05/31/2011. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Ordered by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, this aircraft was delivered in October 1957 as a Convair 440-3 corporate aircraft to the once second-largest US steel producer, registered N920BS. In September 1965 it was converted to a turboprop powered Convair 580.

It was sold to SKA Inc., in December 1970, reregistered as N916R, and was subsequently acquired by Omni International Corporation in 1973. On February 1, 1974 it was registered to a Canadian government organization, the National Research Council (NRC), for use by the NRC Institute for Aerospace Research (IAR). Initially registered CF-NRC, it later became
C-FNRC, presently the aircraft is stored at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The aircraft participated in the STAR project (Storm Studies In the Arctic), a program performed by researchers from NRC-IAR, Environment Canada and five Canadian universities to gain a better understanding of Arctic storms and improve weather forecasting in lower Arctic regions.

It was fitted with a wide range of instrumentation, including Doppler X and W band (NAWX) radars under the wings and some of the cloud microphysics and thermodynamics probes in the special rear fuselage pod pictured here. It flew some twenty missions in stormy weather conditions in Nunavut Territory between November 5 and 30, 2007."