Aircraft of Little Norway

by Nils Mathisrud

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  Norway Constitution Day 2005 

 

After the German occupation of Norway in 1940, many young men deflected from the country to continue fighting against the Nazis. In November 1940 the Norwegian Air Forces Training Base was established at Island Airport in Toronto, Canada, to train flying personel and ground crew. Most of these would serve with the Norwegian squadrons in the RAF, but many would also go to regular RAF units. A variety of aircraft types were acquired, many of which had been ordered by the Norwegian Army and Naval Air Arms before the occupation. Fairchild M-62 Cornells were used for elementary training before the students went off to Canadian flying schools for advanced training. Back at Little Norway the Curtiss H-75A-8 Hawks and Douglas 8A-5s were used by Army pilots while their Navy counterparts were flying Stinson SR9C Reliants and Northrop N-3PBs for their final education. Other types that were used a couple of Interstate S-1A Cadets and a single Waco SRE. In 1943 the base moved from Island Airport to Muskoka, 150km north of Toronto.

Fairchild M-62 Cornell
Several types of the Cornell were used at Little Norway, and although not strictly correct the open cockpit variants are generally referred to as PT-19, the USAAF designation. The model is made from the MPM 1/72 scale kit of the PT-19A. Decals for Norwegian aircraft are included in the kit and are accurate although the painting instructions are not.

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Fairchild M-62 Cornell
Cornell No. 145 was built as an open cockpit PT-19A and was later modified with a closed cockpit. Thus it is generally referred to as a PT-26. The Special Hobby PT-26 kit is basically the same as the MPM PT-19A, with an extra vacuformed canopy. The canopy is moulded in a rather thick plastic, which makes it difficult to cut it out correctly. This kit also has decals for a Norwegian aircraft, but the decals are inaccurate, as well as the painting instructions. I thus made my own decals for this model. Note the difference in blue and yellow paint on the two Cornell aircraft.
Curtiss H-75A-8 Hawk
This model was made from the Azur kit of the H-75A-4 / Mohawk IV. Azur is one of the brands in the MPM range, and holds the same quality. The transparencies are vacuformed, but in a thinner plastic than for the PT-26. The rear side windows were a bit tricky to cut out correctly though. The “football” antennae is not included and was taken from another kit. Decals were self made.
Douglas 8A-5
This model was made from the MPM Douglas 8A-3N kit, with the Wright Cyclone engine and cowling taken from the Hasegawa Dauntless kit. Again, the decals were self made.
Northrop N-3PB
The Northrop N-3PB was designed to Norwegian specifications and the 24 aircraft built were all used by the Norwegian Naval Air Arm and the Royal Norwegian Air Force (although most of them under RAF command). The model was built mostly out of the box with a home made beaching gear added. The kit’s decals are for two aircraft of No. 330 (Norwegian) Sqn., RAF, based at Iceland. To finish the model in markings from Little Norway I painted the markings.

Nils 

Photos and text © by Nils Mathisrud