“When the Snowbirds rise together into a Canadian sky, they carry more than wings and smoke. They carry our history, our courage, and the quiet pride of a nation looking upward and seeing a little of itself in perfect formation.” – MJ Martin
A New Generation Arrives in Canada
Canada has reached a remarkable turning point in military aviation. On September 17, 2026, the Royal Canadian Air Force welcomed the first two CT-157 Siskin II aircraft to Canada. The aircraft, the Canadian designation for the Swiss-built Pilatus PC-21, will initially form part of a 19-aircraft advanced training fleet at 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. More importantly for Canadians who grew up watching nine red-and-white aircraft sweep across summer skies, the Siskin II has also been selected as the future aircraft of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds.
The name itself reaches deep into Canadian aviation history. The original Armstrong Whitworth Siskin was the RCAF’s first true fighter aircraft and became famous for its aerobatic qualities. In 1929, three Siskins formed Canada’s first military aerobatic flight. Naming the PC-21 the Siskin II therefore connects the Snowbirds of tomorrow with almost a century of Canadian formation flying.
A Turboprop That Thinks It Is a Jet
Calling the CT-157 simply a turboprop understates what Pilatus designed. Its Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68B produces approximately 1,600 shaft horsepower and drives a five-bladed propeller. Maximum operating speed is approximately 685 km/h, while maximum climb exceeds 4,000 feet per minute. More impressive for aerobatics is its structural envelope of +8 g to -4 g and a roll rate exceeding 200 degrees per second.
The aircraft uses hydraulically assisted ailerons and roll spoilers to deliver fighter-like control response. Digital power management and automatic yaw compensation tame many of the asymmetric forces normally associated with powerful propeller aircraft. Think of it as putting modern fighter controls around an extremely powerful turboprop engine. It can therefore be relatively civilized during circuit training, yet exceptionally aggressive when commanded through an aerobatic manoeuvre.
Its cockpit represents an even greater leap. The PC-21 incorporates a pressurized cockpit, anti-G equipment, onboard oxygen generation, modern multifunction displays, and systems designed to prepare pilots for contemporary combat aircraft rather than the analog aircraft of an earlier generation.
Siskin II Versus the Tutor
The contrast with the CT-114 Tutor is fascinating because the newer aircraft is not faster in outright maximum speed. The Tutor can reach approximately 763 km/h, compared with 685 km/h for the Siskin II. During current Snowbirds performances, however, Tutors normally operate between approximately 185 and 590 km/h.
The CT-157 is 11.21 metres long with a 9.11-metre wingspan and weighs approximately 2,280 kilograms empty. The Tutor measures 9.75 metres long, spans 11.12 metres, and weighs approximately 2,409 kilograms empty. The Siskin’s published range of 1,333 kilometres is more than twice the Tutor’s 648 kilometres.
The real distinction is manoeuvrability and energy management. The Tutor is a wonderfully smooth, relatively simple jet whose handling characteristics helped create the Snowbirds’ extraordinarily graceful style. The Siskin II offers substantially more sophisticated flight controls, enormous roll authority, modern avionics, and a much broader advanced-training capability. The challenge will not be making it perform aerobatics. The challenge will be creating a distinctly Canadian Snowbirds performance around a completely different aircraft.
A Different Kind of Snowbirds Performance
Formation aerobatics depend upon predictability, visibility, wake behaviour, power response, and precise control rather than maximum speed alone. Changing from a small jet to a powerful turboprop means the Snowbirds will have to develop new formation references, energy profiles, manoeuvres, spacing techniques, and probably a purpose-designed smoke installation.
There is precedent. Australia’s air force already operates the PC-21, and describes it as capable of sustained low-level flight above 320 knots and fighter-like roll rates beyond 200 degrees per second. That suggests the Snowbirds will have considerably more aerodynamic capability available than their elegant formation routine actually requires.
The aircraft may ultimately allow the team to combine its traditional close-formation precision with significantly faster rolls, more energetic vertical manoeuvres, and dramatic opposing passes. What should not change is the essence of the Snowbirds. Their spectacle has never depended upon brute force. It depends upon nine aircraft appearing to behave as one.
The End of One Era, and the Beginning of Another
The Tutor’s final Snowbirds season is 2026 after more than six decades of RCAF service. The government intends the future Siskin-equipped team eventually to return to the Snowbirds’ distinctive nine-aircraft formation, with the new demonstration capability expected to become operational in the early 2030s. The precise number of additional Snowbirds aircraft and their final demonstration configuration have not yet been publicly finalized.
That raises some intriguing questions for Canada. Should the future Snowbirds preserve the flowing, graceful choreography that made the Tutor era famous, or exploit the much greater performance envelope of the PC-21? Should Canada deliberately distinguish its nine-aircraft show from the six-aircraft PC-21 demonstrations flown elsewhere? And could the Snowbirds themselves become part of advanced RCAF pilot development rather than operating as a relatively isolated demonstration fleet?
Perhaps the most appropriate feature of the CT-157 is its name. Almost a century ago, Canada’s original Siskins demonstrated what a young RCAF could accomplish through precision formation aerobatics. Now the Siskin II will carry that idea into a new century of Canadian flight.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.