It seems as though every big city has an aviation museum, and I have visited many of them during my travels. As wonderful as these museums are, seeing perfectly restored aircraft in far better condition than anything that ever rolled off an assembly line makes me long for something unique.
Happily, I came across just such a museum during a recent visit with StandardAero and GE Aviation, the inauguration of GE’s fantastic new engine icing test facility at Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. The GE/StandardAero team held a briefing for the assembled press the evening before at the Western Canada Aviation Museum. After a tasty dinner, we were treated to a personal tour of the museum's wonderfully well-worn and oddball collection.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
