On 26 July 2003, Janusz Zurakowski Park was officially opened in Barry's Bay, Ontario, with a memorial to him and a model of the CF-105 Avro Arrow supersonic aircraft, Canada's most famous aircraft, which Janusz Zurakowski tested.

Colonel Janusz Żurakowski (1914-2004); graduated from the Air Force Reserve Cadet School in 1935, and two years later from the Air Force Officer Cadet School in Dęblin. After his promotion, he was assigned to the 161st Fighter Squadron of the 6th Airborne Regiment in Lwów. He took part in the September campaign, then made his way to the UK and served in the Royal Air Force. From August 1940, he flew with the 234 Squadron of the RAF. During the Second World War, he scored 3 shoot downs, 1 probable and 1 damaged aircraft and thus occupied the 75th position on the so-called Bajan List (the list of Polish pilots with the highest number of shoot downs of German aircraft in the Battle of Britain).

Janusz Żurakowski in his book Nie tylko o lataniu (Polish Publishing Fund in Canada, Toronto 2002) describes the shooting down of his first enemy aircraft as follows:

"The critical day for British aviation was 15 August. On that day Goering sent 1,800 German aircraft over England: more than 500 bombers surrounded by a cloud of fighters. A fierce air battle began, in
in which the British lost 183 aircraft (+ 53 probably), with the loss of only 34 of their own machines.
On this day I experienced my first air battle and my first victory. Our squadron - 234, in Middle Wallop, is taken by surprise: the German planes came in low and the radar gave us no warning. A large grouping of Messerschmitts had already started bombing the airfield. In a panic we run
to the planes. The take-off is hurried, without formation, as whoever has time.
I reach the plane and take off. Bombs are raining down on the airport, fortunately not very effectively. I rise at full power and look for the enemy. At an altitude of about ten thousand feet I encounter a defensive circle, consisting of ME 110s (7 to 9 aircraft). The two-seater ME 110 had fixed armament at the front and a gunner with
two mobile guns at the rear.
My opponents had not yet managed to close the circle, so I attack from the rear - the last one. I must have shot down the gunner and severely damaged the aircraft, as the pilot - diving to the ground - leaves his defensive formation and heads south in a basket flight. I dart after him and attack twice. The fuselage of the Messerschmitt looks as if it has been chopped up with an axe, but the plane goes on flying. At this moment, a second spitfire approaches and attacks the same aircraft; I recognise from the letters on the fuselage that it belongs to Squadron 609.
We fly over the Channel and see that a ship has opened fire towards the Messerschmitt. We are within firing range and have to move away, but as soon as the ship stops firing I attack again: the propeller of one of the enemy engines stops spinning, the plane hits the ground on the Isle of Wight and so ends our chase. We return with a second spitfire. At one point my companion takes off his oxygen mask and I recognise by his long nose that he is Piotr Ostaszewski from Squadron 609."

From 5 June to 28 December 1942, Żurakowski commanded the 316th 'Warsaw' Fighter Squadron. In 1943 he was promoted to captain and assigned as deputy wing commander at Northolt.

In later years he became an experimental pilot. He was an aviator of most types of RAF fighters and British and American naval aircraft. Known for his aerobatic skills, he developed and performed new figures - the Zurabathic Carthweel and the Falling Leaf, previously considered impossible in the eyes of experts. His demonstrations at Farnborough have gone down in legend. He also broke the London-Copenhagen-London flight speed record. He flew nearly a hundred new aircraft designs. Among them the first British combat aircraft, the De Havilland Vampire. In 1947, after leaving military aviation, he was employed by Gloster Aircraft Co. as a test pilot.

In 1952, Janusz Żurakowski emigrated with his family to Canada, where he became an experimental pilot at Avro Aircraft Limited in Malton, Ontario. In 1958, he became chief pilot at Avro Arrow. He pioneered the testing of Canada's first CF-100 Canuck interceptor fighter, regarded as one of the most modern of the 1950s, on which he was the first aviator in Canada to break the speed of sound barrier and reach speeds of 1,000 miles per hour. In March 1958, he began testing the CF-105 Arrow interceptor fighter. In the unanimous opinion of experts, it was the best supersonic fighter aircraft of the time, equipped with state-of-the-art navigation and communications equipment and electronic fire control. In February 1959, a decision was made, unexplained definitively to this day, to halt the CF105 Arrow construction programme. 13,000 Avro and Orenda Engines employees were laid off. Tens of thousands of construction drawings and plans for the aircraft were destroyed. Not a single component survived for museum purposes. The aircraft, which was likely to make a difference to the fighter aircraft equipment of NATO countries during the Cold War - ceased to exist and Zurakovsky left his job.

After research on the Avro Arrow aircraft was discontinued, Zurakovsky decided to 'break away' from experimental piloting. He retired and built the resort 'Kartuzy Lodge' near Barry's Bay (Ontario). He managed it, together with his family, for 40 years.

For his wartime service, he was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross and the Cross of Valour three times, as well as the Honorary Badge No. 2 of the Experimental Pilots Club in Poland.

In Canada, he was honoured and awarded numerous times for his contributions to Canadian aviation. These included: in 1973, he became a member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame; in 1996, the Canadian Mint minted a $20 silver coin with an image of this outstanding Polish pilot; in 2000, the new military Flight Test Centre building in Cold Lake, Alberta, was named the "Janusz Zurakowski Building"; and on 26 July 2003, the Janusz Zurakowski Park in Barry's Bay, Ontario, was officially opened. Janusz Zurakowski Park, where there is a monument to him and a model of the CF-105 Avro Arrow supersonic aircraft, Canada's most famous aircraft, which Janusz Zurakowski tested.

He was elected an Honorary Member of the International Experimental Pilots Association in Los Angeles, which included his name in its list of the most outstanding aviators of all time.

Janusz Zurakowski died in Bary's Bay (Ontario) and is buried with his wife in the local St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Cemetery.