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Aviation

Delve into real-life accounts of aviation in the Second World War, learn about asteroids, and find tips on how to observe upcoming celestial events.

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Wilbur Franks trying on his G-suit, 1941: Library and Archives Canada PA-063923

Dr. Wilbur Franks: Developing the G-Suit

Canadian War Museum

Dr. Frederick Banting, best known as the Nobel-prize-winning inventor of insulin, assembled a group of doctors before the Second World War, and they turned their attention to aviation medicine. In 1941, Dr. Wilbur Franks, one of those researchers at the Banting Institute, developed a flying suit reinforced with fluid channels to help pilots withstand the extreme G (gravitational) forces exerted on their bodies during air combat. When performing high-speed manoeuvres, pilots tended to lose

Propeller model used by W. Rupert Turnbull in 1923. Source: Ingenium 1967.1152

Variable Pitch Propeller

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The variable pitch propeller gave pilots a new measure of control over their aircraft’s performance.

Carl’s suggestions of a bubble window cockpit and landing skids became standard features on later models of the fragile, low-powered Bell 47. Kelowna Public Archives 9184

How to fall off a mountain in a Helicopter

Kelowna Museums Society

Carl C. Agar DFC was a pioneer in the field of small helicopter flying. He was a high altitude pilot for Okanagan Air Services Ltd in the mountains of British Columbia in 1947. He created a special technique for landing and taking off from high mountain perches using a Bell 47-B3 helicopter. A helicopter’s fast-turning rotors creates lift to hover, while an airplane’s forward motion generates lift with its wings. The thinner air at higher elevations affects the amount of engine power produced to

Avro CF-105 Arrow at the roll out ceremony, October 4 1957. Source: CAVM-1763

Avro Arrow

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The Avro CF-105 Arrow was the first and, so far, the only Canadian-designed supersonic aircraft. The Avro CF-105 Arrow was Canada’s first and, so far, only Canadian-designed supersonic aircraft. Developed during the Cold War in the 1950s, the Arrow was designed to intercept Soviet bombers in Canada’s Arctic airspace as they attacked North America. Avro Canada developed the massive interceptor and a wholly-new jet engine, the Iroquois. The Arrow first flew on March 25, 1958, and was among the

Wilbur R. Franks and his anti-gravity suit, 1962. Source: University of Toronto Archives

Franks Flying Suit

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The Franks Flying Suit helped fighter pilots fly to the edge of human performance. The Franks Flying Suit was a Canadian innovation, the world’s first anti-gravity suit used in combat. Designed by Dr Wilbur Franks, the suit used water pressure to counter gravitational effects — or G forces — on pilots when they performed turns, rolls, or other manoeuvres. G forces forced blood to collect or pool in the pilot’s lower body, restricting blood flow to the brain: the pilot could then black out or

Curtiss JN-4 (Can.) and JN-4a airplanes during First World War. Artist: Robert W. Bradford Date: ca. 1966. Source: Ingenium 1967.0891

Curtiss JN-4 Aircraft

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The Curtiss JN-4 “Canuck” first earned its reputation as a trainer aircraft during the First World War and later won praise as a jack-of-all trades in postwar aviation. The two-seater Canuck was an improved version of an earlier design and was closely related to the American-made Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. Taking its first flight in 1917, the Canuck — known for its stability — became the standard flight trainer for the British and American air forces during the war. Many Canadians, who later served in

First flight of the Silver Dart immortalized in a painting by Robert W. Bradford , 1965 Source: Ingenium 1967.0893

Silver Dart

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The Silver Dart made the first powered flight in Canada when it lifted off the frozen surface of Bras d’Or Lake on February 23, 1909. Piloted by J. A. D. McCurdy, the Silver Dart’s designer, the flight took place at Alexander Graham Bell’s retreat in Baddeck, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. McCurdy was a member of the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), which Bell’s wife Mabel funded to support a team of aircraft researchers that also included engine designer Glenn Curtiss, engineer F. W

Sidney van den Bergh in 1968. Source: Dutch National Archives. Author: Ron Kroon / Anefo

Eyes on the sky: a life dedicated to the mysteries of the galaxies

Algonquin college

Bryson Masse Algonquin College Journalism Program His father wanted Sidney van den Bergh to keep astronomy as merely a hobby, hoping he would one day choose a more practical career. But van den Bergh insisted on pursuing astronomy, helping to expand our knowledge of the galaxies. If he had chosen differently we would have missed his contributions to the study of stellar phenomena like globular clusters, nebulas and supernovae. Born in 1929 in the Netherlands, van den Bergh completed his doctoral

Wallace Turnbull.

Propelling aeroplane history

Algonquin college

Daniel Prinn Algonquin College Journalism Program Wallace Turnbull, an aeronautical engineer, was best known for his contribution to Canadian aviation by inventing the variable pitch propeller – a type of propeller that allows the blades to rotate around a long axis, thus changing the blade pitch. His variable-pitch propeller was successfully tested in flight in 1927 in Ontario. The device was designed to adjust the angle in which the propeller blades cut the air. It provided safety and

McCurdy sits in a Curtiss JN-4 bi-plane in 1911. Source: City of Toronto Archives Photo, Fonds 1244, Item 79.

J.A.D. McCurdy: Reaching new heights

Algonquin college

Daniel Prinn Algonquin College Journalism Program John Alexander Douglas McCurdy was the first Canadian to ever pilot an aircraft. Not only that, but he was the first person to fly a plane so far over the sea that he couldn’t see the shore. His goal was to fly over the Straights of Florida from Key West to Havana – thus setting a new world record for distance flown over open water. The Havana Post and the city of Havana, Cuba, had offered McCurdy $8,000 to be the first person to fly the 94-mile

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