The National Air Force Museum of Canada is located at Trenton, Ontario, a town of about 20,000 on Lake Ontario between Kingston and Toronto. Since 1994 it has occupied a 15 acre (6 ha) site adjacent to the Canadian Forces Base. There are presently 22 aircraft on display, 36 memorials and cairns, and some 9,000 flagstones commemorating members, both serving and deceased.

Devoted to telling the story of military aviation, it has more than 40,000 artifacts from both Canada and abroad, including static aircraft, art, weapons, and military memorabilia. Not all can be displayed at once, and I’ve only given a sampling in these photos. The “crown jewel” is a 1945 Halifax bomber, retrieved in 1995 after lying 50 years in a deep lake in Norway, airlifted in bits and pieces to Canada and painstakingly restored over ten years, largely by volunteers. One of only three remaining of more than 6,000 built, today it serves as a memorial to over 50,000 Canadians who served in Bomber Command in WWII, nearly l0,000 of whom perished.

The Museum has undergone two expansions, with a third one about to commence: from September 2012 to April 2013 the Main Exhibition Hall will be unavailable, so visits are best planned before or after those dates. Admission is free; it is family-friendly, and receives about 40,000 visitors per year. To avoid any confusion, please note that it is NOT the now defunct “Canadian Air and Space Museum” formerly located in Toronto.

Here are two good web-sites: http://www.airforcemuseum.ca contains complete and detailed information, including the complete story of the retrieval and restoration of the “Hallie”. Another good site is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Air_Force_Museum_of_Canada .