The Royal Canadian Air Force’s Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment is Canada’s answer to what was the UK’s Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment. Peter R Foster recounts two visits to the Cold Lake-based unit
I have had two occasions when I have had the privilege of working with the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, or AETE as it is generally referred to, at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Cold Lake. Both were unplanned and the result of changing situations.
In 1985 I, along with fellow photojournalists Lindsay Peacock and Paul Jackson, had been invited by the Canadians to cover Exercise Maple Flag. At the last minute, due to the lack of space available on the weekly Boeing CC-137 trooping flight out of Gatwick, they had to withdraw the offer. However, I said that I would still attend and would make my own way. The others declined to do the same.
I obviously made an impression because days later the Canadian Forces PR department contacted me and said if I could get to Halifax [Nova Scotia], they would get me to Cold Lake and, as a sweetener, would I like to also undertake an assignment with the Maritime Air Group. This I was quite happy to do – a story for another time perhaps.
I duly arrived at Cold Lake, h…
