Jim Milne remembers the first time he saw an airplane.
An eight-year-old boy standing in the schoolyard sometime in the late 1930s, a small government plane flew over his head.
“I’ve had an interest ever since,” Milne said.
That interest grew as he walked through the streets of Westfort during the Second World War. The Hurricanes and Helldivers flew so close, Milne said he could have hit them with a slingshot.
As president of the Northwestern Ontario Aviation Heritage Centre, which opened its doors to the public for the first time Sunday,that passion shone through as he walked people through the displays at the Waterloo Street building. It’s a tour that’s been five years in the making as the ten-person board has been busy collecting pieces and putting together the history of flight in the region.
“We are getting to the point now where we feel we have enough here (to display),” Milne said.
While some stories, such as Canadian Car and Foundry building Hurricane fighter planes for the Second World War, are well known Milne said the history of aviation in the region goes all the way back to 1910. Until the highway came through in 1935, any place not reachable by rail, canoe or dogsled had to use airplanes.
“Aviation was the main means of transportation into the Northwest,” he said.
The centre is also compiling video interviews with the region’s aviators so that a record can be kept. It’s open Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.
