No other nation in the world owes more to flight than Canada. Aviation opened up the country and remains a lifeline to communities across this vast land. The origins of aviation in Canada can be traced back to the quaint resort community of Baddeck and the work of Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association at his Beinn Bhreagh estate.

An active and passionate volunteer planning effort has been ongoing through the work of the SDCA. Friends and neighbours from regional and provincial communities, as well as national and international visitors are invited to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of Canadian aviation. The activities planned will ensure an appropriate memorial to Alexander Graham Bell’s association with Baddeck and his achievements in Aerial Experimentation.

In addition to the Silver Dart Replica, the proposed expansion will include an aviation exhibit that is interactive and includes simulators. The Innovation Centre will have a multi-purpose theatre and conference complex with technology and new media as well as Learning Centre activities.

This state of the art expansion will leave a lasting impact on this National Historic Site that truly brings to life the rich aviation history associated with Alexander Graham Bell, the Aerial Experiment Association and the community of Baddeck.

Legacy Committee of the Silver Dart Centennial Association:

Dr. Roberta Bondar, Honorary Chair
Bruce Morrison, Local Chair
Hugh Bell Muller, Kite House, Beinn Bhreagh
Jim Morrow, Publisher, Victoria Standard
Richard Roberts, General Manager, Auberge Giseles Country Inn
Aynsley Mac Farlane, General Manager, Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site
Eleanor L. Anderson, Project Manager, Silver Dart Centennial Association

There are a number of ways the public can get involved with the 2009 Celebration:

Event Volunteer – If you would like to volunteer for an event or project with the Silver Dart Centennial, you can do so by filling out the form below. Volunteers will then be contacted by the event management staff who will enlist them for a specific role. For a list of events, refer to the Events web page.

Silver Dart Aviation Ambassador – If you are an aviation enthusiast or work in the aviation industry, you can get involved as a Silver Dart Aviation Ambassador. These ambassadors will receive notices of events and festivities as well as Society meeting updates of the SCDA. With this information, Ambassadors are encouraged to share news with their special interest groups or industry organizations to promote as widely as possible the Silver Dart Celebration activities. In turn, the Ambassadors can also share news with the SCDA office through a web blog. Fill out the Get Involved form to become an Aviation Ambassador.

Event Sponsor – If you belong to a business or company that has an interest in becoming a sponsor of one or more events planned for the Silver Dart Centennial Celebration, please contact Project Manager Eleanor Anderson at eleanor@smartprojects.ca or fill out the Get Involved form.

Legacy Donor – The Silver Dart Centennial Association has a Legacy Committee who are initiating a capital expansion campaign aimed at raising funds to build an extension on to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum to house a replica of the Silver Dart and interpretative displays conveying Alexander Graham Bell’s and the Aerial Experiment Association’s work in aviation. If you would like to support this significant project and the goal of preserving Canadian history in aviation, you can contact ???. To learn more about donating to the Spirit of the Silver Dart Legacy Campaign, you can also fill out the Get Involved form.

School – If you are a schoolteacher or student, you can make the Silver Dart Centennial Celebration a part of your classroom learning. Engage students through fundraising or special event activities and help them learn about Canada’s rich aviation history and the exciting scientific inventions of Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association. Fill out the Get Involved form and an information kit will be sent to you.

The Canadian Centennial of Flight Project encompasses the Silver Dart Celebrations and many others happening across our nation and spearheaded by various organizations interested in aviation and space as well as the aerospace industry. The Canadian Centennial of Flight project will be fostering and promoting events and activities across the nation to celebrate this important milestone in Canadian history. To get involved on a national level, contact ??.

Silver Dart Flight Centennial Anniversary – Feb. 20 – 24, 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009
Coin & Postage Stamp Unveiling
Student Assembly throughout Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board

Saturday, February 21, 2009
Centennial Gala Dinner & Community Celebrations with the Governor General of Canada & Representative of the British Royal Family

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Flypast of Golden Hawks and vintage civilian aircraft (CAPA)
Launch of National Aviation Art Exhibit, Alexander Graham Bell Museum
Community Events (Curling Bonspiel, Snowmobile Rally, etc.)

Monday, February 23, 2009 – National Aviation Day
Media Reception & Unveiling of Plaque
Flight of the Silver Dart Replica by Welland Aviation Group
Celebratory Fireworks

Think Tank Symposium – April 25 – 27, 2009
First Wednesday Night Think Tank for Symposium Presenters
Symposium #1

Think Tank Symposium #2 – May 20 – 22, 2009
Second Wednseday Night Thank Tank for Symposium Presenters
Symposium #2

Silver Dart Youth in Aviation – June 21 – 27, 2009
Youth in Aviation Week Activities
Silver Dart Air Show
Aviators Ball

Aerial Experiment Association Comes Alive in Baddeck – July & August, 2009
community activities
Silver Dart Cup, Bras d’Or Yacht Club Annual Regatta

Silver Dart Aviation Week – August 16 – 22, 2009
Simulators & Skyhawks
Aviation Day at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum – August 16th

Bell Kite Festival & Harvest Home Picnic – September 17 – 20, 2009
International Kite Makers Workshop
Kite Festival
Silver Dart Legacy Golf Tournament
Harvest Home Picnic, September 20th

“Building on the Spirit of the Silver Dart” Annual Innovation Conference –
October 1 – 3, 2009
this annual knowledge and technology conference would be aimed at various scientific, engineering, technology industry segments and groups
Baddeck and the AGB Museum would play hosts providing the motivation, locale, accommodations, logistical support but the industry or special interest group would provide the programming guidance and access to their audiences
The concept would be to become inspired by Bell and his work and the beautiful Baddeck area to promote progress and innovation in a particular industry or among an expert group

Think Tank Symposium #3 – November 18 – 20, 2009
Third Wednseday Night Thank Tank for Symposium Presenters
Symposium #3

Salute to the Silver Dart Centennial – December 31, 2009
Wrap-Up & Thank You Reception, Alexander Graham Bell Museum

In addition to the Sivler Dart Celebration, other events are happening across Canada as part of the Canadian Centennial of Flight. For more information, contact (we’ll get you this email or web address).

And, it was at his summer home, Beinn Bhreagh in Baddeck, Cape Breton that Bell began his experimentation with flight.

Other aviation pioneers were busy studying how to get a man into the air. The first controlled, powered flight in the world was over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903 by Orville and Wilbur Wright. It was a biplane. Bell didn’t learn of this feat until 1905 and it only spurred him on, determined to continue his own work at his laboratory in Beinn Bhreagh.

Worried about safety, Bell first used self-propelled kites, believing this was the way to eventually get man into the air. He built ring kits, box kites and kites made of tetrahedral cells, one of which named the ‘Frost King’ carried Neil McDermid into the air nine metres in 1905.

It was Bell’s wife Mabel that encouraged him to get other younger men involved who were just as enthusiastic about flight but could bring engineering and other technical knowledge into the mix. Bell, as he often did, listened to his wife’s advice.

Bell asked J.A.D. “Douglas” McCurdy to join him at Beinn Bhreagh and bring a fellow student with him. Now a mechanical engineering student at the University of Toronto, McCurdy was the son of a longtime family friend and spent many summers in Baddeck. McCurdy asked Frederick W. Baldwin, known as Casey, to join him for a summer holiday in Baddeck. Both men thoroughly enjoyed their time working with Bell and his assistants at Beinn Bhreagh.

Baldwin, born in Toronto, already was very interested in aviation and wrote a thesis on the possibility of powered flight. After his summer holiday, Baldwin returned to Baddeck in the fall of 1906 where he helped Bell experiment with his kites and built a tower made of tetrahedral cells on the top of Beinn Bhreagh. After he completed his studies in 1907, McCurdy joined Baldwin and Bell.

Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, a graduate of West Point Academy and an artillery officer with the United States Army read about Bell in National Geographic and contacted him so he could observe his kite experiments. Bell wrote to President Theadore Roosevelt requesting Selfridge be assigned to Beinn Bhreagh to be the US Army’s official observer. Selfridge was appointed to the new Aeronautical Division of the US Army and joined Baldwin and McCurdy in 1907.

A successful motorcycle manufacturer from Hammondsport, New York traveled to Baddeck in the summer of 1907 to deliver an aviation motor. Glenn Curtiss, with his experience in building lightweight motors and his technical knowledge, joined the rest of the team in Baddeck in the fall of 1907.

Mabel Bell observed the work of this group that summer and early fall of 1907 and came to them with an idea. She suggested forming an organization with the purpose of “getting into the air” and she offered to fund the venture. The group accepted the proposal and the Aerial Experiment Association was born on October 1, 1907. Bell was chairman, Baldwin was chief engineer, McCurdy treasurer and assistant engineer, Selfridge secretary and Curtiss director of experiments. They decided they would keep the Association active for one year.

The AEA started with the ‘Cygnet’, a large tetrahedral kite that carried Selfridge above the Bras d’Or Lakes about 50 metres. Then, the men went to Hammondsport, New York, the home of Curtiss Motorcyles, with the exception of Bell who returned to Washington for the winter with his family.

While in Hammondsport, they built a biplane glider and then, Baldwin, McCurdy, Selfridge and Curtiss decided to experiment with powered aircrafts, each responsible for a machine but all sharing their ideas and advice. They stayed in constant communication with Bell.

The first aircraft was the ‘Red Wing’ and it was flown by Casey Baldwin. Baldwin holds the honor of the first Canadian to fly a heavier-than-air machine when he flew in Hammondsport, New York on March 12, 1908.

Then, came the ‘White Wing’ with its moveable control surfaces on the wing tips called ailerons, inspired by Bell who provided instructions from Washington. The other feature new to this machine was a tricycle undercarriage on motorcycle wheels – the first use of a wheeled undercarriage in North America. Baldwin took the White Wing on its inaugral flight and it was also flown by Curtiss and McCurdy. The White Wing crashed after several trials with McCurdy as pilot but he survived even if the only thing to survive from the machines was the motor. The men remained undaunted by the latest accident.

The third machine was the ‘June Bug’ with Curtiss having overall responsibility. After many modifications and trials, the group decided to challenge for the Scientific American magazine trophy for the first public flight of one kilometer. Curtiss and the June Bug succeeded in this endeavor on July 4, 1908 in Hammondsport.

The next machine was crafted by McCurdy with more modifications and christened the ‘Silver Dart’ for its rubberized silk fabric covering the wings. While work on this latest craft continued, the men received word from Washington that Selfridge had died in a plane crash with Orville Wright who had survived but was badly injured. This saddened the men deeply who attended Selfridge’s funeral and there, decided, they would continue the work of the AEA for another six months until March 1909.

In late January 1909, the ‘Silver Dart’ was disassembled and shipped to Beinn Bhreagh by train. The remaining members of the AEA decided it was time for the first Canadian flight since McCurdy and Baldwin were Canadian. On February 23, 1909, the Silver Dart was ready for its first Canadian trial.

After the second try, the craft gathered speed and lifted into the air, leaving a crowd of onlookers on skates on the ice of the Baddeck Bay below. The Bells celebrated by having everyone back to Beinn Bhreagh for sandwiches and refreshments and Bell telegrammed the London ‘Times’ to announce the first flight of a flying machine in Canada to the world.

The AEA accomplished many firsts in 18 months and made a lasting impact on aviation history. In Bell’s words, the Aerial Experiment Association was a “co-operative, scientific association, not for gain but for the love of art and doing what we can to help one another.”
The Loves of Bell’s Life – Family, Invention and Beinn Bhreagh

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to Melville and Eliza Bell. He had an older brother Melville and a younger brother, Ted. Eventually, both brothers lost their battle with tuberculosis, leaving Alec an only child.

Alec’s thirst for knowledge and his keen interest in invention began at an early age. As a teenage boy, he came up with a farm tool to help remove the husks of corn after his childhood friend’s father challenged the boys to do something useful with their time. The young Bell then began to work with his father who was a ground-breaking elocution instructor and published “Bell’s Standard Elocutionist” used for more than 100 years as a guide for proper enunciation.

Bell worked as teacher for the deaf in Boston and it was there that he met his future wife, Mabel Hubbard. During this time, he continued to experiment with telegraphy that eventually led him to electricity, electromagnets and sound waves. In 1876, with the backing of Mabel’s father and Thomas Sanders and the assistance of an electrician, Thomas Watson, Alexander completed his invention, one of the greatest in history – the telephone.

After marrying Mabel in 1877, he continued his work on inventions and moved with Mabel’s family to Washington. In 1878, the Bell’s welcomed their first child, a daughter named Elsie. In 1880, they had a second daughter, Marian, who became known as Daisy. In the early 1880’s, they began to search for a summer home and in 1885, the young family went to Baddeck for a summer holiday after reading about it in a travel book.

While staying at the Telegraph House, the Bells enjoyed the beautiful scenery, pleasant climate and the Scottish traditions and culture so familiar to Alec, in Baddeck, Cape Breton. On their second stay, Mabel and Alec noticed a place called Red Head on the other side of Baddeck Bay. It was there they decided to build a place of their own and call it Beinn Bhreagh, Gaelic for beautiful mountain.

Beinn Bhreagh became a hub of activity watched over by Mabel Bell, who always wanted it to be a family home first and foremost. The Bells and in particular, Mabel, contributed to life in Baddeck in various ways and even, helped the war effort with their boatbuilding and community fundraisers. During the summer months, the Bells’ two daughters, their husbands and ten grandchildren would spend endless hours swimming, boating, exploring and learning.

Beinn Bhreagh also provided the inspiring surroundings, quiet refuge and willing workers to support Bell’s ongoing experiments. In fact, life at the estate revolved around Bell and his science. It was at Beinn Bhreagh that the Aerial Experiment Association took root. From there, aviation experimentation by the AEA’s five members flourished, culminating with the first powered, controlled flight in Canada by Canadian Douglas McCurdy.

In addition to aviation, Bell and Casey Baldwin, his engineer from the AEA, experimented with hydrofoils. Their HD-4 reached a speed of 70.86 mph over a one-mile course across Baddeck Bay, setting a record for watercraft. They worked on many other inventions and experiments together from genetics in sheep to x-ray photography to a precurser to the iron lung.

Then, Bell’s health began to deteroriate and he died on August 2, 1922 at his beloved summer home in Baddeck, holding his wife and partner’s hand of 45 years. His wife, Mabel, died in January the following year and she was buried next to her husband at the top of Beinn Bhreagh.

Bell’s work and his contributions to society are accurately depicted in compelling exhibits at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum located across the bay from Beinn Bhreagh. Many of his contraptions, writings and laboratory journals were donated by his daughters, Elsie and Daisy, to be a tribute to the hard work, commitment to invention and spirit of discovery that was their father.

“Addressing a meeting of inventors in 1891, Alec declared, “Wherever you may find the inventor, you may give him wealth or you may take away from him all that he has; and he will go on inventing. He can no more help inventing than he can help thinking or breathing.”

“I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian Rockies, the American Rockies, the Andes and the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland; but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all.” Alexander Graham Bell

On a cold morning in February, the vision of flying a powered aircraft for the first time in Canada came to be when the Silver Dart took to the air above the frozen waters of Baddeck Bay in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

This inaugural Canadian aviation feat on February 23rd, 1909 was the result of innovative thinking, entrepreneurial spirit, unrelenting determination and a talented team of experts who had a common vision.

When world-renowned and accomplished inventor Alexander Graham Bell decided to turn his gaze toward the skies and find a way for man to fly, it was based on a lifelong fascination with flight. His wife Mabel, knew if he were to realize his dream, he would have to enlist the help of like-minded men who were just as enthusiastic about flight but had other technological knowledge.

J.A.D. “Douglas” McCurdy, a friend of the Bell family and a mechanical engineer studying at the University of Toronto was the first to join Bell. He brought with him a fellow classmate, Frederick W. “Casey” Baldwin. Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, an artillery officer with the United States Army and motorcycle engine manufacturer Glenn Curtiss rounded out the team.

Together, this group of men formed the Aerial Experiment Association with the financial backing of Mabel Bell and began building aircrafts and conducting experimental flights. It started with the Cygnet, a man-carrying massive tetrahedral kite designed by Bell followed by the airplanes or “aerodromes” as Bell called them, the Red Wing, the White Wing, the June Bug and then, the most advanced of them all, the Silver Dart.

A year and four months after the AEA was formed, the Silver Dart, piloted by Douglas McCurdy and under the watchful eyes of Bell, Baldwin and Curtiss, was brought onto the ice at Baddeck Bay.

McCurdy started the engine and volunteers on skates pushed it into position. The Silver Dart glided along the ice and finally lifted off to the astonishment of onlookers. It rose 9 metres into the air and flew for almost a kilometer and a half at 65 kilometres per hour. The first flight of a flying machine in Canada and the entire British Empire was a huge success.