On August 4, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany and Canada, as part
of the Great British Empire, was at war. A war in which the airplane changed
forever the way nations do battle.
The war brought new words to the aviation dictionary, among them: "dogfight,"
"ace," "bomber," "air raid."
At first, the airmen's main job was reconnaissance. They brought back "bird's
eye views" of the enemy and later photographs. The pilots did not
want enclosed cockpits. They would have ruined the view and hampered the
use of their first weapons -- hand-held rifles, pistols, bricks and even
grappling hooks! These were soon replaced by mounted machine guns.
The French Spad VII is
one of the classic single-seat fighters -- the wire, wood and fabric "Top
Gun" of its time. Rugged and solid, with good performance, it was
flown by the French, British, American, Belgian, Italian and Russian air
forces.
The French called pilots of great skill and daring "aces."
During the War, "ace" gained its present meaning: a pilot who
has downed five or more enemy aircraft in combat. These were Pilots like:
Bishop, Ball, Guynemer, Rickenbaker, Baracca and the famous Red Baron,
von Richthofen.
The Sopwith Triplane,
a three-wing fighter, is another classic example of fighter airplanes of
that period. This aircraft so impressed the Germans that they developed
their own triplanes. The Fokker Dr I, was made famous by von Richthofen
and his "Flying Circus" fighter wing. It was the aircraft in
which he died, shot down by Canadian A. Roy Brown.
Although there were some flops, well-designed triplanes were manoeuvrable,
climbed "like homesick angels" and had good visibility for the
pilot. The museum's example, the "Black Maria," is a reproduction
of that flown by Raymond Collishaw, leader of the all-Canadian "Black
Flight" of Number 10 Naval Squadron. Between May and July of 1917
the Flight shot down 87 enemy aircraft. As one historian put it: "The
sight of a Sopwith Triplane formation often induced the enemy to dive out
of range."
It was in a Sopwith Snipe
that Canadian ace William Barker engaged in one of the most amazing single-handed
air battles of the war in October 1918.
Canada entered the war with a handful of airmen. By 1918 there were
22,000. A third of the pilots in the British air services who downed 30
or more enemy aircraft were Canadians. Our image of World War I aviators
is one of flamboyant gallantry, but the truth is that hundreds of young
men died horrible deaths in their flying machines. Some 1,563 gave their
lives, and well over half that number were decorated, three with the Victoria
Cross - W.A."Billy" Bishop, A.A. McLeod, and W.G. Barker. Of
seven British pilots credited with 50 or more victories, four were Canadians,
including the Empire's two leading surviving aces - Bishop with his 72
victories, and Raymond Collishaw with 60.
The museum's Curtiss JN-4 (Canadian) "Canuck"
is one of 1,288 machines produced by Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd. of
Toronto, a company established by the Imperial Munitions Board to meet
the RFC's and later the U.S. Air Service's requirement for training aircraft.
The "Canuck," a modified American Curtiss JN-3, holds more "firsts"
than any other Canadian aircraft. It was the first aircraft to be mass-produced
in Canada and first to be exported in large quantities. It flew one of
the first Canadian airmail in June 1918 between Montréal and Toronto,
and made the first aerial survey, in Labrador, in the summer of 1919. After
the war, it entered into widespread civil use, where it became the preferred
airplane of barnstormers, giving many Canadians their first sight of an
aircraft and their first chance to fly.
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