September 16, 2025: The event is called Wings and Wheels but for Walther Irie it’s all about the people.
Irie, president of the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association, got a lot of joy watching fathers, mothers and children walk around the grounds of the Tillsonburg Regional Airport during the annual Wings and Wheels Family Fun Day on Saturday.
“This is what it’s all about,” Irie said. “This is something we do every year and it’s a great way to bring the community together including a lot of other non-profit organizations who do so much for our community.
“We’ll probably have more than 3,000 people visit today and we’ve always attracted a lot of classic cars.”
This year’s event was extra special because the association is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
A non-profit registered charitable organization, the association is based at the Tillsonburg airport.
The association seeks to acquire, preserve, restore, maintain, display and demonstrate the North American Harvard aircraft associated with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in honour of those who served.
The Harvard is a training aircraft used extensively during the Second World War to train thousands of pilots who came to Canada to earn their wings before heading off to war. At that time, the Harvard was the most advanced, single-engine trainer.
The association also has a dive recovery team, a group of divers who research, search for and help recover downed military aircraft at the bottom of Canada’s lakes.
The team focuses on aircraft that were part of the commonwealth training plan.
Members of the team had an exhibit at Saturday’s event that included the wing fuel tank liner of a P51D Mustang that crashed June 10, 1952 and was recovered in June 2023.
The plane crashed in Lake Ontario as a result of mechanical problems. The remains of the pilot, Barry Allen Newman, has never been recovered.
Born in Manitoba, Newman was 23 and an experienced pilot at the time of his death.
The Tillsonburg Military History Club had an exhibit at Saturday’s event and Darrell G. Ball, a club member spoke about the various books that were part of the display.
Ball also proudly showed off a collection of badges and medals from his career with the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada.
Meanwhile, John Davis of Waterford was one of between 400 and 500 people who brought a classic car to the event – a 1987 Ford Cobra, a model of the 1965 Ford Cobra.
“I bought it at a bank repo in the United States and it had front end damage,” Davis said. “It took me three years to restore it.
“I’m a retired engineer so it has a voice-activated dash camera, a voice-activated GPS and a voice activated starter and now I’m working on a voice-activated door opener.”
The event also featured a kids zone, static aircraft displays and those attending were entered into a draw for a flight on a Harvard.
Article by Vincent Ball.
Article courtesy of the Norfolk and Tillsonburg News. Click here to read the Original Article.