Little Known Silver Dart Facts
- Jocelyn
- 54 minutes ago
- 5 min read
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 Canada, on the afternoon of February 23, 1909, was a short one. Just one half mile. Mabel, who watched with her husband from the frozen lake, later wrote that “we all pleaded…for another flight” but Bell was firm. “It was the first flight of an airship in Canada, and he would take no chance of disaster to spoil this first success,” she wrote.
In telegrams to the Associated Press, the London Times, the Halifax Morning Herald, the Sydney Post, as well as family and friends, Bell wrote ecstatically about the flight, adding that ‘half the town of Baddeck was present’.
A day later as the Dart made its second flight, Bell noted that McCurdy “made a magnificent flight of four and a half miles circumnavigating – or rather circumdroning Baddeck Bay.”
Bell would try to make the case for their preferred word for flying during other interviews with the press.
“We call them ‘dromes’ – we have got past calling them aerodromes” he told the Ottawa Citizen in March 1909. “In fact, we speak of ‘droming’ from place to place. I do not know whether the word will take or not.”
Between February 23 and the end of March 1909, the Silver Dart made many flights. McCurdy was testing the craft for distance, flying between two upright pine trees ‘planted’ in the ice to serve as distance markers. One was in the middle of Baddeck Bay, the other was near Stony Island in St. Patrick’s Channel. The plane regularly flew past the village of Baddeck, including the school, where the drone of the Dart’s engine brought the school kids rushing to the windows to watch McCurdy and his magnificent flying machine.
But these were not easy flights. There was no protection from the sub-zero winds.
The total weight of the plane, with McCurdy was 950 pounds. Everything – the engine, the battery, the wings – were calculated for maximum lift and speed based on that specific weight. McCurdy knew a fur coat would tip the scales and perhaps keep him on the ground, so his flight suit was a simple wool jacket, wool pants and wool hat.
On March 3, 1910, Bell noted a strange phenomenon appearing on McCurdy’s cheeks after one long flight.
“It is obvious that he must have experienced considerable cold for I notice that McCurdy’s face bears upon each cheek a long white streak extending from the outer corner of the eye all the way down the cheek. This streak seems to be comprised of salt indicating that his eyes had been watering and that the evaporation of the tears had left a streak of salt.”
On March 17, during a flight of more than 20 minutes, McCurdy became hypothermic. Much to the surprise of the residents of Baddeck, he landed the Dart near Steamship Wharf (where Baddeck Marine is today). Villagers and a doctor rushed out to the craft. McCurdy seemed dazed and was brought to the doctor’s sleigh, where one witness said he appeared to be unconscious and so was covered with a ‘buffalo blanket’ to warm him. Not long after, he revived and the doctor provided him with the standard issue for hypothermia back then – brandy. McCurdy returned to the plane and flew back to Beinn Bhreagh (!) where he soon participated in a ‘vigorous game of hockey’ – the Beinn Bhreagh Lab workers versus Baddeck and won (although it is not noted which team he was playing for).
Before the AEA ceased operations at the end of March, the Baddeck Board of Trade pass a resolution recognizing the historical significance of the first Canadian flight. Bell and McCurdy record their responses to the Board of Trade in the AEA Bulletin (see below).
Flights continued in Baddeck into 1910. McCurdy, Baldwin and Bell formed the Canadian Aerodrome Company – Canada’s first plane manufacturing company which used a workforce of trained local men.
Test your Silver Dart Knowledge
1. Where was the Silver Dart first flown?
(a) Baddeck Bay
(b) Halifax Harbour
(c) Hammondsport, New York
(d) Big Baddeck
Answer: The Aerial Experiment Association did much of their work in Hammondsport, N.Y., the home of association member Glenn Curtiss. The A.E.A.'s work centered around Curtiss' engine shop and the Silver Dart was first tested and flown there. The answer is (c).
2. Who was the first person to fly the Silver Dart?
(a) JAD McCurdy
(b) Casey Baldwin
(c) Alexander Graham Bell
(d) Glenn Curtiss
Answer: JAD McCurdy was the first to fly in Canada but it was Casey Baldwin who first flew the Silver Dart in Hammondsport NY. The answer is (b). Interestingly, Alexander Graham Bell never flew in any of the A.E.A.'s four aircraft or two kites.
3. Who was the first Canadian to fly a heavier than air flying machine?
(a) Casey Baldwin
(b) J.A.D. McCurdy
(c) Frederick Banting
(d) Neil McDermid**
Answer: Although McCurdy was the first to fly a flying machine in Canada, it was (no surprise!) Casey Baldwin (a) who was the first Canadian to fly in March 1908 at Hammondsport NY, near Curtiss’s machine shops.
**Bonus points if you know who Neil McDermid was!
(Neil McDermid was a worker at Bell’s Beinn Bhreagh lab. In 1903, he was holding the rope of a giant kite as it flew on the hillside at Beinn Bhreagh. To his surprise, he was lifted 30 feet into the air. This moment inspired Bell, clarifying for him that his tetrahedral kites were capable of lifting a man into the air.
5. Who sent the first air to ground wireless message?
(a) Alexander Graham Bell
(b) JAD McCurdy
(c) Guglielmo Marconi
(d) Samuel Morse
Answer: In August 1910, while flying over New York, McCurdy made another aviation first. He sent a wireless message from an aircraft to the ground. Using Morse code, McCurdy tapped out the message: “Another chapter in aerial achievement is recorded in the sending of this wireless message from an aeroplane in flight." The answer is (b).
McCurdy as a pilot is credited with a number of firsts. See more here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/maple-leaf/rcaf/2019/04/j-a-d-mccurdy-the-father-of-canadian-military-aviation.html
Sources:
Canadiana – Canadian Heritage – The AEA Bulletins: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06946
Library of Congress – the Alexander Graham Bell Papers https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/?q=%22silver+dart%22
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