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About Us

About Us

Airplanehunter.org is made up of aviation experts, project managers, video producers, writers, camera operators, professional divers, veterans, researchers and aviation museum directors. Our objective is to honour our veterans with the recovery and restoration of classic historical aircraft. We are the TimeKeepers of History, building a video library for the future.                                                     

                                                           

Our team leader is Karl Kjarsgaard, who is world renowned for his endless dedicated search to recover aircraft from the war. On the team from the RCAF is Chris Charland and his wife Colleen and Scott Knox from The ReBuild Shop. Many others contribute time and effort to this important educational project.  

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Karl Kjarsgaard
Halifax 57 Rescue
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Karl is a former Air Canada Senior Captain with over 20,000 hours of flight time.  He has been involved in searching and recovering World War II Halifax aircraft since 1990. Karl was instrumental in the recovery of Halifax NA337 from Norway and Halifax LW682 in Belgium.  
Setting up roots in Nanton, Alberta, he became a Director of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada where his goal is to find and rebuild a second Halifax for Western Canada. The NA337 aircraft from Norway is now part of the RCAF Museum in Trenton Ontario, Canada. He is  
presently recovering a Halifax off the coast of Sweden and his work includes the delivery of plaques and material for the building of monuments in London and Lincoln England, Richmond Virginia, Florida, Colorado and at the RCAF Command Centre in Ottawa Canada.

Chris Charland
Halifax 57 Rescue - Director

Chris is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and is an expert on  aviation, warbirds and Halifax Aircraft. As a writer and documentarian  for the RCAF, Chris has been a part of the organization since 2001.  
Colleen Charland has helped Chris on many of the important aspects of Halifax 57 Rescue's projects.

Lilly Yang
Host / Co-Producer
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Lilly is a 4th year Ryersen student studying communications and is working as one of our hosts for the Airplane Hunters Show. Her segments include airshows promoting our recovery  project in Sweden, and she has co-produced videos on Halifax NA337, the C17 and the C30 aircraft at  RCAF Trenton 8 Wing.  

Scott Knox
Knox Tech, Ottawa

Scott is in charge of restoring the aircraft wings required to build the second complete Halifax for the Nanton, Alberta museum. Working at his warehouse location in Ottawa, Scott works with co-host Shelli and a small team of volunteers reconstructing this formidable challenging component of the project.

Kendra Davis
Host

Kendra is from Calgary and works as our host with Karl Kjarsgaard at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton Alberta. Watch Kendra as  she experiences sitting in the cockpit of a running four engine WWII  Lancaster.

John Stemple
 20th Century Aviation Magazine, USA

20th Century Aviation Magazine was created by a North Carolinian named John Richard (aka "J.R.") Hafer. He was a general aviation pilot and flying enthusiast.

Originally an Internet blog, the online publication morphed into a non-profit organization shortly after John T. Stemple was recruited as a contributing photojournalist and military aviation historian. Mr. Stemple is an aviator who was born in Dayton, Ohio, a city that is recognized as the "Birthplace of Aviation". He contributed much material to 20th Century Aviation Magazine related the thousands of Americans who voluntarily joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Air Force during the Second World War. His research activities and conversations eventually resulted in 20th  
Century Aviation Magazine partnering with Karl Kjarsgaard and Bomber Command Museum of Canada. The mutual goal was to honour the aforementioned men and women. Shortly before J.R.'s passing in 2018, 20th Century Aviation Magazine ceased activities.

John Stemple is currently working as the USA Representative and writer/researcher for  
Airplanehunters.org.
 

George Roshkoff 
Aircraft Restoration Expert

George is a former member of Halifax 57 Rescue who was a major part of the reconstruction of Halifax NA337 based at RCAF Trenton. His hard work continued on with a series of accomplishments with the present reconstruction of our Halifax.

You can see George in a series of videos presented in the ReBuild Shop recorded in Trenton and Ottawa.

Richard de Boer

Richard de Boer is the director for the restoration of a Mosquito Fighter Bomber taking place at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta. 

Several volunteers work each week Museum restoring this rare Mosquito aircraft.

Halifax 57 Rescue
Video Division

Jim and Debby from The Halifax 57RescueVideo division have been working with Karl Kjarsgaard since 1995. Video documentaries and classic interviews have been recorded by the team including Halifax NA337 in Norway, Halifax LW682 in Belgium, The Bomber Command Memorial in London, England, the Battle of Ortona in Italy, The Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, the Baltic Sea recovery off the coast of Sweden, the Bomber Command Museum  
in Nanton, Alberta, the RCAF Museum in Trenton, Ontario and the Bomber  Command Center in Lincoln, England.

The Map Guys

Doug Hoult and his Grandson Ethan are the Map Guys. The have collected a series of excellent maps showing the bombing missions and detailed routes as they attend the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta every August. Veterans interviews are connected to the Map Guys as they use their collection to show where airmen were shot down, captured and transported to POW camps across Europe.

SCSC - Sweden Coast and Sea Center Diving Club

SCSC is a team of professional and hobby divers known for their work in Sweden and around the world. Their mission now is to recover a Halifax Bomber off the south coast of Sweden using a Danish Tugboat and smaller craft from Sweden.

Bomber Command Museum of Canada

The Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta is where the latest Halifax will be restored and put on display along with their classic 4 Engine Lancaster. Nanton is the home of some of the most dedicated aviation enthusiasts in the world who have volunteered their  
time to build this magnificent museum.

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                           The River Thames - Denmark                                             Peter Normann - Euro-Producer

Gustav Frederiksenl is the Captain of the Diving                                                     Peter Normann is a video producer from Denmark.
Platform and Pilot Boat, River Thames. Gustav is                                                     He is working with Halifax 57 Rescue on the
providing his boat for the Baltic Sea recovery                                                        development of recovering the Baltic Sea recovery.
of a downed WWII Halifax aircraft.  Gustav is
also a part of the international Enviro-Station 257
Project on TimeKeepers Canada.                                                                       

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