100 Years of Flight
National Air Force Museum of Canada
Press Release
On Feb. 23, 1909, engineer J.A.D. McCurdy piloted the first powered airplane flight by a British subject in the British Empire – and made Canadian history. The plane was called the Silver Dart. It was built by the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), a group of like-minded aviation enthusiasts dedicated to creating a “practical aerodrome.”
The flight took place on the frozen Bras d’Or Lake at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, near the home of AEA member Alexander Graham Bell. Before a crowd of astonished onlookers, McCurdy took off and piloted the plane for about half a kilometer along the shoreline before making a smooth landing.
The National Air Force Museum of Canada is proud to acknowledge this landmark in Canadian aviation history and has put on display a large photo of this event along with a scale model of the Silver Dart. In addition you will see a full-scale reproduction of the first aircraft purchased for the Canadian military, the 1914 Burgess-Dunne.
We invite everyone to visit the museum and join with us in celebrating this Centennial of Flight.
