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Early in 2002 I found out that the
Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa had acquired more than 14,000 photo
negatives from Hawker Siddeley Canada Ltd. in the early 1990s. These
recorded many aspects of the former A.V.Roe Canada Ltd. umbrella
organization that included Avro Aircraft Ltd. and Orenda Engines Ltd. They
are stored in many small boxes and drawers in several places around the
museum.
Some sorting of these negatives had been done by volunteers soon after
their acquisition but only in a global way. I became a registered
volunteer and got the task of continuing this process. Was I in for a
surprise! Day after day I stared, like a Radiologist, at the lightbox -
passing my loop over the 4 X 5 inch negative with obvious delight,
sometimes boredom and yes, 'Eureka!' at times.
After several months I isolated approximately 3,000 negatives that applied
directly to the Avro Arrow and Orenda Iroquois developments. Further
sorting into Avro and Orenda, then into development, |
manufacturing, operating,
ceremonial/events, people, and then further subsets of these, led to being
able to pick about 360 really superb photos. These photos relate to
important events that tie into a 45 year memorial possibility. They are
the Arrow's rollout, the Arrow's first flight and the Iroquois'
rollout...yes there was an Iroquois rollout celebration, albeit with less
fanfare than the Arrow. Many of these were new to me and a delight to
behold.
BGM imaging in Ottawa is the designated photo processing house for the
museum
After some time/price negotiations with
BGM's vice-president Rip Jones, the negatives were supplied in three
batches. Paul Latreille , their experienced darkroom man, was assigned to
the job. Both BGM and Paul are to be commended for the effort they put
into this project. One never knows the quality of the positive that comes
from an old negative. Many times several exposures were made in order to
balance grey scales and saturations of black and white, so that later
computer scanning would have the best possible result. Furthermore, the
work was completed in record time. The quality of BGM's work coupled with
the photo retouching skills of Joe VanVeenen, our Graphic Designer, gives
you these wonderful snapshots of an unforgettable period in our aviation
history.
Peter Zuuring,
Kingston, ON, Fall 2002 |
