First powered flight in Canada

Answer 1

23 February 1909

First Flight

On this day, members of the Aerial Experiment Association accomplished

the first manned airplane flight in Canada, by flying the Silver Dart over the

Bras d'Or Lake, near Baddeck, Nova Scotia. The A.E.A. was officially formed

in October 1907 on Mrs. Mabel Bell's suggestion, and she contributed money to

pay for most of the expenses. It was headed by Alexander Graham Bell himself

and had as its members, four young men eager to make their mark during the

heady days of early flight:

* F.W. (Casey) Baldwin, the first Canadian and first British subject

to pilot a public flight (in Hammondsport, New York);

* 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 became world-renowned as an airplane manufacturer;

* J.A.D. McCurdy; and

* Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, an official observer from the U.S. government.