News
A Royal renaming for Winnipeg aviation museum
Dec. 22, 2014, Winnipeg - Thirty years after opening the Western Canadian Aviation Museum on Ferry Road, Queen Elizabeth II has bestowed it with a new name: The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
December 22, 2014 By Metro News
The royal designation was months in the making, according to museum boss Shirley Render, but she was still stunned to receive the official confirmation.
“There was a letter with the words ‘Buckingham Palace’ at the top, and I just kind of sat there in awe,” she recounted for the crowd of dignitaries gathered for Friday morning’s renaming ceremony. “It was as if the Queen was right there in the room with me.”
Render said she hopes the royal designation will draw more attention to the museum, which hosts about 40,000 visitors each year to see its collection of bush planes and other vintage aircraft.
“It signifies that we are doing something for the betterment of Canada,“ she said. “Most people think that history is boring, but we actually have a very exciting aviation heritage. That’s the story that we tell, and we don’t want it to be forgotten.”
In addition to the new name, the museum will also be leaving its current home by 2017 for a new facility next to the passenger terminal at Richardson Airport.
