A report on AEA Silver Dart

The AEA Silver Dart in flight.
The Silver Dart replica taxies to the starting point for its commemorative flight on 22 February 2009. It was celebrating Canada's Centennial of Flight a day early, due to predicted unfavourable weather.
Silver Dart replica

Derivative of an early aircraft built by a Canadian/U.S. team, which after many successful flights in Hammondsport, New York, earlier in 1908, was dismantled and shipped to Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

- AEA Silver Dart
The AEA Silver Dart in flight.

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Bell c. undefined 1917

Alexander Graham Bell

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Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

Bell c. undefined 1917
Melville House, the Bells' first home in North America, now a National Historic Site of Canada
Bell, top right, providing pedagogical instruction to teachers at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, 1871. Throughout his life, he referred to himself as "a teacher of the deaf".
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing, March 7, 1876
The master telephone patent, 174465, March 7, 1876
An actor playing Bell in a 1926 film holds Bell's first telephone transmitter
Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago in 1892
Alexander Graham Bell, his wife Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, and their daughters Elsie (left) and Marian ca. 1885
The Brodhead–Bell mansion, the Bell family residence in Washington, D.C., from 1882 to 1889
Alexander Graham Bell in his later years
Photophone receiver, one half of Bell's wireless optical communication system, ca. 1880
Bell's HD-4 on a test run ca. 1919
AEA Silver Dart ca. 1909
Bell statue by A. E. Cleeve Horne in front of the Bell Telephone Building of Brantford, Ontario, The Telephone City. (Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford)
A quote by Alexander Graham Bell engraved in the stone wall within the Peace Chapel of the International Peace Garden (in Manitoba Canada and North Dakota, USA).
The Bell Museum, Cape Breton, part of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site
A.G. Bell issue of 1940
Bell, an alumnus of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LL.D.) at the university in 1906

Their final aircraft design, the Silver Dart, embodied all of the advancements found in the earlier machines.

John Alexander Douglas McCurdy

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Canadian aviation pioneer and the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1947 to 1952.

Canadian aviation pioneer and the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1947 to 1952.

The AEA Silver Dart in flight, J.A.D. McCurdy at the controls, c. 1910
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McCurdy became the first British subject to fly an aircraft in the British Empire when he piloted the Aerial Experiment Association's Silver Dart off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia.

AEA member John Alexander Douglas McCurdy at the controls of an airplane during an aviation 'meet' near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, c. August 1911. The starboard-side of the transverse "shoulder-yoke" hinged structure for aileron control, in the general form of an upper seat support frame, is visible beside the seated pilot.

Aerial Experiment Association

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Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.

Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.

AEA member John Alexander Douglas McCurdy at the controls of an airplane during an aviation 'meet' near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, c. August 1911. The starboard-side of the transverse "shoulder-yoke" hinged structure for aileron control, in the general form of an upper seat support frame, is visible beside the seated pilot.
Aerial Experiment Association members Casey Baldwin, Tom Selfridge, Glenn Curtiss, Alexander Graham Bell, John McCurdy and Augustus Post serving as observer from Aero Club of America.

Their fourth flying machine, the Silver Dart, also constructed in 1908, made the first controlled powered flight in Canada on 23 February 1909 when it was flown off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck by McCurdy, who had been one of its designers.

Baddeck

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Village in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada.

Village in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada.

Women workers at Bell's shipyard
Victoria County Court House
Telegraph House
Old post office and customs house
Alexander and Mabel Bell statue

Initially a summer residence, Bell spent an increasing part of the year there, and conducted many experiments, including the AEA Silver Dart's first controlled powered flight in Canada in 1909.

"Casey" Baldwin at Ridley College, circa 1900

Frederick Walker Baldwin

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Hydrofoil and aviation pioneer and partner of the famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

Hydrofoil and aviation pioneer and partner of the famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

"Casey" Baldwin at Ridley College, circa 1900
Aerial Experiment Association. Casey (second from right), Bell (centre), McCurdy, Curtis, and Selfridge

Baldwin used his engineering skills to help build the Silver Dart plus several other experimental aircraft.

Otter floatplane in Manitoba

History of aviation in Canada

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The history of aviation in Canada begins with the first manned flight in a balloon at Saint John, New Brunswick in 1840.

The history of aviation in Canada begins with the first manned flight in a balloon at Saint John, New Brunswick in 1840.

Otter floatplane in Manitoba
The R100 at St. Hubert, Quebec 1930
Canada's first aircraft, the AEA Silver Dart
Toronto Air Meet 1911
Training at the RFC school in Toronto, 1917
2009 Demonstration Hornet

Experimental aviation started in Canada with the test flights of Bell's Silver Dart in 1909, following the epochal flight of the Wright Brothers in 1903.

Visitor centre at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site

Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site

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10 ha property in Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, overlooking the Bras d'Or Lakes.

10 ha property in Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, overlooking the Bras d'Or Lakes.

Visitor centre at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site
Bell's experimental HD-4 hydrofoil in the museum. Designed for anti-submarine duty, it held the world's marine speed record for several years.
Entrance to Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site
A plaque at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site

The site also features memorabilia associated with Bell's experiments, including: the original hull of a hydrofoil boat, the HD-4, that set a world marine speed record in Baddeck by reaching speeds of over 112 km/h (over 70 mph) in 1919; a full-scale replica of that boat; the AEA Silver Dart which in 1909 J.A.D. MacCurdy piloted up into the air over the ice of Baddeck Bay to become the first controlled heavier-than-air craft to be flown in the British Empire—plus many other exhibits and documents from Bell's years of research activities on the transmission of speech and sound by wire and by light, as well as his experiments with kites, planes and high speed boats.

The main entrance to the base.

Garrison Petawawa

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Located in Petawawa, Ontario.

Located in Petawawa, Ontario.

The main entrance to the base.
Greenfield, who was deployed with the 24 Field Engineers Squadron of Garrison Petawawa was killed in action

On 31 July 1909 under perfect weather conditions, J.A.D. McCurdy and F.W. Baldwin flew the "Silver Dart" at Camp Petawawa in the presence of military observers.

The exterior of the Aviation and Space Museum

Canada Aviation and Space Museum

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Canada's national aviation history museum.

Canada's national aviation history museum.

The exterior of the Aviation and Space Museum
The exterior of the Aviation and Space Museum
Aerial view of the Canada Aviation Museum as it was then known, on 5 June 2005. The triangular structure is the main museum building. The rectangular white building to the left of it is the new museum storage building opened 14 April 2005.
Nose section of Avro Arrow RL 206
Bensen B-8
Canadair CL-84 Dynavert prototype
Bell CH-135 Twin Huey serial number 135114
Fleet Canuck serial number 149, in the museum's storage building
Aeronca C-2 CF-AOR, in the museum's storage building
Zenair CH 300 Tri Zenith C-GOVK used by Red Morris to make a record-setting non-stop flight across Canada in 1978. The aircraft is in the museum's storage building
Canada's first amateur-built aircraft, Stitts SA-3A Playboy CF-RAD, in the museum's storage building
An original single-seat Rutan Quickie powered by an Orion 18 hp (14 kW) industrial motor. This aircraft is in the museum's storage hangar.
CH-113 Labrador helicopter in the main wing of the museum
Taylor E-2 Cub showing its Continental A-40 engine with the cylinders protruding through the cowling.
Wills Wing XC-185 at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum
PW120 at Canada Aviation and Space Museum
UTIAS Snowbird ornithopter

The changes made include making space for a new exhibition entitled Canadian Wings: A Remarkable Century of Flight that was unveiled on 23 February 2009, the centennial of the first heavier than air aircraft flight in Canada.

Canadian Aerodrome Company

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The first commercial enterprise in the British Empire to design and manufacture aircraft.

The first commercial enterprise in the British Empire to design and manufacture aircraft.

The Canadian Aerodrome Company manufactured aircraft based on the AEA Silver Dart, producing the Baddeck No. 1, and the Baddeck No. 2 as well as a separate commissioned design, the Hubbard Monoplane (Hubbard II) before the company was dissolved in 1910.