He’s more known for the telephone, but on February 9th, 1909, inventor Alexander Graham Bell was a driving force behind the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air plane in the British Commonwealth.
On that cold winter morning on the frozen surface of Bras D’Or Lake at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, a flimsy apparatus lifted off the ice and flew for about half a kilometre before making a smooth landing further down the shore.
The craft was the creation of Bell’s “Aerial Experiment Association”, a small group of enthusiasts devoted to creating a viable aircraft. Called the “Silver Dart”, the plane was made of a mixture of steel tubes, bamboo, wires, wood, rubberized and graphite impregnated silk balloon cloth, and friction tape.
It was actually the fourth plane built by the AEA, after the “Red Wing”, the “White Wing”, and the “June Bug”. The graphite gave the cloth a silvery sheen, hence the name “Silver Dart”
The Silver Dart was piloted by engineer J.A.D McCurdy and powered by a 40hp V8 motor built by Glenn Curtiss, who would later become a huge figure in US aviation.
“It was a brilliant winter day and the ice of Baddeck Bay was completely free of snow. We wheeled the aircraft out of its shed on the shore amidst the incredulous stares and remarks of a couple of hundred spectators who had gathered to witness the event. I having taken my seat, the machine was released. Much to the joy and surprise of everyone present, the airplane took to the air after a short run and flew a distance of three-quarters of a mile at an altitude of about sixty feet, and then landed and taxied back to the starting point, and I think the thing that impressed me most was the look of absolute astonishment on the faces of the spectators. :It was then that Bell announced that the flight had been successful, that it might have made history and that no more flying should take place that day so that there could be no record left of anything which would mar the achievement.” [J.A.D. McCurdy, “Address given at the 19th Annual Meeting of The Telephone Association of Canada on July 1st, 1948, in Maritime Telegraph & Telephone & Associate Companies’ Employees, The Monthly Bulletin, July 1948, p. 129]
The Silver Dart would make some 46 more successful flights before crashing in August during the fourth and final demonstration in front of military officials at Camp Petawawa in Ontario.
Fifty years later, members of the Royal Canadian Air Force built a replica which was flown at Baddeck on the anniversary, feb. 29 1959. That replica was later on display at the Canadian Aviation museum in Ottawa.
Another anniversary flight was made in 2009 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary, this time with Canadian astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason at the controls after which the replica was moved to the Alexander Bell National Historic site and museum in Baddeck.
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