The aviation museum’s ‘Silver Dart’ model plane spreads its wings

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Recently, a model of the first airplane to take flight in Canada spread its wings at the Canadian Aviation Museum, as the half-scale model airplane grew to full size.

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Canadian Aviation Museum staff said this week that its Silver Dart aircraft, a model of the first powered airliner to fly in Canada, made a short “flight”, about 27 inches (69 centimeters) in a west-northwest direction, to be exact. during which it was fully detached, transported, and rotated by a team of about a dozen volunteers.

The reason for the trip? After two years of work to date, the aircraft is finally reaching its full wingspan of 7.3 meters (24 feet) and needed more space.

Technological advances in such a short time are remarkable

“We needed to change it between 10 and 20 degrees and shift it sideways a couple of feet to put the last bay (section) of the wing at each end of the wings,” said Mary Guthrie, whose family donated to build the model and is doing much of the work.

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“It’s all connected, but… what would you compare it to? Take a toothpick model and move it around without all the toothpicks falling apart. It was quite stressful, but there were no setbacks. “

The Silver Dart is a model of the first aircraft to fly in Canada in February 1909. At the time, the aircraft was innovative due to its water-cooled engine and wheeled landing gear, which meant that the aircraft did not need the launch mechanism that other aircraft needed. .

Once completed, visitors to the aviation museum will be able to see the history of Canadian aviation from the country’s first motor flight to WWII and beyond.

The aircraft is also important to women’s contributions to the history of flight, as the first Silver Dart was financed and supported by Alexander Graham Bell’s wife, Mabel. It’s an element of the story that was particularly important to Guthrie’s mother, Margaret, who recently died.

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“She was a great advocate for the family that put this together,” Guthrie said. Guthrie’s father, Ted Douglas, as well as his brother Robert and sister Margaret Perry, are all involved in the model project, and it was Ted and Margaret Douglas who made the project possible with a donation.

The Silver Dart model is about 50 percent complete after work began about two years ago, Guthrie said, although he joked that about 180 percent remains. While they are not making any promises about when it will be done, t The aircraft reaching its wingspan is an important milestone and visitors will now be able to appreciate how the aircraft is assembled.

“I hope people see how far the technology has come since its inception in 1909 from essentially a kite with a motor,” he said. “The technological advances in such a short time are remarkable. And I hope people understand the courage it took in 1909 to fly that kite with a motor. “

The Canadian Aviation Museum will be closed from Christmas until further notice in the New Year. A spokesperson for the organization said the museum board made the decision to close and reevaluate in the New Year in light of the surge in COVID-19 cases and the vulnerable nature of many of the museum’s volunteers. Staff will continue to work on ongoing projects in the hangar on a rotating basis.

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