DHC: The War Years
1940 Old De Havilland Canada hangar – Tiger Moth productionImage Credit: De Havilland Aircraft of Canada With the outbreak of the Second World War, De Havilland Canada (DHC) became one of country’s largest aircraft manufacturers in Canada with 7,000 people directly employed at Downsview (including thousands of women) when production exceeded 50 aircraft a month, and another 8,000 people employed at subcontractors from coast to coast. The first wartime challenge was to build training aircraft to equip the flying schools of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) in Canada. This resulted in the production of 1,959 single-engine DH 82C Tiger Moths and 375 twin-engine Avro Anson II trainers between 1940 and 1943, as well as the assembly of hundreds of training aircraft shipped from the UK. The DH 82C Tiger Moth made a major contribution to the war effort with tens of thousands of pilots taking their initial flight training in these maneuverable yellow biplanes. A large hangar with multiple bays was built south of the original DHC factory to accommodate the Tiger Moth and Anson production lines (now known as The Hangar at Downsview Park). The Massey Harris factory in the Toronto suburb of Weston built wings for Anson aircraft being assembled at Downsview and by National Steel Car at Malton airport. The Tiger Moth equipped the majority of the Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS) in Canada prior to 1943, sharing the training duties with the Fleet Finch built in Fort Erie, Ontario. In 1942 production shifted at Downsview to the famous twin-engine all-wood DH 98 Mosquito “Wooden Wonder”, which was one of the fastest and most versatile Allied fighter-bombers and reconnaissance aircraft of the War. The first Canadian Mosquitos were built in secret in a rented building at 888 Dupont Street at the corner of Ossington Avenue in downtown Toronto and Massey Harris was awarded the Mosquito wing contract. The prototype Canadian Mosquito (KB300) made its first flight at Downsview on Sept 23, 1942 and the secrecy was lifted in early October when test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. arrived from England and flew the Mosquito before a crowd of 4,000 DHC employees and VIPs. To accommodate the Mosquito’s longer takeoff distances, the runways were lengthened with the east-west runway absorbing the fields occupied by the former Canadian Air Express airfield to the east and runway 15-33 incorporating the Toronto Flying Club airfield to the south bordering Wilson Avenue. A total of 1,133 Mosquitos were built at Downsview between 1942 and 1945 of eight different variants on a moving assembly line, with production reaching almost 60 aircraft a month by the war’s end. The majority were flown across the Atlantic Ocean for delivery to the Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) photo reconnaissance units in the UK fighting in Europe. When the Mosquito contract was cancelled in August 1945 at the end of hostilities, most of DHC’s employees lost their jobs in the transition to peacetime. In 1947-1948, about 205 undelivered Mosquitos stored in Canada were sold to China. – 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.
Ontario Aerospace Innovator: Elsie MacGill
Elsie MacGill was the first Canadian woman to receive an electrical engineering degree, and was the first female aircraft designer.Image Credit: Website of Veterans Affairs Canada A shortage of skilled workers saw thousands of women recruited to work in wartime aircraft factories with most having no prior aviation or manufacturing experience. One important exception was Elizabeth Muriel Gregory (Elsie) MacGill, who in 1927 became the first woman to graduate from the University of Toronto with an Electrical Engineering Degree and in 1929 graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering and was in fact the first woman in North America to hold a degree in aeronautical engineering. After doctoral studies in aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1932-1933, McGill was hired as an engineer at Fairchild Aircraft Limited at Longueuil, Quebec in 1934 where she worked on the first stressed-skin, all-metal fuselage aircraft designed and built in Canada. Then in 1938 she become Chief Aeronautical Engineer at the Fort William (Thunder Bay) plant of Canadian Car and Foundry Company Limited (Can Car). She became the first woman to lead the over-all design of an airplane, the Maple Leaf II, a two-seat, single-engine biplane trainer. At the same time, the factory received a large-scale order from the British government to produce the British-designed Hawker Hurricane fighter, with MacGill in charge of all engineering. The factory produced a total of 1,450 Hurricanes in three and a half years, and then MacGill was responsible for launching production of the Curtiss-Wright Helldiver bomber ordered by the U.S. Navy. This was very challenging since there were many engineering changes to the U.S. aircraft design. In 1942, the American True Comics series in the U.S. dubbed her “Queen of the Hurricanes” in a comic book series. In 1943, MacGill left Can Car to become an aerospace consultant in Toronto. Outside aviation, she was very active as an advocate for the rights of women and children. – 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.
Wartime Aircraft Production – 1939-1945
Ground crew servicing a Fairchild Cornell I aircraft, No 19 Elementary Flying Training School, RCAF, Virden, Manitoba, 1944Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada The Canadian aircraft manufacturing industry struggled to survive the Great Depression of the 1930s. With the increased risk of conflict in Europe, in 1937 the RCAF placed orders for new military aircraft with Canadian factories based on British designs, which were supplemented by additional orders from Great Britain which viewed Canada as a safe second-source for military aircraft. The aircraft built in Ontario included the Hawker Hurricane, built by Canadian Car & Foundry in Fort William and the Westland Lysander built by the Aircraft Division of National Steel Car at newly opened Malton Airport (today’s Lester B. Person International Airport). A British contract for 180 Handley Page Hampden was awarded to two Ontario and Quebec led consortiums. The Ontario consortium included the Aircraft Division, National Steel Car, Fleet Aircraft Ltd. and Ottawa Car and Aircraft Ltd. and had a final assembly line at Malton. Three months after Canada declared war against Nazi Germany on September 10, 1939, the governments of Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand created the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train wartime pilots and aircrew in Canada. This saw larger orders for training aircraft placed with many Canadian companies. De Havilland Aircraft at Downsview won a contract to build DH 82C Tiger Moth trainers and Fleet Aircraft in Fort Erie contracts to build the Fleet Finch biplane and later Fairchild PT-23 and PT-26 Cornell to equip the many Elementary Flying Training Schools. The Federal Aircraft was established by the government to make Avro Anson II trainers with five final assembly lines established including three in Ontario (Downsview, Malton and Ottawa) as well as Amhurst, Nova Scotia and Winnipeg, Manitoba. As the war progressed, Canadian factories shifted from building trainers to modern fighters, bombers and patrol aircraft of British and American design for combat use by the Royal Canadian Air Force, Great Britain, the United States Army Air Corp and US Navy, Australia and New Zealand. This included the Avro Lancaster, Curtiss Helldiver, Consolidated PBY-5A Canso and De Havilland DH98 Mosquito. In 1943-1944 the Canadian government took over the ownership of two large Canadian aircraft factories: National Steel Car’s Aircraft Division in Ontario was nationalized in late 1942 and renamed Victory Aircraft Limited, then sold to UK interests postwar to establish Avro Canada. The aircraft division of Canadian Vickers in Quebec was renamed Canadair Ltd. in 1944 and sold postwar to American interests. – 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.
De Lesseps Field
Avro 621 TutorImage Credit: San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives Flying continued at De Lesseps Field when DHC moved to Downsview in 1929. Skyways Limited established a flying school on the field and other companies used the airfield for some of the first airmail flights in the province. In October 1934, the RCAF’s No. 10 (Army Cooperation) Squadron commenced flying at the airfield with four DH 60 Moth biplanes which were later joined by DH 82A Tiger Moth, Fleet Fawn, Avro 621 Tutor and Avro 626 biplanes. The unit was officially designed No. 10 “City of Toronto” squadron in 1935 and renumbered No. 110 (City of Toronto) Squadron in 1937. When war was declared in September 1939, No. 110 moved to RCAF Rockcliffe in Ottawa, reequipped with the first new Westland Lysander’s produced in Canada, and deployed to England in February 1940. – 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.
The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited – 1928
1929 De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Downsview Head QuartersImage Credit: De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Major Geoffrey de Havilland was a prominent designer of British military aircraft during the First World War. He spent the postwar years (1920s) trying to stay in business by modifying military planes for civil use in the London suburb of Edgeware. In February 1925, de Havilland flew a small two-seat biplane for the civil market designated the D.H. 60 Moth powered by a four-cylinder engine. The aircraft was called the “Moth” because of de Havilland’s interest in entomology. The Moth was the right aircraft at the right time, and it proved an instant success. The aircraft caught the public imagination and started the flying club movement throughout the world. The Moth established de Havilland as one of world’s leading aircraft manufacturers. When fitted with a D.H. Gipsy engine, the DH.60 became known as the Gipsy Moth. In 1927, de Havilland Aircraft of England sold seven Moths to its Canadian customers. These aircraft airplanes were shipped from England directly to the customers for local assembly, but the company recognized it needed to establish a facility in Canada that could support sales, aircraft production and aftersales support. The De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited (DHC) was established on March 5, 1928 with R.A. “Bob” Loader from DH in England as its first General Manager. He opened an office in the Stirling Tower at 372 Bay Street in downtown Toronto and met with Frank Trethewey, a member of the newly formed Toronto Flying Club, about using part of the family’s estate in Weston to assemble Moth aircraft. An agreement was quickly reached and on March 30, the first two Moth’s arrived in a crate from England for assembly in shed beside the CPR and CNR mainline tracks. An airfield was established on the north side of Holmsted Drive (later named Trethewey Drive) was named De Lesseps Field in honour of Count de Lesseps, who made the first flight over Toronto from the field in 1910. On April 27, the Toronto Flying Club and Toronto businessman Leigh Sheppard received DHC’s first two flyaway Moth deliveries. Early Canadian customer input led the British company to replace the wooden fuselages of the Moth with welded steel tubing faired with wooden stringers covered with fabric which was better suited to Canadian operations and climate. As sales grew in 1928, it soon became obvious that De Lesseps Field was too small to accommodate future growth as it received major aircraft orders from the Ontario Provincial Air Service, Royal Canadian Air Force, Department of National Defence (for allocation to flying clubs), commercial airlines and private customers. In September 1928, a new site was selected for the company on level farmland in Downsview, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast of Weston at the corner of Sheppard Avenue and Dufferin Street, alongside the mainline CNR tracks. The company purchased a 70-acre (28 hectare) lot in April 1929 and contracted with the architects Mathers & Haldenby to build a new brick and steel office and hangar. In anticipation of the move to Downsview, Mathers and Haldenby designed the second wooden hangar constructed in Weston in sections so it could be moved to Downsview in 1929 which had the word “Moth” painted on its roof to distinguish the de Havilland Airport from three other airfields also fronting Dufferin Street (Canadian Air Express, Toronto Flying Club and Barker Field) that were also active in the 1930s! The sales boom that sustained DHC for its first three years began to taper off in 1931 as a result of the Depression and government budget cutbacks. In 1937, the company won a contract to build an “all-Canadian” version of the DH 82 Tiger Moth trainer to meet RCAF specifications which included an enclosed cockpit and a heater for flying in cold Canadian winters. The Tiger Moth was the first complete aircraft DHC built in Canada. To support Tiger Moth construction, DHC doubled the size of its brick and steel hangar and office building at Downsview to accommodate the increased work. All totalled, DHC delivered 439 new aircraft of 18 different models – including 28 Canadian-built Tiger Moths – between 1928 and 1939 which firmly established the company as the largest single supplier of civil and military aircraft in Canada prior to the Second World War. Pre-war employment peaked at 195 people during the pre-war Tiger Moth contract. – 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.
Canadian Flying Clubs Established – 1928
Fliers at Toronto Flying Club ca. 1930Image Credit: City of Toronto Archives In 1927, the Department of National Defence announced a plan to encourage the establishment of flying clubs across Canada, which was modelled on a successful program launched by the British Government in 1924. If a club could establish an airport and hangar, recruit a flying instructor and enlist 30 members, they were entitled to receive two training aircraft from the government. Fifteen flying clubs were established in 1928 and eight more in 1929, including a total of eight in Ontario: Toronto, Hamilton, London and Border Cities (Windsor-Walker), Kingston, St. Catharines, Brant & Norfolk, and Fort William. The flying clubs became a hub for aviation activity and promotion in their local communities and many of the pilots and mechanics associated pursued careers in civil and military aviation. In early 1940, the Department of National Defence asked the flying clubs to form civilian companies to rapidly develop and manage Canada’s wartime Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS). – 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.
Ontario Provincial Air Service – 1924
De Havilland DH.60 Moth in flight over Leaside AerodromeImage Credit: City of Toronto Archives In 1923, the Ontario Department of Lands and Forest contracted Laurentide Aviation to conduct forest fire patrols across the north of the province with a fleet of 12 Curtiss HS-2L flying boats after charting aircraft for forest sketching and photography. In 1924, the Ontario Provincial Air Service (OPAS) was formed with the purchase of 12 HS-2Ls and 16 pilots and 19 aircraft maintenance engineers hired to support the operation which established a base on the waterfront in Sault Ste. Marie. The HS-2L fleet was replaced by new aircraft in the late 1920s and early 1930s including 14 DH 60 Moths and other aircraft that could be equipped with wheels, skis or floats to fly on a year-round basis to manage and protect the province’s natural resources. The OPAS is recognized as the oldest aviation organization in the world established to detect and control forest fires and a pioneer when it came to the development of the first postwar waterbombers. The agency has also played an important role in the development of the Ontario aircraft manufacturing industry by placing large customer orders for the de Havilland Aircraft of Canada DHC-2 Beaver, DHC-3 Otter, DHC-2 Mk. III Turbo Beaver, DHC-6 Twin Otter as well as orders for CL 415 waterbombers and Airbus AS350B2 and H130 helicopters assembled in Ontario factories. – 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.
Air Board – 1919
RCAF aircraft on slipway, Cormorant Lake, Manitoba, 1925Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada Following the war, the Air Board was established by the Canadian government to regulate and control all aeronautical activity in Canada. Originally, the Air Board was just going to be a regulator organization, but the British government gave Canada more than 100 surplus aircraft and 12 ex-US Navy Curtiss HS-2L flying boats were abandoned in Nova Scotia, the Air Board established the civilian Flying Operations Branch (flying aircraft in support of government departments) and the Canadian Air Force, which was largely a paper organization with limited personal and one base at Camp Borden. The Air Board established several aerodromes and seaplane bases across Canada to support its work for government departments, including forestry patrols, aerial mapping and many other first uses of aircraft in Canada. Unfortunately, no Federal government support was provided to develop the civil aviation industry in Canada during the early 1920s while many other nations were supporting the development of airfields, air mail services and aircraft manufacturers. This meant that commercial aviation in Canada developed in the 1920s largely in support of companies and organizations working in the North such as the mining industry where the use of an aircraft could cut trips that used to take days, weeks and even months to complete by historic methods to hours. A major turning point came in 1926-1927 when the Red Lake Gold Rush in northern Ontario stimulated a major demand for aviation and the Department of Defence decided to subsidize the establishment of flying clubs. When the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was established in 1924, it took over the Civil Government Air Operations (CGAO) which accounted for the majority of RCAF flying into the 1930s utilizing waterborne aircraft to map the country and fly regular forest fire patrols. As tensions increased in Europe through the mid-1930s, the Federal government increased the RCAF budget for military training. – 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.
Canadian Aeroplanes Limited – 1917-1918
A Curtiss JN-4 is used as an aerial ambulance by the Royal Flying Corps Canada, Camp Leaside, OntarioImage 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.
Curtiss Flying School – 1915-1916
Curtiss Aviation School, LakeviewImage Credit: Toronto Public Library Digital Archive The Curtiss Flying School opened on May 10, 1915, and attracted students from across Canada passionate about learning to fly and fighting in Europe. The training included initial instruction on Curtiss F flying boats based at Hanlan’s Point on Toronto Island and advanced training and solo flying in Curtiss JN-3s on wheels at the company airfield in Long Branch. Students paid their own tuition which was $400 (equivalent to $9,060 in 2021) for 400 minutes of training by American instructors. This was considered sufficient time for a novice pilot to pass the requirements for an internationally recognized pilots’ licence. Once a pilot had their license, the students would travel to Ottawa to enrol in the RNAS which then paid for their passage to the UK where they would also receive a reimbursement for their training. Later, the Royal Flying Corp (RFC) tried to lure the flying school’s students with similar incentives. During its two years of operation (including a pause during the winter) the school graduated 129 pilots and 35 died for their country overseas. Many other young Canadians took their flight training in the US before traveling to the UK. During 1915-1916, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. established Canada’s first aircraft factory, first flying school, first airport at Long Branch and seaplane base in Toronto harbour. – 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.