This is a list of aircraft of Canada's air forces.
Aircraft are listed for the following organizations: * Canadian Aviation Corps (1914–1915) which operated a single Burgess-Dunne tailless floatplane *

Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environme ...

(CAF) (1920–1924) while under the control of the Air Board. * Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) (1924–1968) until amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army to form a unified Canadian Forces. * Canadian Forces (CAF/CF) (1968–2011) until Canadian Forces Air Command renamed Royal Canadian Air Force again * Royal Canadian Air Force (2011–current) This list only includes aircraft owned by the Canadian government, and excludes aircraft flown by Canadian pilots serving with the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

, Royal Flying Corps Canada or Royal Air Force, including the Article XV squadrons. From 1917 to November 1918 the British government funded and operated the Royal Flying Corps Canada (later Royal Air Force Canada) which trained aviators on the approximately 1,210 Curtiss Canucks built in Canada, 120 Curtiss JN-4s built in the US, as well as two Avro 504s and one

Airco DH.6 The Airco DH.6 was a British military Trainer (aircraft), trainer biplane used by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. Known by various nicknames, including the "Clutching hand" and "Skyhook", many survived to be used as a civil ligh ...

built in Canada. In 1918 the Canadian government formed the ''

'' in Europe which consisted of two wings integrated into the normal Royal Air Force command structure, equipped with

Sopwith Dolphin The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin was a British fighter aircraft manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was used by the Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force, during the World War I, First World War. The Dolphin entered se ...

s, Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5as and Airco DH.9As supplied and owned by the RAF. It was disbanded in 1920. When the war ended some of these same types were offered to Canada as a part of the

Imperial Gift The Imperial Gift was the donation of aircraft from British surplus stocks after the First World War to the Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Empire of India. On 29 May 1919, the British Cabinet agreed to give 100 ...

, along with a batch of

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII qu ...

s captured from Germany, which aside from some illicit flights were relegated primarily to storage and use as instructional airframes. Independently of the RCAF, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) also operated aircraft; upon unification, CAF/CF assumed operational responsibility for all remaining RCN Canadair CT-133 Silver Star,

Grumman CS2F Tracker The Grumman S-2 Tracker (S2F prior to 1962) was the first purpose-built, single airframe anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft to enter service with the United States Navy. Designed and initially built by Grumman, the Tracker was of conventiona ...

, Sikorsky HO4S-3, and

Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King The Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King is a twin-engined anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter designed for shipboard use by Canadian naval forces, based on the US Navy's SH-3. It served with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Canadian Armed Forces f ...

aircraft.

Designations

During the First World War no official standards existed for the naming of aircraft and so all designations at this time were assigned by the original manufacturer and both numbers and names were used. From 1918, aircraft were given names based on a set of rules, and individual variants designated numerically as mark I, mark II, etc. as per RAF practice, including aircraft purchased from American sources. For more information on specifics of the system, see British military aircraft designation systems. Aircraft purchased from local sources often retained their original commercial names such as with the

Barkley-Grow T8P The Barkley-Grow T8P-1 was an airliner developed in the United States shortly before the Second World War. Although it saw limited production, the type was well-received as a bush plane in Canada. Design and development Typical for the era, the B ...

-1 or the

Waco AQC-6 The Waco Custom Cabins were a series of up-market single-engined four-to-five-seat cabin sesquiplanes of the late 1930s produced by the Waco Aircraft Company of the United States. "Custom Cabin" was Waco's own description of the aircraft which des ...

, particularly if purchased in small numbers, impressed or not purchased from the original manufacturer. CF-100 and CF-105 were

Avro Canada Avro Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1945 as an aircraft plant and within 13 years became the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 5 ...

company designations that preceded similar RCAF designations that became the basis for the Canadian Forces designations instituted in February 1968. Unlike the US designation system, there is only a single sequence rather than separate sequences for each role, and numbering started at 100, prefixed with C (for Canada) and a role letter or letters. According to R. W. Walker. 102 and 103 were not used in the CF system to avoid confusion with Avro's use of those numbers for the cancelled

Avro Canada C-102 Jetliner The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner was a Canadian prototype medium-range turbojet-powered jet airliner built by Avro Canada in 1949. It was beaten to the air by only 13 days by the de Havilland Comet, thereby becoming the second jet airliner in th ...

and the

Avro Canada CF-103 The Avro Canada CF-103 was a proposed Canadian interceptor, designed by Avro Canada in the early 1950s as a development, and possible replacement of the company's CF-100 Canuck, that was entering service at the time with the Royal Canadian Ai ...

interceptor project.Walker, R.W
Canadian Military Aircraft Serial Numbers CAF February 1968 to present
retrieved: 21 January 2014

Aircraft listing

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Greenhous, Brereton; Halliday, Hugh A. ''Canada's Air Forces, 1914 - 1999''. Montreal: Editions Art Global and the Department of National Defence, 1999. . * Griffin, John A. ''Canadian Military Aircraft Serials & Photographs 1920 - 1968''. Ottawa: Queen's Printer, Publication No. 69-2, 1969. * Griffin, John A., Robert H. Smith and Kenneth D. Castle, ''Canadian Military Aircraft: Aircraft of the Canadian Armed Forces; Serials and Photographs, 1968-1998''. Vanwell Publishing, St. Catharines, Ontario, 2005. * Hunt, C. W. ''Dancing in the Sky: The Royal Flying Corps in Canada''. Toronto, Ont.; Tonawanda, NY : Dundurn Press. 2009. . * Kostenuk, S. and J. Griffin. ''RCAF Squadron Histories and Aircraft: 1924–1968.'' Toronto: Samuel Stevens, Hakkert & Company, 1977. . * Milberry, Larry. ''Sixty Years - The RCAF and CF Air Command 1924 - 1984''. Toronto: Canav Books, 1984. . * Molson, Ken M. and Harold A. Taylor. ''Canadian Aircraft Since 1909''. Stittsville, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 1982. . * R. W. Walker ''Canadian Military Aircraft Serial Numbers'' url: http://www.rwrwalker.ca/ accessdate: January 2014. * Roberts, Leslie. ''There Shall Be Wings''. Toronto: Clark, Irwin and Co. Ltd., 1959. No ISBN.
Royal Flying Corps in Canada

External links

Royal Canadian Air Force - What IS that RCAF Bird Called?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aircraft Of Canada's Air Forces Royal Canadian Air Force Canada's Air Forces * Canadian military-related lists