Category Archives: “Canadian Air & Space Museum”

Moving history

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A rare opportunity.  Big preparations today at the Canadian Air and Space Museum for tomorrow’s press conference and announcement timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.

Our special guest, of the aircraft variety, is the Silver Dart replica.  Built to honor the 100th anniversary of powered in flight in Canada, she flew on February 20th on the same frozen lake on Cape Breton Island.  Dedicated volunteers spent thousands of hours building the replica and we’re so very happy to have her on hand for our celebration.  Watch for some big news!

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I was really lucky to spend some time up close before we moved her to the big hanger.  Very surprised to see this modification.  Pretty sure it wasn’t on the original but I’m sure it comes in handy when you’re sitting in a completely open cockpit on a windswept lake in February.

Daily Planet

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I went up to the museum for a little bit before coming home.  The cast and crew of Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet was there filming tonight’s show in honour of the Centennial and Flight.

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Here we see Jay Ingram and Ziya Tong shooting a short piece.

I’ve been a fan of Jay’s work since I first heard him on CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks way back in the 80’s.  Unlike most radio and TV hosts, he really knows what he’s talking about.  He’s not the most polished of personalities but he comes across, both on screen and in person, as someone who is truly interested in what he’s doing and what his guests are saying.

The filming was for tonight’s show which airs on Discovery Channel at 7 and 11 pm.  I’ll be taping it – I might even be visible in one of the shots.

I’ll provide a link to the episode tomorrow.

Update:  The episode is available here

Not helping so far

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tsx01

Yep, that’s yours truly helping to open the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) this morning. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have helped the markets as they’re down about 112 points as I write this.

So the TSX invited us to celebrate the Centennial of Canadian Flight.  The museum gets some publicity and we all had a good time – except for having to drive downtown during the morning rush hour.

Big thanks to Monique who herded us through the process which is coordinated like a military operation.  9am – arrive.  9:05 – coffee and snacks. 9:15 – meet and greet with the President of the Exchange. 9:20 – presentation.  9:27 upstairs to the media section.  9:29:45 – start clapping.  9:30 – Museum Chairman Wayne Barrett touches a screen to open the market (keep clapping) 9:31 – stop clapping.  9:45 – get out!

An interesting experience.