Calgary’s first aviation museum, the Hangar Flight Museum, celebrated its 48th anniversary this past fall.
The celebration was held Nov. 18th and 19th and featured tours, storytelling, as well as the opportunity to walk around and read about the airplanes and aerospace exhibits. There were also family friendly activities that included building paper airplanes with launchers and playing with a wind tunnel.
“I love looking at the airplanes, both historic and non-historic in the sky, and I love the activities they had and how friendly the staff were. It’s a great way to get to know the Canadian historical aircrafts. And it’s very educational and very fun to go to,” said Iceberg Jacobson, a visitor to the museum at the celebration event.
Celebrations like this are not only historical events in the making but create new opportunities to allow both young and old generations to expand their knowledge and protect an important part of history.
History takes flight
The museum officially opened in 1975 by the Aerospace Museum Association of Calgary. From the beginning, it has been a place where people could come and learn about aerospace and the science behind it. It is a place filled with history from not only the airplanes, both replicas and restored original planes, but also the building itself.
In 2015 the museum underwent a rebranding and became the Hangar Flight Museum. The rebranding was meant to be more inclusive of all aerospace, which includes space exploration. In 2022, the museum became the new home of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.
Looking forward
The museum has also been introducing some new ideas on how to expand their range of aerospace. Since reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic, they have seen a steady increase in people coming to the museum.
Brian Desjardins, the executive director of the Hangar Flight Museum, said that there is predicted to be a 35 per cent increase of visitors from last year and hopes to see that number grow even larger as the museum expands.
With the increase in people, the museum wants to create a better visitor experience, including a focus on the youth. As aviation and the science of flight are part of the Grade 5 and 6 curriculum, the museum hopes to create more space to hold the classes that visit.
“We’ve had an education, youth programming to teach youth and inspire youth to follow careers in the aviation sector and aerospace sector,” said Desjardins.
With these expansions in place it will allow more people to learn about the history of the museum’s airplanes.