Top 10 aircraft that have influenced Canadian aviation

On Aug. 10, 1840, “Professor of Chemistry and Aerostatic Exhibitions” Louis Anslem Lauriat inflated his massive balloon “Star of the East” with hydrogen gas in a Saint John lot, ascended in its basket and drifted out of sight over the New Brunswick countryside. Thousands of locals enjoyed the whole experience. Thus did manned flight come to Canada. 

Such events were great fun for years to come, and many “firsts” were recorded, as in Montreal on Sept. 8, 1856, when Eugene Godard took three local men for a balloon flight across the St. Lawrence River. Godard’s trio became Canada’s first aerial passengers. An ascent beginning in Watertown, N.Y., on Sept. 24, 1859, and ending hours later in the Quebec bush seems to qualify as the first U.S.-Canada trans-border flight. 

Balloons were followed by dirigibles, powered by makeshift engines. Other would-be fliers experimented with gliders. Canada was involved at each stage including in 1907, when Larry Lesh piloted a glider towed by a speedboat over the St. Lawrence River. Meanwhile, a handful of enthusiasts, working under Alexander Graham Bell as the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), were leading the way with powered airplanes.

Established in October 1907, the AEA conducted serious aeronautical research and development. It comprised Bell and his wife, Mable (who funded the group) and four young men: University of Toronto engineering graduates J.A.D. McCurdy and F.W. “Casey” Baldwin, motorcycle aficionado Glenn H. Curtiss and U.S. Army officer Thomas Selfridge.

 Working at Curtiss’ farm at Hammondsport, N.Y., each of Bell’s protégés designed and flew his own plane. Dozens of test flights led to incessant modifications. McCurdy first flew his Silver Dart on Dec. 6, 1908, then a further 13 times before Bell had the Silver Dart shipped to his estate at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island. There, on Feb. 23, 1909, McCurdy got airborne for about a kilometre on what was the first flight in Canada of a powered, heavier-than-air flying machine. Soon, the AEA disbanded, but Baldwin, Curtiss and McCurdy remained involved in aviation (Selfridge had died in a crash). At Camp Petawawa in August 1909, McCurdy and Baldwin became the first to demonstrate an airplane to the Canadian military. Unfortunately, their two machines were wrecked, leaving Militia HQ in Ottawa unimpressed. 

Baldwin then withdrew from flying, but McCurdy dabbled in the airshow circuit. In 1910, great air displays were held in Montreal and Toronto, with McCurdy attending both. In January 1911, he made a 90-mile flight from Key West to Havana, but had to ditch a mile short. He was undeterred, commenting, “I am seriously impressed with the possibility of making intercontinental, trans-ocean flights by aeroplane.” In July 1911, McCurdy raced Charles Willard from Hamilton to Toronto, which was the major event that summer in the local press. By 1915, he was managing the Curtiss aviation school in Toronto, training pilots for the British air services. In 1917, he joined Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd., a Toronto company manufacturing training planes for the Royal Flying Corps. In the interwar years he was prominent in Montreal’s aircraft industry. Throughout the Second World War, he held a key position in aircraft production. Post-war, he was Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant Governor. He was awarded the coveted Trans Canada Trophy in 1959 and passed away in 1961. 

In 1973, McCurdy became the first aviation pioneer inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame (Baldwin was inducted the following year). On the 100th anniversary of McCurdy’s Baddeck flight, a replica Silver Dart was flown in Baddeck by astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason. Another replica resides at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, and other AEA displays are in the Bell Museum at Baddeck and Curtiss Museum at Hammondsport.

The roots of Canadian commercial aviation date to 1919, when thousands of airmen got home from fighting overseas. Most left aviation behind, but a few wondered what roles aviation might play in post-war Canada. 

Once Britain chose Canada in 1917 to train combat aircrew, Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd. mass-produced the JN-4 training plane in Toronto. Such war surplus planes soon flooded the civil market, but this was only stop-gap, since the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and people willing to gamble in commercial aviation needed better equipment to open up northern resources. Canadian Vickers of Montreal stepped up in 1924 with the Vedette flying boat. The Vedette proved to be a sturdy, versatile bushplane. The RCAF would operate 44 on forestry, fisheries, customs and training duties. In 1932-33 the RCAF passed several Vedettes to Manitoba and Saskatchewan, giving those provinces their start in aviation. 

Such indigenous aircraft also led Canada’s aircraft industry down the research and development road, and brought an awareness of what customers needed. With the Vedette, for example, various engines were offered, from a 185-horsepower Lynx to a 300-hp Wright J-6. Of 60 Vedettes built, some were amphibians, and the twin-engine Varuna was a direct spin-off. 

In 1928, six amphibian Vedettes became the first Canadian-designed production airplanes ever exported. Clearly, the Vedette was seminal in getting Canada’s aircraft industry on the road to success.

Once aviation took hold in Canada after the First World War, military planes like the JN-4 and HS-2L found new work. But these were only interim solutions, and operators began hounding manufacturers for new designs. Canadian Vickers answered with the Vedette, while Bellanca, Fairchild, Fokker, Stinson and Waco proved to be worthy competitors. 

Having worked with Fokker and Bellanca, Bob Noorduyn brought his aeronautical know-how to Montreal in 1934. He assembled a team to design “the ultimate” Canadian bushplane. His burly prototype—the Norseman—took flight in November 1935. But Noorduyn had introduced the Norseman during the Depression. Cash and credit were scarce, and by 1939 he had sold only 23. 

Suddenly, however, the world was back at war. An RCAF order saw Noorduyn employment spike from 140 in January 1940 to 1,400 a year later. Once the U.S. entered the war, Noorduyn could barely find enough workers, and by 1945 the company had 11,000 on the payroll building Norsemans and Harvards. 

The U.S. Army found endless uses for its 700-plus “UC-64” Norsemans. They flew resupply, air ambulance, liaison and search-and-rescue missions from Alaska to Burma and Normandy. Canadian operators had more work than airplanes, so spent the war negotiating for more Norsemans.

Post-war, hundreds of surplus Norsemans flooded the market, giving operators on every continent an affordable workhorse. Long after the Beaver and Otter invaded the north, Norsemans persevered. In 2015, a few remain hard at work at such bush flying haunts as Red Lake, Ont., and Flin Flon, Man. Others are lovingly restored and flown by collectors or sit proudly in museums around the world.

As soon as the Second World War ended, commercial aviation returned to normal in Canada. Nonetheless, there had been a six-year hiatus, when few operators could find new equipment. Just arranging for an engine overhaul during the war required friends in high places. Now, the availability of cheap war surplus Norsemans transformed a bush flying scene too long typified by clapped out Bellancas, Fairchilds and Junkers. 

Besides having lots of Norsemans suddenly available, there was word in 1945 from Fairchild in Quebec that its new Husky was available, and from Toronto that de Havilland Canada (DHC) had something in the offing. The Husky flew on June 14, 1946, and then DHC announced its new plane—the Beaver. It first flew in August the following year. 

Soon, the smaller Beaver was outshining the Husky in performance, and performance was what bush operators craved. The Beaver had a short takeoff and landing (STOL) wing, was cheaper than a Husky and, at 5,100 pounds all-up, was lighter and nimbler. Both planes used the same 450-hp Pratt & Whitney R-985, which gave the Beaver ample power to leap off a small lake, but left the Husky underpowered. Husky sales tanked and Fairchild folded after delivering 12 planes; meanwhile, over at de Havilland, commercial operators were lining up with their Beaver down payments. 

At the same time, the U.S. Army, embroiled in the Korean War, was desperate for a new liaison plane. After watching Russ Bannock put it through its paces, the U.S. Army responded by ordering more than 900 Beavers. 

Almost 1,700 Beavers were manufactured at Downsview, Ont., including a run of Turbo Beavers. Much loved everywhere, the Beaver put the spotlight on Canadian technology and industry, engendering a host of positive relationships. 

With Pratt & Whitney Canada, alone, the bonds endured for decades with the R-985 and PT6. Today, Beavers remain ever popular with commercial operators in bush, coastal and mountain markets, and with many sport aviators.

As soon as the first modern Douglas twins appeared in the 1930s, people saw in a flash that the future of commercial aviation had arrived. In the ensuing decades, the DC-3 became legendary everywhere—more than 10,000 would be built. Joining the RCAF in 1943 (where it was called the Dakota), it proved indispensable on the home front from the Yukon to Newfoundland. Overseas, it flew under fire with RCAF squadrons from Normandy to Burma, then served post-war into 1990. 

Eventually, Canadian civil operators used hundreds of DC-3s, with the first taking to the skies in 1945. That year, Canadair began refurbishing hundreds of C-47s (the DC-3 military designation). Trans-Canada Air Lines took 27, although most of the Canadair “refurbs” were for export. 

In Canada, the DC-3 also equipped such carriers as Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CP Air), Maritime Central Airlines, Nordair, Pacific Western Airlines, Quebecair and Queen Charlotte Airlines. It excelled in the Arctic from the early 1950s to the present, transporting freight and passengers, surveying, flying medevacs, etc. In the 1950s, it was the Rolls-Royce of the skies for upper crust Canadian corporations and families from Ford to Imperial Oil, Ontario Paper, Goodyear, Canadian Breweries, the Eatons, and the Irvings. 

While the first DC-3 service in Canada seems to have been in 1938 (an American Airlines DC-3 visit to Toronto) this classic beauty remains in regular service 76 years later. Buffalo Airways of Yellowknife, NT, is a well-known operator, while several Canadian-registered PT6-powered DC-3s presently operate from Pickle Lake, Ont., to Antarctica.

In 1945, C.D. Howe, Canada’s “Minister of Everything,” was looking for ways to repurpose several vast, empty wartime factories. At the same time, Benjamin Franklin, manager of a key wartime Canadian Vickers program building PBY-5s at Cartierville in suburban Montreal, was concocting a wild scheme to import dirt cheap Douglas DC-4 components by the trainload to manufacture a hybrid DC-4 using Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. 

Howe, loving anything to do with aviation (especially something so glamorous), signed over the Canadian Vickers plant to Franklin. At the same time, Howe was giving carte blanche to Avro’s Roy Dobson to produce an exotic jet interceptor and a jet airliner in Victory Aircraft’s former Lancaster factory at Malton, near Toronto.

An inveterate organizer and manager, Franklin set up a new company, Canadair, and rushed his flashy new airliner into the air on July 15, 1946. At first the media pooh-poohed his project, making Franklin’s life miserable with a pea-brained campaign to turn the public against Canadair. However, beginning in 1947, the North Star began proving itself, with Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) flying trans-Atlantic to London; followed by the RCAF and CP Air on the Korean Airlift. Meanwhile, when British manufacturers stumbled in their efforts to produce a modern airliner for British Overseas Airways Corporation—their Hermes and Tudor fell flat—BOAC embraced the North Star, renaming it the “Argonaut.” 

The 71 North Stars built by Canadair served the mainline operators reliably into the 1960s, then smaller operators were happy to carry on with them for several more years.

In the late 1940s, the RCAF was flying Vampire and Mustang fighters. The big threat to Canada, however, was the Soviet long-range bomber, against which the RCAF could do nothing. To close this gap, the RCAF, under Air Marshal W.A. Curtis, teamed with Avro Canada to develop a high-flying, all-weather interceptor. In October 1946, RCAF HQ selected the final layout—a straight-forward airframe with powerful Canadian “Orenda” engines. Christened the CF-100, it easily could take on any Soviet bomber. 

On Jan. 17, 1950, test pilot Bill Waterton took the CF-100 prototype on its first flight. The program roared ahead; on June 20, 1951, the first Orenda-powered CF-100 flew. Meanwhile, the RCAF was training pilots and navigators, including Second World War night-fighter veterans and others with experience flying Royal Air Force and U.S. Air Force jets.

From 1953-61, the RCAF would operate nine NORAD and four NATO CF-100 squadrons. These invariably set the highest standards, and Canadian industry thrived on CF-100 business. In one case, when a CF-100 flight simulator was needed, a little-known Montreal company, Canadian Aviation Electronics, won the contract. Today’s giant CAE Inc. traces its roots straight back to the CF-100. 

Canada’s last CF-100s retired in 1981 after 30 years of reliable service. Reminiscing late in life about the CF-100 go-ahead, Air Marshal Curtis proudly observed: “The decision was made on my advice and I never regretted it.” 

Happily, many of these iconic Canadian fighters are preserved as museum pieces and gate guardians.

Through the 1950s, de Havilland Canada was playing with the idea of a twin-engine version of its STOL Otter. The concept gained traction in 1963, when DHC military sales guru, Russ Bannock, was in South Vietnam talking to U.S. Army aviators in the field. What they wanted was a twin-engine STOL aircraft with a tricycle gear to replace their Otters. Bannock discussed this with de Havilland’s top people, who soon approved a project. 

Simplicity was the hallmark of what would become the DHC-6. And the name couldn’t be simpler: Twin Otter. The new plane would combine a re-engineered Otter wing and fuselage with Pratt & Whitney Canada 550-shp PT6 turbines. Prototype CF-DHC-X flew on May 20, 1965. A year later, the Twin Otter was certified, just as U.S. Federal Aviation Administration regulations were changing to better accommodate commuter airlines with 19-seat aircraft. 

Twin Otters were soon being delivered to operators from New England to California. Thus did the Twin Otter help launch the modern U.S. commuter airline industry. Canadian operators also fell in love with the rugged aircraft—including Bradley, Lambair, Quebecair, and Wardair. So did carriers all around the world. Ironically, no big U.S. military orders materialized, since STOL suddenly was dropped as a U.S. Army performance spec.

Early surveys had predicted a market for 300 Twin Otters, but in 1987 the 844th and last was built. DHC by then was in Dash 8 mode, so the Twin Otter was passé. But there was another world—out on the frontline, where airplanes toiled and where repair and overhaul people resurrected worn out Twin Otters. This world needed Twin Otters. Realizing this, in 2005 Viking Air of Sidney, B.C., acquired the Twin Otter rights from Bombardier. Viking soon announced a new version with more power, roominess and payload. The first Viking “Twin Otter Series 400” flew in 2008, and by 2015 orders had surpassed 100.

The original business jets of the 1950s and 1960s created a buzz. Fast and sexy, they enticed companies flying Lodestars and DC-3s. The Eatons led the way in Canada by ordering a Jetstar. U.S., U.K. and French manufacturers fought over the “bizjet” market for years—and then a Canadian company entered the game with mindboggling results.

In the 1970s, Ottawa purchased two ailing companies, de Havilland Canada and Canadair. Canadair was deep in the doldrums, so had to find a viable project. Following a lead, in 1975 company president Fred Kearns talked with innovator Bill Lear, who was touting a “revolutionary” business jet. Canadair realized that this was only a few doodles, yet partnered with Lear. 

With Ottawa and the banks willing to fund the project, design commenced in April 1976. Canadair needed advance orders for 50 planes, so potential customers were brought to Montreal for in-depth seminars. There were mock-ups, a controversial engine selection process, and endless engineering battles. Finally the new plane, christened “Challenger 600,” rolled out in May 1978. It flew in November, but was beset by nightmarish problems. Transport Canada and the FAA rode Canadair relentlessly, the prototype crashed, deliveries lagged, orders were cancelled, bank interest skyrocketed, the recession kicked in and the media were a huge pain. 

In 1981, Kearns hired R.D. Richmond to oversee the Challenger. Richmond ordered layoffs and axed plans for a stretched Challenger. In 1982, Ottawa appointed people to control Canadair, and imposed a write-down, essentially creating a debt-free company. Sales increased and customers suddenly were raving about their Challengers. In 1986, Ottawa sold Canadair to Bombardier. Many organizational changes ensued, but those early horror stories became bad memories and Bombardier introduced new lines of executive jets. 

To 2007, Canadair and Bombardier delivered almost a thousand 600/601/604 Challengers. Today, Bombardier builds its Challenger 300 series (with 500-plus delivered or ordered) and Global Express (600-plus delivered or ordered). Sales are strong, including a deal in May 2015 for as many as 200 Challenger 350s for NetJets. 

The whole Challenger story owes everything to the dogged efforts of such great Canadian business giants as Fred Kearns and R.D. Richmond, who refused to quit when Canadair was on the rocks 35 years ago.

Regional air travel in Canada came into its own in the 1930s, as passengers discovered and enjoyed such routes as Vancouver to Victoria, Buffalo to Toronto, and Montreal to New York. They travelled in safe, comfortable aircraft of the times, including the DH Rapide, Fokkers, the Ford Trimotor, the Sikorsky S-38, etc. Air travel increased and technology advanced, leading to the classic airliners of the 1940s to 1960s (Lodestar, DC-3, Convair 240, Viscount, etc.). 

In the 1980s, airline deregulation saw the mainline Canadian carriers flying jets on their regional routes. Nordair could fly a passenger in a 737 from Montreal to Winnipeg via Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Dryden, Ont. But there was insufficient business on such routes, so a 737 was overkill. 

To increase profitability, the airlines needed equipment tailored to specific markets. De Havilland Canada produced the Twin Otter, which proved ideal for connecting such smaller Ontario communities as Red Lake and Sioux Lookout with Winnipeg and Thunder Bay. At the same time, the Beech 99 and 1900, Brasilia and Metroliner were gaining popularity.  

In 1978, DHC foresaw a market for a larger commuter plane. Company president John Sandford began talking this up as the 36-passenger Dash 8. Within a year, 55 were on order and DHC was feeling upbeat. Design went ahead and the Dash 8 rolled out in April 1983, with Prime Minister Trudeau in attendance. The prototype flew on June 20, but cold breezes were wafting through Downsview caused, in one case, by a U.S. air traffic controllers’ strike that forced some airlines to cancel Twin Otter and Dash 7 orders. In October 1984, the first Dash 8 went to work for norOntair. 

In January 1985, Boeing acquired DHC and launched the stretched Dash 8-300 for airlines needing more capacity. When it subsequently acquired DHC in 1992, Bombardier set up its Bombardier Regional Aircraft Division to market regional products. In June 1995, BRAD announced the go-ahead for the 70-seat Dash 8-400, soon rebranded “Q400.” The prototype was unveiled in November 1997, the same day Dash 8 No. 500 was delivered. Q400 production has been steady ever since. With almost 1,200 in service globally in 2015, the Dash 8 series has become a global emblem for the regional airline industry. 

As the Dash 8 evolved, Bombardier, which had acquired Canadair in 1986, was looking at regional jet possibilities. Its Challenger 601 had a wide enough cabin to accommodate four-abreast seating. In 1983, Fred Smith of FedEx originally had suggested this concept to Canadair, which did some studies. In October 1987, Bombardier CEO Laurent Beaudoin approved initial go-ahead. 

R.D. Richmond oversaw the project and in March 1989, full-scale development began of a 56-seat, 1,000-nautical mile design. The new plane became the Canadair Regional Jet (“CRJ,” colloquially). The prototype flew in May 1991 and three test aircraft soon were busy at Bombardier’s flight test base in Wichita, Kansas. Launch customer Lufthansa CityLine took delivery in November 1992. 

Turboprop regional airliners like the Dash 8 were fast, comfortable, efficient and profitable. The commuter carriers loved them, but initially they were a bit skeptical of regional jets. Ultimately, they learned otherwise—how CRJs were faster, quieter, had great passenger appeal, were fuel efficient and definitely profitable. CityLine soon realized that its CRJs burned eight per cent less fuel than noted in the specs, an annual bonus of $100,000 per CRJ.

Bombardier subsequently stretched the CRJ to compete with larger regional jets from Embraer, etc. Its CRJ 700, 900 and 1000 are highly rated by the regionals. By 2015, 1,021 CRJ 100/200s had been delivered, plus more than 800 later generation CRJs. Outstanding in many ways, the Dash 8 and CRJ families greatly deserve their place as jewels in Canada’s crown of aerospace accomplishments.