Canadian Warplanes 2: de Havilland DH.83C Fox Moth

de Havilland DH.83C Fox Moth

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3390171)

de Havilland DH.83 Fox Moth, Reg. No. CF-DIQ of Central Airway.

(Author Photos)

de Havilland DH.83C Fox Moth (Serial No. FM-28/2), CF-DJB.  Built in Canada in 1947, this Fox Moth was owned by a number of operators before Maxwell Ward (founder of Wardair Inc., a private Canadian airline company) purchased it in the 1980s.  Ward had the aircraft repainted to match the markings of his first bush plane (a de Havilland Fox Moth that he had bought in 1946 and used for several years until it was destroyed in a crash in the 1950s).  Ward restored this Fox Moth and presented it to the Museum in 1989.  (CA&SM)

(Author Photo)

de Havilland DH.83C Fox Moth (Serial No. 4033), C-FYPM, Vintage Wings, on display at the Ottawa Airport.

de Havilland DH.83C Fox Moth (1), (Serial A135) ex VO-ADE.

(Barrie Historical Archive Photo)

de Havilland DH.83C Fox Moth, Newfoundland Reg. No. VO-ADE, likely photographed at Gander c1941/42. Note the painted bow on the engine cowling. This a/c was purchased by the Newfoundland government and delivered in 1934 for an internal air service, managed by Imperial Airways. One of the service's pilots was pioneer Newfoundland aviator Capt Douglas Fraser. The air service was shut down early in 1941 and the Moth was loaned to the RCAF at Gander. A none too happy Fraser painted the black bow in mourning for the Nfld air service and Imperial Airways. The RCAF used the Moth until late 1942 when it was transferred to the RAF Ferry Command unit at Gander. VO-ADE has the distinction of being the first plane to land at Gander airport. (Darrell Hillier)

The Fox Moth was a biplane designed in the UK in 1932, as a light, compact, economic and reliable passenger aircraft. After the Second World War, Canadian Fox Moths were built with either skis or floats, for use as bush planes.

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