It took seventeen years to restore this Avenger

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Collection of Mount Hope (Hamilton International airport) celebrated the first flight of their Grumman Avenger C-GCWG on 1 May 2026.

Its restoration has taken as long as seventeen years. During this first flight the machine was flown by James Bradley.

The museum's Avenger (c/n 3920), a TBM-3E built in 1945 by General Motors, flew with the US Navy as BuNo 53858 until the early 1950s. After its military career, it was converted to a fire bomber with the installation of chemical tanks in the bomb bay.

It fought fires for Hemet Valley Fire Services as N3357G (Tanker #72) in California from 1963 to 1972. In 1976, it was purchased by Forest Protection Ltd. in New Brunswick who used it as C-GFPR for budworm spraying (Tanker #4).

It was retired from commercial service in 1992 and purchased by Didier Chable of the French aircraft preservation group AMPAA of Melun Villaroche in 2000. However, the aircraft, then registered as F-WQDN, remained in Canada in storage and Chable decided to sell it as a project in 2007. The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum acquired the Avenger with the help of a generous donor in 2009. It was trucked from New Brunswick to Mount Hope in October of that year and restoration was immediately taken up.

The Avenger while flown as N3357G by Hemet Valley Forestry Services as Tanker #72.

In October 2009 F-WQDN was trucked to Canada after a planned restoration by the AMPAA of Melun-Villaroche was cancelled.

The Avenger has been restored as #86180 of the Royal Canadian Navy in an anti-submarine configuration that flew with 880 and 881 Squadrons. It serves to commemorate the 125 Avengers operated by the RCN from the shore and aboard the Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent.

Photos: Canadian Warplane Heritage