List of aircraft of Canada's air forces

thumb|[[RCAF Golden Hawks Canadair Sabres]]

This is a list of aircraft of Canada's air forces.<br />

Aircraft are listed for the following organizations:

Canadian Aviation Corps (1914–1915) which operated a single Burgess-Dunne tailless floatplane
Canadian Air Force (CAF) (1920–1924) while under the control of the Air Board.
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) (1924–1968) until amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army to form a unified Canadian Forces.
Canadian Forces (CAF/CF) (1968–2011) until Canadian Forces Air Command renamed Royal Canadian Air Force again
Royal Canadian Air Force (2011–current)

This list only includes aircraft owned by the Canadian government, and excludes aircraft flown by Canadian pilots serving with the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Flying Corps Canada or Royal Air Force, including the Article XV squadrons.

From 1917 to November 1918 the British government funded and operated the Royal Flying Corps Canada (later Royal Air Force Canada) which trained aviators on the approximately 1,210 Curtiss Canucks built in Canada, 120 Curtiss JN-4s built in the US, as well as two Avro 504s and one Airco DH.6 built in Canada.

In 1918 the Canadian government formed the Canadian Air Force in Europe which consisted of two wings integrated into the normal Royal Air Force command structure, equipped with Sopwith Dolphins, Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5as and Airco DH.9As supplied and owned by the RAF. It was disbanded in 1920.

When the war ended some of these same types were offered to Canada as a part of the Imperial Gift, along with a batch of Fokker D.VIIs captured from Germany, which aside from some illicit flights were relegated primarily to storage and use as instructional airframes.

Independently of the RCAF, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) also operated aircraft; upon unification, CAF/CF assumed operational responsibility for all remaining RCN Canadair CT-133 Silver Star, Grumman CS2F Tracker, Sikorsky HO4S-3, and Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King aircraft.

Designations

During the First World War no official standards existed for the naming of aircraft and so all designations at this time were assigned by the original manufacturer and both numbers and names were used.

From 1918, aircraft were given names based on a set of rules, and individual variants designated numerically as mark I, mark II, etc. as per RAF practice, including aircraft purchased from American sources. For more information on specifics of the system, see British military aircraft designation systems.

Aircraft purchased from local sources often retained their original commercial names such as with the Barkley-Grow T8P-1 or the Waco AQC-6, particularly if purchased in small numbers, impressed or not purchased from the original manufacturer.

CF-100 and CF-105 were Avro Canada company designations that preceded similar RCAF designations that became the basis for the Canadian Forces designations instituted in February 1968. Unlike the US designation system, there is only a single sequence rather than separate sequences for each role, and numbering started at 100, prefixed with C (for Canada) and a role letter or letters. According to R. W. Walker. 102 and 103 were not used in the CF system to avoid confusion with Avro's use of those numbers for the cancelled Avro Canada C-102 Jetliner and the Avro Canada CF-103 interceptor project.

Aircraft listing

{|class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style=text-align:left" style="margin:1em auto;"

!Type!!1968 CF<br />designator!!Origin!!Primary<br />role(s)!!Introduced!!Status!!No.!!Notes

|Advanced Ceramics Research Silver Fox||||UK||Unmanned aerial vehicle|||2004||?||+||

|AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven||n/a||US||||n/a||n/a||n/a||

|AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma||n/a||US||||2018||n/a||n/a||

|AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant||||UK/Italy||Search and Rescue| helicopter||2001||14 in service (+2 on order)||||

|Airbus CC-150 Polaris||||France||transport/tanker||1992||5 In service||||

|Airbus CC-295 Kingfisher||||Spain||||2019||1 In service||||

|Airco DH.4||n/a||UK||bomber, utility||1920||Retired 1928||||

|Airspeed Oxford||n/a||UK||trainer||1939||Retired 1947||||

|Avro 504||n/a||UK||trainer, general utility||1920||Retired 1934||||

|Avro 552 Viper||n/a||Canada||forestry fire patrol, trainer||1924||Retired 1928||||

|Avro Lancaster||n/a||UK||bomber, maritime patrol, photographic reconnaissance||1944||Retired 1965||||

|Avro Lincoln||n/a||UK/Canada||bomber||1946||Retired 1948||||

|BAE Systems Silver Fox||n/a||UK||||2004||4+ in service||||

|Barkley-Grow T8P-1||n/a||US||transport||1939||Retired 1941||||

|Beechcraft Expeditor||||US||transport/trainer||1941||Retired 1972||||

|Beechcraft Harvard II||||US||trainer||2000||24 in service||||

|Beechcraft King Air||||US||transport/trainer||1992||7 in service||||

|Beechcraft Musketeer||||US||trainer||1970||Retired 1992||||

|Bell Iroquois||||US/Canada||transport helicopter||1968||Retired 1997||||

|Boeing Fortress Mk.II||n/a||US||patrol/transport||1943||Retired 1946||||

|Boeing Insitu ScanEagle||||US||||2008|| in service|| ? ||

|Boeing CH-47C Chinook||||US||transport helicopter||1974||Retired 1991||||

|Boeing CH-47D Chinook||||US||transport helicopter||2008||Retired 2011||||

|Boeing CH-47F Chinook||||US||transport helicopter||2013||15 in service||||

|Brewster Bermuda||n/a||US||bomber||1943||Retired 1946||||

|Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV||n/a||UK||bomber/trainer||1941||Retired 1945||||

|Bristol Freighter||n/a||UK||transport||1952||Retired 1967||||

|Canadair Argus||||Canada||patrol||1957||Retired 1988||||

|Canadair C-5 North Star||n/a||Canada||transport||1950||Retired 1967||||

|Canadair Challenger||||Canada||transport/trainer/patrol||1983||4 in service||||

|Canadair Cosmopolitan||||Canada||transport||1960||Retired 1994||||

|Canadair Sabre||n/a||Canada||fighter||1950||Retired 1977||||

|Canadair Starfighter||||Canada||fighter||1961||Retired 1988||||

|Canadair Tutor||||Canada||trainer||1963||11 in service||||

|Canadair Yukon||||Canada||transport||1959||Retired 1971||||

|Canadian Vickers Vanessa||n/a||Canada||transport||1927||Retired 1927||||

|Canadian Vickers Velos||n/a||Canada||patrol||1927||Retired 1928||||

|Canadian Vickers Vigil||n/a||Canada||trainer/transport||1928||Retired 1930||||

|Cessna L-19 Bird Dog||||US||transport||1954||Retired 1983||||

|Curtiss Seamew||n/a||US||transport||1943||Retired 1944||||

|Dassault Falcon||||France||transport||1967||Retired 1989||||

|de Havilland Dragonfly||n/a||UK||transport||1940||Retired 1945||||

|de Havilland Genet Moth||n/a||UK||trainer||1928||Retired 1932||||

|de Havilland Canada Caribou||||Canada||transport||1960||Retired 1971||||

|de Havilland Canada Dash 7||||Canada||transport||1979||Retired 1987||||

|Douglas Dakota||||US||transport||1943||Retired 1988||||

|Douglas Digby||n/a||US||bomber||1939||Retired 1946||||

|Fairchild 71, 71B & 71C||n/a||US/Canada||transport||1929||Retired 1942||||

|Fairchild FC-2, 2L & 2W||n/a||US/Canada||transport||1927||Retired 1938||||

|Fleet Fort||n/a||Canada||trainer||1941||Retired 1945||||

|Grumman Albatross||||US||||1960||Retired 1971||||

|Grumman Goose||n/a||US||transport||1938||Retired 1956||||

|Handley Page Hampden||n/a||UK||bomber||1941||Retired 1944||||

|Hawker Audax||n/a||UK||reconnaissance||1933||Retired 1943||||

|Hawker Sea Hurricane||n/a||UK||fighter||1942||Retired 1943||||

|IAI Heron||||Israel||||2008||2 in service||||

|Lockheed Martin CC-130J Hercules||||US||transport||2010||17 in service||||

|Lockheed Hudson||n/a||US||bomber||1939||Retired 1948||||

|Lockheed Model 212||n/a||US||transport||1940||Retired 1946||||

|Lockheed Shooting Star||n/a||US||trainer||1951||Retired 1955||||

|Lockheed Starfighter||||US||fighter||1962||Retired 1986||||

|Lockheed Starlifter||||US||transport||n/a||n/a||||Cancelled

|McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet||||US||fighter||1982||80 in service||||

|Mil Mi-17-V5||||Russia||transport helicopter||2008||Retired 2011||||

|Meggitt Vindicator II||||Canada|| (Target)||?||2000s?||1||

|North American Mitchell||n/a||US||bomber||1942||Retired 1963||||

|North American Sabre||n/a||US||fighter||1951||Retired 1953||||

|North American Yale||n/a||US||trainer||1940||Retired 1946||||

|Northrop Nomad||n/a||US||bomber, trainer||1940||Retired 1945||||

|Ryan Firebee||n/a||USA||UAV, target drone||1957||Retired||||

|SAGEM Sperwer||||France||target acquisition and surveillance ||2003||Retired 2010||||

|Sikorsky H-34A||||US||utility transport helicopter||1955||Retired 1971||||

|Slingsby Firefly||||UK||trainer||1995||Retired 2006||||

|Sopwith Camel||n/a||UK||fighter, trainer||1924||Retired 1929||||

|Sopwith Snipe||n/a||UK||fighter||1919||Retired 1923||||

|Supermarine Walrus||n/a||UK||reconnaissance, transport amphibian||1943||Retired 1947||||

|Waco AQC-6 Custom||n/a||US||passenger transport||1942||Retired 1942||||

|Westland Lysander||n/a||UK/Canada||reconnaissance, utility transport, trainer||1939||Retired 1946|||| -->

Griffin, John A., Robert H. Smith and Kenneth D. Castle, Canadian Military Aircraft: Aircraft of the Canadian Armed Forces; Serials and Photographs, 1968-1998. Vanwell Publishing, St. Catharines, Ontario, 2005.
Hunt, C. W. Dancing in the Sky: The Royal Flying Corps in Canada. Toronto, Ont.; Tonawanda, NY : Dundurn Press. 2009. .
Kostenuk, S. and J. Griffin. RCAF Squadron Histories and Aircraft: 1924–1968. Toronto: Samuel Stevens, Hakkert & Company, 1977. .
Milberry, Larry. Sixty Years - The RCAF and CF Air Command 1924 - 1984. Toronto: Canav Books, 1984. .
Molson, Ken M. and Harold A. Taylor. Canadian Aircraft Since 1909. Stittsville, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 1982. .
R. W. Walker Canadian Military Aircraft Serial Numbers url: http://www.rwrwalker.ca/ accessdate: January 2014.
Roberts, Leslie. There Shall Be Wings. Toronto: Clark, Irwin and Co. Ltd., 1959. No ISBN.
Royal Flying Corps in Canada

External links

Royal Canadian Air Force - What IS that RCAF Bird Called?