The Tillsonburg-based Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association is flying high
Apr 15, 2025: This year, the charitable organization, with the aim of acquiring, restoring, preserving, maintaining, and displaying North American Harvard aircraft and other training aircraft associated with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and the Royal Canadian Air Force, will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Several special events are planned for 2025, highlighted by a special open house fly day on Saturday, July 5, free for the public to attend. Details about other events – such as the annual fundraising banquet at the Tillsonburg Legion on April 26 and an Open House and Fly Day on May 10 – will be listed on the organization’s website (harvards.com).
The association was created in 1985 by a trio of aviation enthusiasts with a dream to preserve the Harvard aircraft to honour and remember the men and women who flew them and worked on them to help preserve our freedom. Today, the group maintains North America’s largest fleet with eight Harvards and one Yale at the Tillsonburg Regional Airport.
The association has volunteer teams focused on service, maintenance, restoration, dive recovery, and flight operations.
“Keeping these warbirds in flying condition is a colossal task,” says Walther Irie, president of the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association. “Yet our volunteers are dedicated to keeping the legacy of the Harvard alive, and preserving its historical significance.”
Known as the “workhorse” of Canada’s Second World War flight training program, the Harvard stretches back over 80 years. It played a significant and pivotal role as the primary advanced, single-engine aircraft used to train more than 130,000 Canadian and Allied aircrew under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada.
Article courtesy of Norfolk & Tillsonburg News. To read the original article click here.