible washroom. We also took the opportunity to upgrade the electrical service, lighting, emergency lighting, lunchroom and other storage.

We are so grateful that we received funding from the Caledon Council Community Golf Tournament which covered almost half the cost of the project.

Great War Flying Museum is located at 13961 McLaughlin Road, Caledon | https://greatwarflyingmuseum.org

Mayor Thompson sitting in replica plane