A Curtiss JN-4 is used as an aerial ambulance by the Royal Flying Corps Canada, Camp Leaside, Ontario
Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada
To equip the RFC (Canada) flying schools, the Imperial Munitions Board of the UK established Canadian Aeroplanes Limited (CAL) in Toronto in December 1916 which took over the Curtiss factory on Strachan Avenue and began a major expansion plan.
CAL’s first Curtiss JN-4 (Canadian) or “Canuck” trainer was completed in January 1917 and flown for the first time by American pilot Bertrand Blanchard Acosta who had been a flight instructor at the Curtiss school and went on to become a colourful aviation celebrity.
In May 1916, CAL opened a new 21,831sq m (235,000 sq ft) factory near the corner of Dufferin Street and Dupont Avenue in Toronto that would eventually employ 2,400 people. The CAL factory operated 24 hours a day, with two shifts from 7 am to 7 pm and 7 pm to 7 am, with a 30-minute break at noon and midnight for meals. The OX5 aircraft engines came from Detroit, the spruce for the wings from British Columbia, and the fabric that covered the aircraft came from a mill in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.
At peak, the factory produced 12 to 16 JN-4s a day for the RFC (Canada) and for the US military, where the JN-4 (Canadian) accounted for about 40 to 50 percent of the pilot training fleet in early 1918. CAL had built an estimated 1,210 complete JN-4 and spare parts equivalent to another 1,600 aircraft which were used to overhaul aircraft or repair those damaged in frequent accidents.
The plant also produced 30 large twin-engine Felixstowe F-5-L flying boats for the US Navy, which had a 103 ft 9 in (31.62 m) wingspan and were delivered to the US in crates on three railcars each. The Canadian Aeroplanes Limited factory was recognized as one of the most efficient aircraft factories in North America during the war. It was the also the largest factory space in Toronto at the time. All operations ceased shortly after the Armistice in November 1918 and all the experience was lost.
– Kenneth Swartz
Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working together on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.