Fairchild 71C

[kitfox2009]

Probably everyone else knows this, but on a museum tour last week at Edmonton City Center Airport I noticed a restored Fairchild 71C. These aircraft were used extensively in northern bush operations in the 1930`s. The feature that caught my attention was the "wing folding" assembly that matches the Kitfox/Avid design almost identically. The front spar pin on the 71C is horizontal as opposed to vertical in our a/c`s.
And here I thought we had something unique. The design pioneers were 50 years ahead!!! I just posted 3 pics in my albums for those who may be interested in this snippet of history.

[Esser]

I was just in that museum a week ago too. Perhaps we were in at the same time and didn't realize it. I had a course I had to take in Edmonton and I grabbed a hotel across from city centre and low and behold there is a Beaver on a stick. So I went to investigate and found the museum.

It's a quaint little museum but it seems it's lacking in funds, volunteers, or both. They have for sure have some nice restored birds in there but I found that half the museum was used for some sort of storage on the north end and lots of the display cases were empty. Either way it is worth the $10 to look around. There are lots of things there and even if you briefly look at everything it will be over an hour visit. So I recommend it.

[t j]

Whenever someone comments that they would not ride in an airplane that the wings fold, I tell them that folding wings are a tried and true design. They have been around for at least 87 years now.


The de Havilland DH 60 Moth was a 1920s British two-seat touring and training aircraft. A useful feature of the design was its folding wings which allowed owners to hangar the aircraft in much smaller spaces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.60_Moth