High Flight Enterprises | A Tradition of Excellence Canada's Airshow Team Heritage

Reviewed by Mark Proulx

A Tradition of Excellence
Canada's Airshow Team Heritage
X12"
Hard Cover
734 Pages
ISBN 0-9687817-0-5

Canada has had a long and proud tradition associated with its military precision aerobatics teams, which began over 80 years ago. In 1919, WW I flying ace LCol. William Barker lead the first public display of formation flying in Toronto using "war trophy" Fokker D.VIIs. Today, Canada's Snowbirds continue to amaze millions of spectators around the world in their 9-ship formation of CT-114 Tutors. This new book, entitled A Tradition of Excellence, brings that history to life as it explores the past.

Daniel V. Dempsey, who is uniquely qualified to undertake such a massive task, writes this extensive work. He flew with The Snowbirds in 1980 and 1981 as Snowbird 9, one of the team's two solos. He would go on to lead the team in 1989 and 1990 through their 20th anniversary and 1000th official performance. The book has taken almost six years to complete and is the first work to completely detail scores of Canadian military demonstration teams. To ensure total historical accuracy sources were contacted throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. Countless hours were spent gathering photos, locating and interviewing dozens of former team members about their experiences.

The hard cover book, published by High Flight Enterprises, is printed on thick, high quality glossy paper. Slightly more than 700 pages are lavishly illustrated with over 1700 black and white and color photographs, many never before seen. Photos abound of F-86's, CF-101s, CF-104's and CF-5's just to name a few. Peter Mossman, an illustrator from Toronto, Canada, provides the color profiles for 42 different aircraft near the books center section. The profiles are superbly done, depicting each aircraft in their highly polished state, as would be the norm for an airshow aircraft. Many of the aerial maneuvers are illustrated from such famous groups as the Golden Hawks and Golden Centennaires. Many various Snowbird formations have been flown through the years, with each being shown in overhead views. The book includes complete photographic coverage of all prints currently completed.

This book is a perfect blend of photography and text. The author gives a history of each group chronicled with photos of pilots, groundcrew, squadron crests, patches and aircraft. I am sure that this book will offer months of pleasurable reading as there is so much information supplied to the reader. It contains an extensive listing of each of Canada's military airshow teams. Information includes the years and aircraft flown with serial number, base location and each pilot with their assigned positions. Of course, praise is also given to the ground crews that have kept the Snowbirds flying throughout the years with a listing of each of their names and the duties they performed.

I feel confident stating that this book has resulted in the most complete history ever written on Canada's airshow teams. For anyone interested in Canada's flying history or military precision aerobatics in general, this high quality book as an absolute must for your reference library. I highly recommend it without hesitation. Modelers will find the color photos and side profiles extremely helpful. Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) Dan Dempsey is to be complimented for undertaking such a huge task and writing a book in what I am sure is a true labor of love.

© Mark Proulx 2002

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This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016