Page 12 - June 2020
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Golden Hawks Goldilocks
In 1959, the Royal Canadian Air Force
The "Goldilocks" were a unique Royal Canadian Air Force
celebrated its 35th anniversary along with 50 aerobatic display team.
years of powered aviation in Canada. To mark
that special occasion, a team known as the The team was formed in 1962 at the training base in Moose
"Golden Hawks" were created and were first Jaw and were designed as a parody of the famous "Golden
equipped with 6 Canadair Sabre Mk.5 aircraft Hawks" team.
and later with the Mk.6 version. The airplanes This new aerobatic team was called the "Goldilocks" and
were distinctively painted in overall gold with a flew Harvard piston trainer aircraft.
stylized red and white hawk emblem painted
on each side of the fuselage. In 1960, with the
growing popularity of the "Golden Hawks",
their pilots received new Air Force blue flying
suits and red flying jackets that became their
trademark along with a new team patch. In 1964, with the conversion of pilot training to new Tutor
jet trainers, the "Goldilocks" were disbanded.
The "Golden Hawks" airshow typically lasted for
25 minutes. In spite of having been originally
created for only one year, the team actually
remained in existence until Feb 7, 1964, when
they were finally disbanded for financial
reasons. In total, they gave 317 air Golden Centennaires
demonstrations and they also became the first 1967 marked 100th anniversary of the creation of Canada as
RCAF display team to visit the USA in 1960. a nation. To celebrate this special occasion, the Royal
Canadian Air Force set up an aerobatic team, which was to
The team also had two support aircraft, a perform at 100 air demonstrations across the country. The
Canadair-produced CT-133 Silver Star (a license-
team was known as the "Golden Centennaires" and
built version of the T-33 Shooting Star), which primarily flew a formation of 9 gold and blue CT-114 Tutor
was also painted in team's colors.
jets.
Other aircraft in their displays included a solo CF101
Voodoo and a solo CF104 Starfighter. To contrast the jet
aircraft, two Avro 504K biplanes also participated in the
display. The team's last demonstration was in November
1967 at the American Nellis Air Force base in Nevada where
they flew together with the "Thunderbirds".
The "Golden Centennaires" were in fact the real precursor
of today's RCAF display team, the "Snowbirds".
The Golden Centennaires display team also had two CT-133
Silver Star support aircraft, which was also painted in team's
colors.
