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Who We Are

The JET AIRCRAFT MUSEUM (JAM) exists to create and maintain a dynamic and living history of the modern age Royal Canadian Air Force and to provide permanent honour for those valiant Canadian men and women who flew these aircraft with distinction in periods of war, peace, and peace keeping. In short, our mission is to “Preserve, Educate, and Soar”.

JAM is a not-for-profit organization that has as its primary purposes the acquisition, display, preservation, maintenance and, most importantly, providing in flight demonstrations for the people of Canada now and for generations to come. The JAM mission is to combine the creation and operation of a museum, housing aircraft, historical artifacts, records, and salient memorabilia, while simultaneously keeping representative historic aircraft in the air whenever and wherever major aviation events are held across Canada and at appropriate international centres.

The Museum offers full voting membership to everyone interested in preserving Canada’s noble jet heritage. Governance is provided by a Board of Directors and Officers.

The Museum has been granted charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency. With this status and our organization’s plans growing daily we continue to seek support through memberships, donations and sponsorships.

Our Mandate Statements

Jet Aircraft Museum (JAM) will bring students, veterans, and the general public into contact with the science and technology of flight, the importance of aviation history and opportunities to witness and experience actual flight in a vintage jet aircraft.

Jet Aircraft Museum will restore, preserve, and maintain supportive exhibits in the tribute to the thousands of men and women who built, serviced, and flew these aircraft, and in memory of those who did not return.

Jet Aircraft Museum will maintain an education program to teach it’s members to restore, preserve, and service vintage jet aircraft, and teach grade-school students the properties of flight and structures by matching museum material to the Ontario Science Curriculum.

Our History

The model for the establishment of JAM is the immensely successful Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association (CHAA), which was created in 1986 and has preserved, trained pilots for, and flown and continues to fly this legendary Air force training aircraft at important aviation events in both Canada and the U.S. It is significant that the founder (Bob Hewitt) of CHAA and many of its senior volunteer members are among the founding leadership of the Jet Aircraft Museum.

The organization that was to become the Jet Aircraft Museum started meeting in the late fall of 2007. An opportunity had materialized for the acquisition of six T-Bird jet aircraft from the Government of Canada and favourable financing has already been established to facilitate this acquisition. This two seater jet trainer, Canadian built by Canadair in Montreal was the workhorse trainer for Canada’s Armed Forces for some 50 years.

With the decision made by the original founders to approve the purchase of all 6 T-Birds the weight of the task was made clear. It was at this point through reaching out to the aviation community to create a volunteer group that the Jet Aircraft Museum was officially formed. These volunteers then became members and plans were created on finding a home for the T-Birds and then getting them in condition to fly there.

After much searching a suitable home for the T Birds and other aircraft as they are acquired was established at the London, Ontario International Airport on December 2008. The support from the Greater London International Airport Authority and local community was strong from the beginning with many of JAM’s membership coming from nearby areas.

With a home base in place the focused turned to preparation of the 6 T-Birds for ferry flights to the hangar at the London Intl. Airport. Through late 2008 and all of 2009 crews of 6 members where sent up to work on all 6 planes at CFB Mountain View in eastern Ontario. After much hard work and dedication the first 2 planes arrived home at the London Intl. Airport on April 15th 2009. The rest of the year saw much more success as the final T-Bird completed its ferry flight on October 19th 2009.

The Museum has started ground and aircrew training programs and the establishment of rigorous maintenance, service, safety and operational control procedures. JAM anticipates that the T-Bird will be its main in-the-air demonstration aircraft until circumstances permit acquisition of other aircraft.

Looking to the future the ultimate objective of the Museum is to have one or more flyable versions of major jet aircraft used by Canada’s armed forces since we entered the military jet age in 1944 and Jets from other countries as well. These include Canada’s first, the Vampire, the CT-133 T-Bird, CT-114 Tutor and others.

Does this sound interesting to you?

Become a member now!

Board of Directors – Appointed June 2019

Congratulations and many thanks to the new board appointed at the recent Annual General Meeting.

Scott Ellinor – President

president@jetaircraftmuseum.ca 

Graham Rawlinson – Vice President

vp@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Darryl Smith  – Events

events@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Christine Morgan  – Secretary

secretary@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

 

Carol Ellinor – Treasurer

accounting@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Bjarni Tryggvason – Director Flight Operations

flightops@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Dennis Carey – Director Aircraft Restorations

restoration@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Jim Fisk – Director Projects

projects@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Glen Hall – Director Of Safety

safety@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Mark Girdauskas - Director Marketing & Media

media@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

 

 

Officers and Committee Chairs

 Ed Pilon – Public Affairs Officer

photos@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Marti & Doug Acton – Education Committee Co-Chairs

education@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Brian Rhodenizer – Aircraft Maintenance Engineer

northwindaviation.ca

Ken Kennedy & Kenny ‘Bones’ Smith – Front Desk

Frontdesk@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Dennis Ryckman – Webmaster

webmaster@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

We Can Fly Because Of You!

Thank you for the generous support of all our donors who believe that the Jet Aircraft Museum is a valuable part of our Canadian history. Are you interested in donating to the Jet Aircraft Museum? Looking for someone to contact about arranging bequests? Please contact Scott Ellinor by e-mail, president@jetaircraftmuseum.ca

Diamond Arrow ($100,000 +)

  • Robert Hewitt (Founder)

Gold Hornet ($50,000 - $100,000)

  • Concorde Batteries

  • New Horizons For Seniors Program (Government Of Canada)

Silver Star ($10,000 – $50,000)

  • Ontario Trillium Foundation

  • London Heritage Council

  • Butler Parachutes

  • Sherwin Williams Aerospace

  • Northwind Aviation and Marine

  • Takla Foundation

Bronze Tutor ($5,000 – $9,999)

  • Good Foundation

  • Air Force Heritage Fund

  • Westminster College Foundation

Lifetime Membership ($2500)

  • Robert Hewitt

  • Louise Hendriks

  • Fern Villineuve

  • Al Clark

  • James Leslie

  • Vijay Mistry

  • William “Turbo” Tarling

  • Larry Ricker

  • Richard Cooper

  • Ken Mist

  • Ken Kennedy

  • Kevin W. Moore

  • David White

  • Simon Pont

  • Laura Pont

  • Rachel Pont

  • Giorgio Clementi

  • Anthony Salotti

  • Gordon Hughes

  • Lew Benvenuto

Starfighter ($1000-$4999)

  • Ministry of Tourism and Culture

  • Garrison Community Council

 

Washroom Construction and Renovation Project

A huge thank you goes out to those listed below who helped us expand our washrooms to a larger capacity, as well as to install an expanded size woman’s washroom!

Gift Shop & Lobby Renovation Project

We would like to hank the companies listed below for their support in our Gift Shop & Lobby Renovation.

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