Snowplane

Imagine yourself sixty or seventy years ago and living somewhere on the expansive Canadian Plains. Think of a place remote and lonely. It’s winter and while there’s still a need to travel, the roads are blocked with drifts and anything with wheels useless till spring. A horse might do the trick, but it’s slow going. Walking? Those distances…are you nuts? The snowmobile has not been invented yet, so what’s a prairie boy to do? An enterprising fellow looks around the old machinery pile, thinks on it and in an epiphany moment whispers a word: snowplane.

Yes, SNOWPLANE, shouted with resolve and purpose this time. Soon after this crazy idea becomes reality and with that, winter travel made easier.

It’s practical no-nonsense solution and that it could be done on the cheap is a play right out of the frugal farmer’s handbook. God bless those who are thrifty and industrious. Everyone who grows up on the prairies is mechanically inclined (so says the legend), so that part’s covered too. That fellow made one, then a neighbour did similar and soon the idea spread.

So you take bits from an old pickup, some channel iron, maybe a few a sheets of plywood and what ever else you can scrounge up. Then add in a little elbow grease, a dash of ingenuity, and soon it takes shape. Voila, it’s a homemade wonder, perhaps even elegant in design and it did the job well.

A funky homebuilt Snowplane.

These were most certainly noisy and dangerous, but for those who work the land you take stuff like this in stride. It’s just another day on the farm where hazards are a daily occurrence and begrudgingly accepted. High speed crashes were always a possibility and that propeller could maim or kill, but they served a need well. How else are you going to get around swiftly?

There’s mention of early snowplanes on the prairies going back to the 1920s, but they seemed most popular in the late 1930s to early 1950s period.

With improvements in road maintenance and the introduction of snowmobiles in the decades that followed these were made redundant. Times were changing and once useful machines scrapped, donated to museums or more often hidden away in sheds and barns never to be thought of again.

This one’s set up with an aircraft style cabin and pusher propeller and pretty typical in that respect. Body styles could vary depending on the abilities of the maker, but otherwise they were all of a similar form. Where as most snowplanes were homemade, some were produced by commercial firms as well.

There’s as much wood in this one as metal work and overall it’s a pretty sleek design. The controls are rudimentary and there’s room for a couple passengers or supplies. Even though functional, we suspect it had certain shortcomings in terms of comfort. Was it heated and how smooth or rough the ride? Your guess is as good as ours. Still, it came in handy and a person might use it for errands, trips to town, church or school, for visiting neighbours or purely for fun.

Imagine it zipping across the prairies….we can! It’s bitterly cold, that crosswind hell, the drone of the engine becomes deafening and the ride less than smooth, but damn it’s convenient.

Sadly, the history of this particular machine has been lost to time. Those who made it are no longer with us and those who know of it have faded memories. We called around and everyone we spoke with knew of it but that’s about it. “As long as I can recall it’s been stored in that shed and I lived in that area during the ’60s.”

Still, we can piece together a rough-guess timeline by looking at its construction and other details.

A few features, suggest to us, that it’s from the post war era. Plywood, as used for the body, was a specialty product before, and therefor uncommon, but afterwards readily available and cost effective. Ditto for the plexiglass used in the windows, rendered cloudy and checkered with age.

The mechanical bits are telling and more than likely came from a de Haviland Tiger Moth trainer of that era. These simple planes were produced in big numbers (in Canada and elsewhere) before and during the war and unneeded afterwards, were disposed of cheaply as military surplus. Farmers snapped these up for salvage and no doubt many became fodder for homemade snowplanes.

Yes, the engine, a Gipsy Major, is upside down and that’s by design, with the cylinders below the crankcase. “The inverted configuration allowed the propeller shaft to be kept in a high position without having the cylinders blocking the pilot’s forward view over the nose of the aircraft.” Bransom, Alan, and from his book the Tiger Moth Story.

Other parts like the propeller and controls were pulled from the donor plane. This further reminds us that one should never underestimate the resourcefulness and creativity of rural folks.

What we could find scouring old papers and local history books tells us that the snowplane was used for mail delivery. The person who owned it was the local postmaster, so that seems to fit, but otherwise we came up empty in regards to a sold backstory. That drives us crazy and we fully expect this post may be subject to revisions should new data come to light.

It’s not known when the the machine was parked but at some point during the 1960s would be a fair bet. No one we chatted with recalled ever seeing it running, but confirmed having knowledge of it going back as much as fifty years. If the assumption is correct, they got perhaps fifteen years of use from it, give or take, and it’s sat ever since.

It does look complete and perhaps with a little TLC could be made to function again. If one had crazy streak in them…go full throttle and let’s see what this baby can do!

Those old pop bottles in the corner appear to be from the late 1930s to early 1950s period (we found dated examples online showing this exact logo) and show the markings of a regional beverage firm. Someone liked their soda…

It’s an incredible shed find.

Given how tight spaces were in the building we had break out the ultra-wide to get the entire snowplane in frame, but even then had to be contortionists to make it work. There’s some distortion going with such a specialized lens, but it’s the price you pay.

Pros: this machine is incredible and the first of it’s kind we’ve seen in the wild. Cons: regrets that in spite of our best efforts, we could not share more history or background info. This is something we’re seeing more and more with the passing of old timers and while we’re doing what we can to record what we can, much is being lost.

Know more (new window): Prairie Snow Planes – while similar in form and size, they varied widely in design.

Drop by often for new and fun content being posted regularly.

They’re saying…

“They present well researched articles that do a lot to preserve our history and heritage which is very important…” Lynn Bardsley Redekopp.

More vintage stuff…
CF-5 Freedom Fighter – Planes!
CNR #1158 at the Western Development Museum – Trains!
Industrial Works Dragline – Plus a monster digging machine.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: July, 2020.
Location: Middle of Nowhere, AB.
Article references and thanks: Ann S, Mike S along with local history books and the many locals we chatted with.

The engine and other parts were salvaged off an airplane.

Not much room to move.

The body is of plywood.

In this corner.

From the 1930s to 1950s period.

A peek inside at the driver’s position.

The engine is inverted (upside down) by design.

A look at the skis.

Imagine zipping across the prairies…

It’s been forgotten and sitting for decades.