Parks Canada / Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site of Canada

On a cold afternoon in February, the vision of flying a powered aircraft for the first time in Canada came to be when the Silver Dart took to the air above the frozen waters of Baddeck Bay in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

When world-renowned and accomplished inventor Alexander Graham Bell decided to turn his gaze toward the skies and find a way for man to fly, it was based on a lifelong fascination with flight. His wife Mabel, knew if he were to realize his dream, he would have to enlist the help of like-minded men who were just as enthusiastic about flight but had other technological knowledge.

J.A.D. McCurdy, a friend of the Bell family and a mechanical engineer studying at the University of Toronto was the first to join Bell. He brought with him a fellow classmate, Frederick W. “Casey” Baldwin. Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, an artillery officer with the United States Army and motorcycle engine manufacturer Glenn Curtiss rounded out the team.

Together, this group of men formed the Aerial Experiment Association with the financial backing of Mabel Bell and began building aircrafts and conducting experimental flights. A year and four months after the AEA was formed, the Silver Dart became the first powered aircraft flown in Canada and the British Empire. Piloted by Douglas McCurdy, it rose 9 metres (30 feet) into the air and flew for almost a kilometer and a half (more than a half mile) at 65 kilometres (40 miles) per hour.

2009 will mark the 100th anniversary of this first flight and events to celebrate this centennial will happen throughout the year across the country.  Join us in the celebrations!

Click here to find a great list of web sites dedicated to the Canadian Centennial of Powered Flight.