Flights of inspiration

Next year marks the centenary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, which was officially born on April 1, 1924. The forthcoming December 2023-January 2024 issue of Canada’s History magazine will include an excerpt from Pathway to the Stars: 100 Years of the Royal Canadian Air Force, by retired RCAF Lieutenant General Michael Hood and Canadian business leader Tom Jenkins, who has a decades-long involvement with the RCAF.

The authors note that early in the First World War the Canadian Aviation Corps was an “absurdly small unit, made up of two officers and one mechanic” that purchased a single airplane and never saw battle. But developments in the wake of the war, including the growing recognition of the importance of aviation for diverse civilian and military purposes, led to the formation of the RCAF.

Pathway to the Stars includes one hundred stories that together mark the centenary. Our excerpt includes sections about First World War ace William Barker, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of the Second World War, and the Canadian-built Lancaster bomber that carried the largest airborne payloads during that latter conflict.

A life in stories

Recipients of the Reading Den are automatically entered to win one of three copies of Paper Trails: From the Backwoods to the Front Page, by Roy MacGregor, courtesy of Random House Canada. During his decades working for many of the country’s leading publications, MacGregor has remained connected to Canada’s land and history while sharing stories from its farthest reaches.