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.

It is now known that the flight at Baddeck on 23 February 1909,
commemorated by this plaque, was the first flight in Canada,
but was not the first flight in the British Empire.

Eighteen weeks earlier, on 16 October 1908, Samuel Franklin Cody
made a flight of 1390 feet 424 metres over Laffin's Plain, Farnborough,
England, which is recognized by the Royal Aero Club as the first
powered flight in England and in the British Empire.

Links to Relevant Websites

Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame