At the start of the Second World War, the British government looked to the Empire and Dominions for air training support. Between 1940 and 1945, some 151 schools were established across Canada, with a ground organization of 104,113 men and women. At the plan’s peak, 94 schools operating at 231 sites across Canada involved 10,840 aircraft. The construction of the training schools was a massive undertaking in itself, with each site requiring the construction of several huge hangars and dozens of other buildings. At a cost of more than $1.6 billion, 131,552 pilots, navigators, bombardiers, wireless operators, air gunners and flight engineers graduated.

The massive one story timbered hangars that were built for these training schools used high grade Douglas fir from British Columbia. Today, as many of these halls are torn down, we are looking to find good homes for the salvaged timber that has been such an important part of the world history.