CFB Trenton reports a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-130J Hercules aircraft will conduct a flyby in Windsor on April 29, during the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m., supporting a commemoration event, marking the 80th Anniversary of Operation MANNA, which was part of the liberation of the Netherlands. The event is organized by the Canadian Aviation Museum in Windsor, during which, the same CC-130J Hercules aircraft will be on static display after the flyby.
In the morning of April 29, 1945, in the final days of the Second World War, two Lancaster bombers took off from the United Kingdom, with a mission to deliver food to the starving people of Western Netherlands, who had endured a brutal Nazi occupation and a harsh winter. The first Lancaster to reach the shoreline was “Bad Penny”, flown by 21-year-old RCAF member and Windsor native, Captain Robert Upcott, who successfully completed the test run. The two Lancasters dropped their 40,000 lbs of food, marking the start of Operation MANNA.
The CC-130J Hercules aircraft will fly over the event at an altitude no lower than 500 feet above the highest obstacle within 2000 feet of their route. Flybys by RCAF aircraft are carefully planned and closely controlled for public safety and are dependent upon weather and flying conditions.
The CC-130J Hercules is a four-engine, fixed-wing turboprop aircraft that is used for a wide range of missions, including personnel transport, search and rescue, tactical airlift and aircrew training.
