The CMS is a proud member of:
There are 36 surviving Mosquitoes worldwide. Of the five in Canada, four are B.35 models. Like The City of Calgary's CF-HMS they were all built for the RAF. They never saw combat
during World War 2. They survived a fiery fate only because they found a new lease on life in Canada. They were purchased, modified for aerial survey and operated by Spartan Air
Services of Ottawa.
CF-HMS is the only Mosquito in Canada not to be restored. It is also the only Mosquito not to be returned to a military configuration. It creates an excellent opportunity to
showcase this aircraft in its most historical role - aerial survey.
Even in the 1950s, the Canadian North was largely unexplored and unmapped. Pilots flying in the Arctic drew their own maps, or added to the notes written down by other adventurous
pilots. Global positioning satellites, even reliable communications were unheard of.
Spartan Air Services Ltd. of Ottawa, was just one Canadian company formed after World War 2, with the aim of providing high altitude photographs, which would in turn, be used to
create accurate maps. Between Spartan Air Services and Kenting Aviation, a small air force of surplus military aircraft were assembled and sent north. When work finished in the
Canadian Arctic, Spartan's Mosquitoes headed to Kenya, Argentina, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
Many of the aircraft operated during the 1950s and 1960s ended up either destroyed in accidents, or restored back to their military configurations when the value and popularity of
'warbirds' began rising in the late 1970s. Of all the World War 2 vintage airplanes used in aerial survey, only CF-HMS remains untouched.
Although dusty and disassembled, CF-HMS remains a complete airframe.
(Richard de Boer)
