The new GPS accuracy: what the U.S. military isn't saying

"He said it was as if he had about two shots of whiskey. He wanted to do it three or four more times."

- Jim Lovelace, McCurdy's aide de camp during his later years as Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, on McCurdy's feelings about piloting the Silver Dart on Canada's historic first flight - February 23, 1909.

The heady days of early flight

It was a bitterly cold, windy day when John A.D. McCurdy took off from the frozen waters of Baddeck Bay, Nova Scotia to make the historic first flight in Canada. Like most flying machines of its time, the Silver Dart had relatively poor control - even though it was one of the finest pioneer machines built, and incorporated all the lessons learned from its three preceding experimental aircraft built by the Aerial Experiment Association (A.E.A.) to which young McCurdy belonged.

Chaired by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the Aerial Experiment Association was officially formed on October 1, 1907. Its goal was to get into the air with a powered aircraft capable of carrying a man. From L-R are A.E.A. members Glenn Curtiss, F.W. (Casey) Baldwin, Dr. Bell, Lt. Thomas Selfridge, and John A.D. McCurdy.

The A.E.A. was officially formed in October 1907 on Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion and bank account. It was headed by the great inventor himself (who had a home at Baddeck) and had as its members, four young men eager to make their mark during the heady days of early flight: American Glenn H. Curtiss, a motorcycle manufacturer who would later be awarded the Scientific American Trophy for the first official one-kilometre flight in the Western hemisphere and later be world-renowned as an airplane manufacturer; F.W. (Casey) Baldwin, the first Canadian and first British subject to pilot a public flight - in Hammondsport, New York; J.A.D. McCurdy; and Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, an official observer of the U.S. government.

Having already carried out successful experimental flights on three "aerodromes," as Bell called them, near Curtiss's shop in Hammondsport, New York where the planes were built, Bell was eager to have an A.E.A. machine flown in Canada.

People on skates bring the Silver Dart into take-off position on February 23, 1909.

So, on that fateful frosty morning of February 23, 1909, McCurdy readied himself to make that memorable flight. Runners on skates held onto the wing tips at either side of the aircraft to keep it stable as it taxied out for take-off. If something went wrong, the person on the left side was to "hold on for dear life and swing the plane around," remembers Jim Lovelace, McCurdy's aide de camp in his later years as Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, and with whom McCurdy would share his stories of the early days of flight. (As aide de camp, Lovelace didn't just attend to McCurdy at official functions, but shared many discussions over a glass of scotch in his garden "while the ships were still sailing in and out of the harbour, the fog horns going, the smell of fish and everything else.")

With forests on either side of the Bras d'Or Lake, "it worried him what might happen if the aircraft didn't behave as he hoped it would," recalls Lovelace. Piloting an aircraft in the early days was not without real dangers. A.E.A. member Lt. Selfridge became the world's first aviation fatality as a passenger of one of Orville Wright's planes just five months earlier.

McCurdy in the Silver Dart on the first heavier-than-air, powered flight in Canada and the British empire.

But, to McCurdy's delight, the Silver Dart had a successful take-off, and McCurdy flew it for half a mile (.8 km) before landing.

"He said it was just like being on a high, as we would say today," remembers Lovelace, who would hear of that first flight at least 50 times over. "He wanted to do it three or four more times, but Bell saw his exuberance and thought he had to contain it."

Fearing that McCurdy would go beyond the limits of the aircraft, Bell decided to end the day successfully with the completion of that one flight.

Like other aircraft of its day (canards or pusher aircraft), the Silver Dart was designed, in a way, backwards when compared to today's aircraft. Its horizontal tail surface was on the front of the aircraft and McCurdy sat between it and the engine in the back.

McCurdy however - described by one friend as a "jovial" fellow who was "always full of jokes" - would have many more opportunities to fly the Silver Dart. His most impressive day of flying with the A.E.A. came on March 10, 1909, when he flew two circular courses over a total distance of 20 miles (32 km). And after the A.E.A. was disbanded - having met its objective of making "a practical flying machine driven through the air by its own power and carrying a man" - McCurdy and Baldwin formed the Canadian Aerodrome Company, Canada's first aircraft company.

During preparations to show the Canadian government that their planes would be useful in the military, McCurdy and Baldwin made Canada's first unofficial passenger flight in Petawawa, Ontario that summer.

"[The evening before their demonstrations], McCurdy decided that he would like to test the field for ease of taxiing the aircraft," recalls Lovelace. "So Baldwin got to the bottom of the hill and started swinging this lantern. McCurdy was supposed to taxi the aircraft up to Baldwin and then turn it around and that would be it.

Being the kind of guy he was, McCurdy opened the throttle and the aircraft took off and headed straight for Baldwin, who threw down the lantern and took off himself and hid in the bushes."

But McCurdy hadn't finished having his fun. After landing, they decided to turn the plane around and taxi it back up the hill for the next morning.

"Baldwin, this time, stood on the runner and held on, while McCurdy taxied the machine. But once again, McCurdy opened the throttle and took off, with Baldwin hanging on for dear life!" chuckles Lovelace.

McCurdy and Baldwin did make the first official passenger flight the next day on August 2, 1909. But, despite four successful passenger flights on the Silver Dart, the twosome failed to sell any aircraft to the Canadian military. And during the fifth flight of the day, while McCurdy was coming down for a landing with the setting sun blazing in his eyes, the Silver Dart struck a small rise in the ground and crashed. Although both McCurdy and Baldwin were uninjured, the Silver Dart's flying days were over.

The aerial adventures of J.A.D. McCurdy however, didn't end there.