This is a list of aircraft of Canada's air forces.
Aircraft are listed for the following organizations: *

Canadian Aviation Corps The Canadian Aviation Corps (CAC) was an early attempt to create an air force for Canada at the beginning of the First World War. The unit was created in 1914 and was attached to the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The CAC had a maximum strength of ...

(1914–1915) which operated a single

Burgess-Dunne The Dunne D.8 of 1912 was a tailless swept wing biplane, designed by J. W. Dunne to have inherent stability. One example was supplied to RAE Farnborough. License-built Burgess-Dunne models were used by the US Signal Corps and United States Na ...

tailless floatplane *

Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) 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 environmental commands within the unified Cana ...

(CAF) (1920–1924) while under the control of the Air Board. *

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) 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 environmental commands within the unified Can ...

(RCAF) (1924–1968) until amalgamated with the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; , ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The navy is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of February 2024, the RCN operates 12 s, 12 s, 4 s, 4 s, 8 s, and several auxiliary ...

and

Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...

to form a unified

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

. *

(CAF/CF) (1968–2011) until

Canadian Forces Air Command The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air force, 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 environmental commands within the un ...

renamed Royal Canadian Air Force again *

(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 The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

Royal Flying Corps Canada The Royal Flying Corps Canada (RFC Canada) was a training organization of the British Royal Flying Corps located in Canada during the First World War. It began operating in 1917. Background As the war progressed, Great Britain found that it ...

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, including the Article XV squadrons. From 1917 to November 1918 the British government funded and operated the

(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 504 The Avro 504 is a single-engine biplane bomber made by the Avro, Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during World War I totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind ...

s and one

Airco DH.6 The Airco DH.6 was a British military 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 light aircraft in the p ...

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

'' in Europe which consisted of two wings integrated into the normal

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 First World War. The Dolphin entered service on the ...

s, Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5as and

Airco DH.9A The Airco DH.9A is a British single-engined light bomber that was designed and first used shortly before the end of the First World War. It was a development of the unsuccessful Airco DH.9 bomber, featuring a strengthened structure and, cruciall ...

s 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, along with a batch of

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII is 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 ...

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 The Canadair CT-133 Silver Star (company model number CL-30) is the Canadian license-built version of the Lockheed T-33 jet trainer aircraft, in service from the 1950s to 2005. The Canadian version was powered by the Rolls-Royce Nene 10 turbo ...

Grumman CS2F Tracker The Grumman S-2 Tracker (S2F prior to 1962) is 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 conventional ...

, Sikorsky HO4S-3, and Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King 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 British military aircraft designations are used to refer to aircraft types and variants operated by the armed forces of the United Kingdom. Since the end of the First World War, aircraft types in British military service have generally been know ...

. 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 ...

-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 50 ...

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 purpose-built jet a ...

and the

Avro Canada CF-103 The Avro Canada CF-103 was a proposed Canadian Interceptor aircraft, 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 ...

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