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Canadian military Challenger aircraft in flight

November 8, 2026

The Canadair Challenger: Civilian and Military

Forty-eight years ago today — November 8, 1978 — the first Canadair Challenger lifted off from Montreal. It began life as the LearStar 600, a business jet design by Bill Lear, who sold the rights to Canadair. Canadair renamed it the CL-600 Challenger, and a Canadian aviation success story was born — one that still flies today in both civilian and military colours.

Air Marshal George Owen Johnson portrait

November 8, 2026

RCAF Pilots from Woodstock

Woodstock, Ontario, produced a remarkable concentration of airmen for a city of its size — and one of the most important airmen in Canadian history. At least eight men with a solid Woodstock connection served as RCAF pilots in the Second World War, and seven of the eight were killed.