‘Hello Charlie’ I say out loud as I walk past the likeness of Charles J Campbell above the door of the Old Post Office.  I presume this is what Charlie intended. That more than 120 years after he took his final breath, his presence is still addressed, he is still greeted, still remembered by the people of Baddeck. Because, obviously, if you have your face carved in stone on a public building, on the Main Street, over the main door - you do not want to be forgotten. There must

Monday is National Aviation Day in Canada and Cape Breton has much to celebrate! From the Files this week, a compilation of Silver Dart stories not often shared, some great quotes and a bit of Dart trivia!   “You ask me why we thought of ‘Silver Dart’ as a name for aerodrome no. 4.  Well, the surfaces are silvered on one side, that suggested the ‘Silver’ and the word ‘dart’ will explain itself.”  - JAD McCurdy in a letter to Mabel Bell, August 1908.   The first flight in Ca

The Silver Dart on Baddeck Bay, February 1909. with JAD McCurdy at the controls (Library of Congress) On March 23, 1909, one month after the first powered flight in Canada, JAD McCurdy stood before a hometown crowd and described the nation’s earliest experiments with powered flight.   This speech is in McCurdy’s own words and gives us a unique first-hand view of the Aerial Experiment Association’s work as they explored manned flight. It is full of his own personal experiences