Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Ltd. – 1915-1916
Curtiss JN-3Image Credit: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive In early 1915, the British War Office asks the Canadian government’s permission to actively recruit candidates for the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), followed by the British Admiralty which requests to enlist applicants in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Candidates for both the RFC and RNAS are required to secure pilot’s certificates at their own expense. With the outbreak of war in Europe, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company Ltd. of Hammondsport, New York established a subsidiary in Toronto under the management of John A. D. McCurdy, age 29, to train pilots and build aircraft. The company opened Canada’s first aircraft factory at 20 Strachan Avenue in downtown Toronto in April 1915 and began building six JN-3 biplane trainers for its own flying school in Toronto and 12 for the Royal Naval Air Service in the UK. The first JN-3 was flown on July 14, 1915, at an airfield the company constructed at Long Branch on a former militia rifle range on western outskirts of Toronto. Production of the JN-3s was soon suspended so the company build the large twin-engine Curtiss Canada bomber with a 23.1 m (75 ft) wingspan for the UK which was based on a Curtiss flying boat design. The prototype flew at Long Branch on September 3, 1915, and was then immediately shipped to the UK for evaluation at Farnborough airfield. Eleven more aircraft were delivered to the UK in 1916, ten for the Royal Flying Corp and one for the Royal Naval Air Service, but the bomber never entered frontline military service. – 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.
Canada’s First Exhibition Flight – September 1909
Charles WillardImage Credit: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive The first public exhibition flight in Canada took place on September 7, 1909, when American pilot Charles Willard took to the air in the “The Golden Flyer” in Toronto. American Charles Willard was a 25-year-old Harvard graduate and race car driver when he became the first student taught to fly by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. Willard took his first and only lesson July 18, 1909, and made his first solo flight on July 30, 1909. The Golden Flyer was the first aeroplane built under the Curtiss name and the very first commercial aeroplane ever sold. It was acquired by the New York Aeronautic Society in the summer of 1909 to fly at public exhibitions. The Society’s first request for an exhibition flight came from the management of the Scarboro Amusement Park in the Beach neighbourhood of eastern Toronto. Willard departed for Toronto by train with the airplane in three huge packing cases and arrived at the exhibition grounds south of Queen Street on August 28. Few people had ever seen an airplane before or understood their landing field requirements. A confined space between some buildings was provided to erect a tent to assemble the aircraft but there was no space on the exhibition grounds for a proper takeoff area. Willard decided to takeoff from an alley between some of the permanent the buildings on the fairgrounds that led to a three-foot drop over a breakwater on the shore of Lake Ontario. Since the alley only offered six feet of clearance on either side of the wing tips, Willard had 90-metre-long wooden trough built down the center of the alley to guide the front wheel landing gear to the waterfront. Willard’s first flight attempt on September 2 ended in a splash when the front wheel started rubbing against the trough preventing the aircraft from reaching the ideal flying speed. The aircraft traveled a short distance in the air and landed in the water in the dark. It required five days to dry out the aircraft and then Willard made a second attempt on September 7. This time the wooden trough was greased, and the aircraft rose into the air. Willard flew for about five minutes over the Lake Ontario but when he approached the shore for a landing, he discovered the beach was filled with people and he had to land in the lake again. Willard is considered North America’s first barnstorming pilot and the flight in Toronto the first barnstorming exhibition, He was the fifth American to fly an airplane after Orville and Wilber Wright, Glenn Curtiss and Thomas Selfridge. – Kenneth Schwartz Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills, and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.
Avro Lancaster Mark X
Unidentified aircrew with Avro Lancaster B.II aircraft DS848 QO:R of No. 438 (Leaside) Squadron, RACFImage Credit: Library & Archives Canada The four-engine all metal Avro Lancaster became the backbone of the Royal Air Force’s strategic bomber force during the Second World War and carried a devastating bomb load to thousands of enemy targets across Europe. More than 7,300 Lancasters were built in England and Canada between 1941 and 1945, including 430 produced by the 10,000 employees of Victory Aircraft Ltd. at Malton, Ontario. The Lancaster was the largest aircraft made in Canada during the Second World War. To augment British production, in 1941 a contract was awarded to the Aircraft Division of National Steel Car Co. to build Lancasters (known as Mark X’s) at their factory in Malton, Ontario (today’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport). National Steel Car Co. was already heavily involved in the production of aircraft for the war. The Canadian Government was concerned about their ability to manage the project and expropriated the Malton plant in late 1942 and formed Victory Aircraft Ltd. to do the work. For a country still largely agrarian and just recovering from a decade of depression, the challenge was immense. Over 500,000 manufacturing operations were involved in building a Lancaster which was made up of over 55,000 separate parts and over a million rivets. The first Canadian Lancaster, “The Ruhr Express”, rolled off the Victory Aircraft assembly line and flew for the first time on August 1, 1943. The work force at Victory Aircraft grew to 9,521 persons by 1944, most with no previous manufacturing experience; about a quarter of them were women. A total of 430 Lancaster were built at Malton, with production peaking at one aircraft a day. Unlike British-built Lancasters, the Canadian-built versions used licensed-built Rolls Royce Merlin engines produced by Packard Motor Car Company in the United States and all instruments and radio equipment were either Canadian or American. To ease maintenance, all major sub-assemblies of the Canadian Lancasters were interchangeable with the British version. Production of many components was subcontracted to Ottawa Car & Aircraft Ltd., Canadian General Electric Co. Ltd. in Toronto, and the Fleet Aircraft Ltd. in Fort Erie, Ontario. In addition to bombers, eight Lancasters (and one conversion) were completed at Malton as long-distance transport aircraft for the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service and operated by Trans-Canada Air Lines Ltd. (TCA) to carrying mail and VIP passengers across the Atlantic. These “Lancastrians” were lengthened with a streamlined nose and tail cone. Range was enhanced by two 400-gallon long-range fuel tanks fitted in the bomb bay. Postwar, TCA used Lancastrians aircraft to inaugurate scheduled commercial passenger service across the North Atlantic until 1947 when the Canadair North Star airliner was introduced. – Kenneth Schwartz Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills, and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.
Canadian Aerodrome Company – 1909-1910
Baddeck No. 1 and Crew in front of the Hangar – Military Camp Petawawa, Ontario, Canada.Image Credit: Nova Scotia Postal History After the Aerial Experiment Association’s Canadian patent rights were assigned to J.A.D. McCurdy and F.W. (Casey) Baldwin, they formed Canada’s first aviation company, Canadian Aerodrome Company, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia with the material and financial support of Alexander Graham Bell. The first aircraft produced by the CAC, Baddeck No. 1, had the same general layout as the Silver Dart. The aircraft had a slim metal fuel tank contained within the wing structure, which was an innovation first introduced on Baddeck No. 1 that is now featured on almost every aircraft. The Department of Military and Defence, responsible for military land forces in Canada, invited Baldwin and McCurdy to fly at Camp Petawawa in the presence of military observers after Bell lobbied Federal government officials. The Silver Dart and Baddeck No. 1 arrived in Petawawa in the Ottawa Valley in July 1909 and were assembled in a hangar for the military demonstrations. The Silver Dart made five short flights at Petawawa on August 2, including with both McCurdy and Baldwin aboard, but it was wrecked upon landing. The engine was salvaged and transferred to Baddeck No. 1. It flew on August 12 for a distance of about 100 yards (91 m), and flew 70 yards (64 m), the next day before landing hard and damaging the propeller and undercarriage. Unfortunately, the demonstrations at Petawawa didn’t generate the desired support. The Canadian Cabinet refused to authorize expenditures on aviation. The Baddeck No. 1 was shipped back to Nova Scotia for repairs, but five important achievements took place in Petawawa that day: the first flight of a Canadian-made powered aircraft; the first Canadian military aviation trials; the first passenger flight in Canada; the first aircraft hangar built in Canada; and the first powered aircraft flight in Ontario. The Baddeck No. 2 was first flown at Baddeck on September 25,1909 and 59 flights were made through March 12,1910 on wheels and a final short flight on June 1,1910 outfitted with a single float from the grass at the water’s edge to the adjacent water. The Baddeck No. 1 was shipped to Montreal in June 1910 to participate in the historic Montreal Air Meet. McCurdy crashed and damaged the aircraft on June 29, which led to the demise of the company. Only the engine of the Silver Dart and a few parts of Baddeck No. 1 survive in museums. – Kenneth Schwartz Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills, and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.
The Birth of Canadian Aviation
The first graduating class at Camp Borden.Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada The father of aviation in Canada was Scottish-born telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell. After studying aeronautics for many years, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) at his summer house in Baddeck, Nova Scotia on October 1, 1907. Bell’s first step was to recruit two recent engineering graduates from the University of Toronto to join the AEA who had visited him in the summer and shared his interest in aeronautics. John Alexander Douglas McCurdy was the son of Bell’s former private secretary and Frederick Walker (Casey) Baldwin was an established family in Toronto. Then to round out the team Bell also invited Glen Curtiss, an American builder of motors and motorcycles and Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge with the US Army to join the AEA. Under Bell’s guiding genius, the young men progressed step-by-step in designing and building the AEA’s four pioneering aircraft – Drome 1 through Drome 4. The work began at the Bell estate in Baddeck, but largely took place at Glen Curtiss’ workshops in Hammondsport, New York. The first aircraft to fly was Selfridge’s Drome No.1, named the Red Wing, which Casey Baldwin flew for the first time off the frozen surface of Lake Keuka in Hammondsport on March 12, 1908. This was the first publicly announced flight in the US and Baldwin became the first Canadian to fly a heavier than air aircraft. The second aircraft to fly was Baldwin’s Drome 2, named the White Wing. Baldwin flew it for the first time on May 18, followed by Selfridge the next day who became the first military officer to fly a powered airplane, followed by Curtiss and McCurdy. This was followed by Drome 3, the June Bug, which was designed and first flown by Curtiss on June 21. The June Bug became one of America’s most famous aircraft when it made the first official one-kilometer flight in the western hemisphere in front of thousands of spectators and news reporters at Hammondsport on July 4, 1908. The flight of the June Bug caught the popular imagination in the US, since all the Wright brothers’ flights had been made in secret and the first time the Wrights flew in public was in August 1908 at a racecourse at Le Mans, France, not the United States – Kenneth Schwartz Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills, and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.
Aerial Experiment Association Silver Dart
J.A.D. McCurdy and the Sliver Dart on the historic day the aircraft first flew in Canada, February 23, 1909.Image Credit: SDASM Archives The fourth Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) design, Drome 4, named the Silver Dart, was credited to J.A.D. McCurdy who flew it first at Hammondsport, NY on Dec 6, 1908. Then after 10 more flights it was shipped to Baddeck since Bell wanted one of the AEA aircraft to fly in Canada. On February 23, 1909 history was made when McCurdy took off from the frozen surface of Lac Bras d’Or to make his 15th powered flight and the first airplane flight in Canada and the British Commonwealth before 100 onlookers. The aircraft flew half a mile (800 m) at an elevation from three to nine meters, and a speed of roughly 65 kilometres per hour (40 mph) Then on March 10, 1909 McCurdy made a record setting 22-mile (35 km) circular flight. He was only 22 years old when he made aviation history. When the AEA was disbanded on March 31, 1909, Bell ceding the Silver Dart to Baldwin and McCurdy and the June Bug to Curtiss and the participants went their separate ways. Curtiss quickly incorporated an aircraft company under his own name which over the next decade became the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer by the end of the First World War. Sadly, Selfridge was the first person to die in an airplane crash when he was a passenger in a Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright at Fort Myer, Virginia on September 17, 1908. – Kenneth Schwartz Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills, and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.
Royal Flying Corps Canada 1917-1918
Royal Flying Corps Canada, aeroplane repair section at Camp Borden, Ontario, 1917Image Credit: Library & Archives Canada Ontario has a long history as a centre of elite aviation personnel training and innovation. When the First World War ended on November 11, 1918, Ontario was home to a sizeable wartime aviation industry. In early 1917, Great Britain established the Royal Flying Corps Canada (RFCC) to train large numbers of Canadian air and ground crew and tradesmen to fight in Europe. Land was rapidly cleared for six new RFCC flying schools. The Imperial Munitions Board established Canadian Aeroplanes Limited (CAL) in Toronto to build Curtiss JN-4 training aircraft to equip the new flying schools. CAL took over the Curtiss factory on Strachan Avenue. There, they built a large aircraft factory on Dufferin Street near Dupont Avenue which opened in May 1916 and boasted 21,831 sq m (235,000 sq ft) which was the largest factory space in Toronto. By September 1917 there were more than 4,000 cadets and 1,000 staff at the RFCC bases, and aircraft production reached a peak of 350 in February 1918. By the time the RFCC fell silent with the Armistice, more than 16,600 cadets had graduated (including 3135 pilots) and CAL had built components for the equivalent of 2,900 aircraft, including 30 twin-engine biplane Felixstowe F-5-F flying boats with a wing span of 31.62 m (103 ft 9 in) for the US Navy. During a very busy 23 months RAF (Canada) and CAL introduced thousands of Canadian men and women to the aviation industry and flying for the first time. -Kenneth Schwartz Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills, and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.