Performers

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds

2022 Theme - A Tradition of Excellence

The team will perform thrilling aerobatic shows, and breathtaking fly pasts over our nation’s capital on Canada Day, and cities and towns across North America. Look for the commemorative CT-114 Tutor jet with the Canada 150 paint scheme appearing at select locations.

Following in the footsteps of the Golden Centennaires air demonstration team, formed in 1967 to celebrate Canada’s Centennial, the Snowbirds are honoured to uphold their proud legacy. We are eager to inspire all Canadians by showcasing the skill, professionalism, and teamwork of the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces.

We invite you to meet our team of highly skilled pilots, technicians, and support personnel from all over our country. Their dedication to excellence is embodied in the awe-inspiring formations of red and white jets in the sky over head. 

Join us, your 2022 Canadian Forces Snowbirds, as we proudly honour our strong military heritage during this year of sesquicentennial celebrations.

Northern Stars aerobatic team

Team Lead - Brent Handy

2022 will mark Brent’s 9th season as an unrestricted aerobatic performer. The Pitts Special is THE air show airplane to inspire young and old to pursue their passions.

Wingman #2 - Todd Farrell

2022 will mark Todd's 4th season as a Level 2 aerobatic performer. His goal is to inspire his spectators through his flying to achieve the “unachievable”.

Wingman #3 - Greg Hume-Powell

Greg is the newest addition to the Pitts team. Greg brings over 4,500 hours of flying experience as well as over 1000 hours of airshow experience to the Northern Stars Aeroteam.

“We’re extremely excited to be returning to the skies over Springbank again in 2022. Springbank has long been a favorite venue as a performer. The all-volunteer crew does an amazing job hosting both performers and fans, showcasing wonderful Alberta hospitality. We are especially excited to introduce our new formation aerobatic team - The Northern Stars - to Springbank. Our all-veteran team will fly 3 Pitts Special biplanes in exhilarating formations, showcasing the skill and precision that was bred into us as military pilots. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we enjoy flying.”

skyhawks parachute team

The SkyHawks Team is doing a return to performance this year and will continue to demonstrate the highest level of professionalism, dedication and teamwork through daring parachute performances at air shows, sporting events, and festivals across Canada.

Assembling the team is a complex and difficult endeavour. Team members are selected early in the year and undergo extensive training prior to the start of the season to ensure the highest level of professionalism and proficiency allowing them to perform complex parachute manoeuvres safely.

In 2021, the Canadian Armed Forces cancelled the Canadian Armed Forces Parachute Team performance season 2021 as a result of public health and other considerations related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Team is eager to resume its performance as this year will be a very special one. It will be a landmark year as they celebrate 50 years of performances. The SkyHawks look forward to rekindling their strong relationship with event organizers and the Canadian public.

NORTH AMERICAN P-51D MUSTANG

The classic P-51 Mustang is one of the greatest success stories of military aviation. Originally designed for Great Britain, the North American fighter was adopted by the U.S. Army Air Force and upgraded with the powerful, reliable Rolls-Royce Merlin which powered the Supermarine Spitfire. With altitude, range, and performance, the Merlin Mustang became a world beater.

Ironically, the P-51 owed its existence to a Royal Air Force query for North American to build Curtiss P-40s at a time when British forces were being pushed off the European continent in 1940 and badly needed additional armament. North American proposed a better performing aircraft and quickly drafted the NA-73.

The Allison-powered Mustang flew 12 months after the first RAF query and logged its first combat missions in May 1942. Intended for reconnaissance, their primary "armament" was a camera , though two .30 and two .50 caliber guns were installed. Eventually 15 RAF squadrons flew the type. Meanwhile, the Army Air Force tested the XP-51 and was impressed with its performance, which exceeded the P-39 and P-40 and some marks of Spitfire in low-level performance. Beginning in 1943 the USAAF began operating photo-reconnaissance Mustangs (originally the Apache in US service) and A-36 Invader dive bombers, also with Allison engines. However, the promise of improved high-altitude performance had been noted, and a Merlin-powered XP-51B first flew in late 1942. Production B and C models began rolling out of the Inglewood and Dallas factories in 1943, and by year end the 354th Pioneer Mustang Group was escorting heavy bombers over Germany. The D model, with its 360-degree full-vision canopy, appeared in March 1944 and replaced the "razorback" models by year end.

SPECIFIC HISTORY

The museum's P-51D Mustang was built under license to North American in 1944 by Australia's Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) in Melbourne, Australia. The aircraft participated in Atomic Bomb testing by the Australians after WW II and served 10 years as a target tow plane before falling into private ownership, being acquired by the museum in 1983.

VOUGHT F4U-7 CORSAIR

Serving mainly in World War II in the Pacific Theater, the F4U Corsair was the finest carrier-base fighter deployed by any navy and became a fast, versatile and deadly performer and perhaps the best of any U.S. fighter in that conflict. Together with the F6F Hellcat, the Corsair was responsible for the destruction of 7,295 enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat and, in downing enemy planes, it achieved a “kill-to-loss” ratio of 11 to one, the highest for any fighter plane of World War II. The Corsair first flew in May 1940 and at 440 mph, it was one of the fastest fighters of the war with a longer range than any of its counterparts in the Japanese fleet, a distinct advantage in the vast Pacific Ocean where it was most active. The most instantly recognizable feature of the Corsair was its inverted “gull wing” which accomplished two purposes: (1) it permitted a shorter landing gear while still allowing a 13-foot propeller, the biggest fitted to a fighter at the time, to clear the ground, and (2) provided aerodynamic benefits for greater streamlining. Because of the distinctive sound made by air passing through the engine’s cooling ducts, the Japanese nicknamed it “Whistling Death.” Much of the Corsair’s long nose was occupied by a single self-sealing fuel tank holding 237 gallons. This feature, together with a cockpit that was set well back along the fuselage in early models caused visibility ahead and down to be poor and contributed to the aircraft’s initial carrier landing problems and was corrected in later variants. It was not until 1944 when flatter carrier landing techniques were perfected that F4Us were used aboard U.S. Navy carriers in greater numbers, mainly in response to the growing Kamikaze attacks in the Pacific. Before production ended in 1952, the longest production run for a U.S. fighter, a total of 12,571 Corsairs were built.

SPECIFIC HISTORY

The museum’s Corsair is an F4U-7, one of the rarest surviving variants from the last of 94 built in 1952 exclusively for use by the French Navy. It saw combat in the Indo-China War in 1953-54, the Suez Canal War in 1956 and later in the Algerian War. Taken from combat service in 1963, it was flown to England where reconstruction began in 1974 to include rebuilding extensive damage forward of the firewall and repairs to three bullet holes in the fuselage. Restored to its original French markings with invasion stripes which it sported in the Suez War, it was repainted to the Marines’ colors after its acquisition by the museum in 1994 and recently painted in memory of Jesse Brown, Naval Aviator, the first African-American killed in the Korean War.

kyle fowler - go ez aerobatics

Kyle Fowler began following his father’s footsteps at a very young age.  Looking to his father, Ken Fowler of Team Rocket, as his role model, Kyle moved forward with his dreams of becoming an Aerobatic Pilot by the age of 12, announcing his father’s performance at several Airshows.  Then at the age of 21, his dreams began to manifest.  Kyle obtained his Private Pilot’s License, with Eric Hansen of Team Rocket, as his flight instructor, and began his journey toward his Airshow career.

In 2015, Kyle dedicated his time to evolve as a pilot and completed his Commercial Pilot’s License.  This opened more doorways and drove Kyle to complete his Commercial Multi IFR Rating the same year.

Currently, Kyle successfully manages his aviation time between flying a PA-31 Navajo Chieftain, a 1946 Cessna 120 and his unique 1986 Long EZ.  When he is not evolving as a pilot, Kyle divides his time between his full-time job as a Red Seal Journeyman Automotive Mechanic, and his family.  Kyle’s family is incredibly proud of his accomplishments and will always be his biggest fans, they can often be seen looking to the skies in awe of their hero.