The Vickers Vedette - a uniquely Canadian aircraft

There are icon Canadian planes that have made life possible in this vast country.   Planes like the Beaver or the Noorduyn Norseman are well known, but the first purpose designed and built plane for Canada was the Vickers Vedette.

The Vedette was one of the primary aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force between 1925 and 1938.  A major role for the RCAF in this era was conducting an aerial survey of the country and the Vedette was the plane that conducted this task for more than a decade.

This was not a fast aircraft, it maxed out at 150 kmh and apparently cruised at 135 kmh

Canadian Govenor General Earl of Bessborough visits Britannia Mines Sept...

1958 RCMP Musical ride at Hastings Park

A short home movie of the VE Day Parade in Victoria BC, May 8, 1945

I have been digging around old archive online looking for videos from BC's past. I have a YouTube channel filled with the stuff I am finding.

One of the more interesting ones is this home movie of the VE Parade in Victoria. It was filed roughly from the corner of Fort and Douglas. The Parade is going south on Douglas.

The last 30 seconds or so at Beacon Hill, very close to the Mile Zero marker

A flying visit to Garibaldi : a story of modern mountaineering

All Blacks play at Brockton Oval in Stanley Park, Vancouver BC January 2...

I really like this short clip of the game so many years ago. Yes, the Vancouver side was slaughtered. The score was All Blacks 32 Vancouver nil.

The game was played as the All Blacks were returning back to NZ after a tour of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England in the fall and early winter of 1935/36.

1937 ferry trip to Bowen Island, a parade, and a flag raising ceremony a...

Bing Crosby's visit to Vancouver in 1948

Royal BC Museum This Week in History Season 1

Reservoirs in the Sky a 1947 film documenting how Greater Vancouver Water District supplies water

This is a 1947 film about how the Greater Vancouver water system works.  Even though it is old, much of the system operates in the same way such as how the water gets under the 1st Narrows and 2nd Narrows

 From the British Columbia Department of Education Division of Visual Education and the Greater Vancouver Water District
Produced by Ken West
Script Theo. V. Berry and Norm MacDonald
Animation Larry Spencer
Technical Advisors Ernest Cleveland (first chief commissioner of the Greater Vancouver Water District and whom the Cleveland dam is named for), W.H. Powell, and G.M. Gilbert

 

Electoral Boundary Maps for BC from 1891