$5.50 in Canada • I >*FT j»2 ^fcr— l Hi ' W E m ^^^^^^9 S^bMMBft M and the by Ian MacLachlan and Bruce MacKay For the first nine years of trans­ continental airline service, 1939-1948, Lethbridge was western Canada's principal airline hub. The city was ideally situated to fulfill this function due to its location on the southerly route of the Trans-Canada Airway and the limited operational ceiling of the unpressurized Lockeed aircraft then in use.1 fn the early years of civil aviation, air travel was viewed as a mode of last resort rather than a competitor to existing systems of transportation. Canada's early commercial focus was primarily north-south as bush planes provided access to resource extraction sites in the near north, ft was supposed that competition between aeroplanes and Above, top: Above: ground transportation might materialize at some future date, but it was certainly The first "dawn to dusk" experimental A little girl stands in front of a TCA not a serious consideration.2 fn the late flight from Montreal to Vancouver was Lockheed 10-A undergoing refuelling in 1920s, the flow of air traffic began to flown by a Lockheed 12A on July 31, Lethbridge about 1938. This particular shift to an east-west orientation due to 1937. Here the aircraft is etched aircraft is now displayed at the National the advent of air mail, rapidly against the sky in the late afternoon, Aviation Museum, Ottawa. developing passenger air service in the climbing away from Lethbridge. United States, and calls to link the far- flung components of the British Empire with a system of airways. Alberta History / Summer 2000 Lethbridge Trans-Canada Airway Air mail service was the first means of the provincial weld that so inspired our adapting aviation technology to the task Fathers of Confederation."4 But this was of nation-building. By 1931, air mail a daunting challenge for a country of links corresponded roughly with the only 11 million that required an airway system of highways and, perversely, the spanning 3,300 miles from Moncton to gaps in Canadian air service were Vancouver. roughly coincident with the cordillera and the Canadian Shield — the same Such a Canadian airway was recognized gaps that challenged Canada's land- as the "air bridge" that would be based transcontinental route ways. There required to articulate the British Empire was no regular service across the in the modern age, just as the CPR had Rockies and American air services were functioned as a "land bridge" between used to detouring around the Canadian the Atlantic and Pacific steamship lines. Shield country between Windsor, Canada was a major link in the "all-red" Ontario, and Emerson, Manitoba. Air route from Britain to the Far East." In mail seemed more justifiable than passenger service which was viewed as 1935, Canada, Newfoundland, the Irish an unwelcome bedfellow. According to Free State, and Britain negotiated plans one commentator of the day, "Mails may to develop a trans-Atlantic mail and be lost but must never be delayed and passenger service using flying boats. passengers may be delayed but must The North Atlantic service, anchored at never be lost."1 At the onset of the its eastern end in Canada and Depression of the 1930s, the Canadian Newfoundland, would benefit from a government curtailed its air mail shorter great circle route than one services and then cancelled them operated directly to New York. outright in 1932, not to be reinstated Experimental trans-Atlantic flying boat until 1938. Yet in establishing the services began in 1937 with Imperial Canadian airways and the principles for Airways (later to become BOAC and a regular scheduled air service, air mail eventually British Airways) and Pan service became a vital precursor to American linking Southhampton with scheduled air passenger service. North America via Foynes, Ireland; Botwood, Newfoundland; Shediac, New During the 1930s there was a growing Brunswick; occasionally Longeuil, just realization that Canada would have to across the river from Montreal; and then 6 take preemptive action to safeguard its on to New York. With a nascent trans- skies and prevent American airlines and Atlantic air service calling at Canada's air routes from tapping into Canadian eastern portals and American giants traffic, thus weakening Canada's knocking at the door of every major city tenuous east-west linkages. Aviation along its length and breadth, the could function as "the solder to renew Canadian government chose to intervene Alberta History / Summer 2000 much of 1938 was devoted to a daily "ghost service" to train air crew in the demands of night flying, and ground crew in the routines needed to maintain regularly scheduled air service." The nascent airline established maintenance facilities in Montreal and Winnipeg to service its aircraft and built hangars in smaller centres. In Lethbridge, TCA built a brick and steel hangar in 1938, a distinctive structure which still stands. Erected at a cost of some $150,000, the bricks were shipped in from the brickyards of Medicine Hat and cemented in place by local masons. Steel beams had to be rivetted together by outsiders as there were no high steel workers available in the city.1" While TCA made a considerable directly in civil aviation to preempt the investment in its maintenance bases, the Americans and cooperate with British young airline's ability to provide ambitions for an all-red route from transcontinental service was dependent London to the Pacific Rim. on rapid developments in aircraft technology. In the late 1920s high wing On April 10, 1937, Trans-Canada Air monoplanes began to be built with Lines7 (TCA) was created as a crown fuselages of welded steel tubing and corporation with a mandate to provide wings of wooden spars covered in a transcontinental air passenger, air mail, metallic sheath. These began to replace and air freight service. Why was a crown the wire-braced wood and fabric corporation created de novo when a biplanes in use after World War One. In private sector firm, Canadian Airways the United States, monoplanes such as (precursor to Canadian Pacific Airlines the single-engine Fairchild 71 and the and later Canadian Airlines Fokker Universal, and the three-engine International), was already in existence Ford Tri-motor provided the earliest as Canada's largest air carrier? The aircraft for mail and passenger service. decision has been variously attributed to Above: "a fit of absence of mind," the mutual Beginning in the 1930s, a revolution in This hanger was built in distrust between James W. Richardson, aircraft design saw a new generation of Lethbridge by TCA in 1938 at the founder of Canadian Airways, and CD. all-metal low-wing monoplanes with new Kenyon Field Airport. The Howe, Minister of the Department of retractable landing gear that established rotating electric beacon on the Transport, and by the unwillingness of a new configuration for passenger roof of the hangar is now in the Canadian Airways to participate in the aircraft. The avant garde airliners of the Gait Museum. new airline without having much 1930s were built using monocoque influence in its management.8 Trans- construction and a prestressed aluminum Right: Canada Air Lines was created as a alloy known as duralumin. The shiny One of the twenty-one DC-3 wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian metallic skin became an integral part of aircraft used by TCA between National Railways. the overall structure instead of just a 1946 and 1959 is seen here at shield for deflecting wind away from the Kenyon Field. At left, the ground Only four months after its incorporation, frame. Sleek aluminum cowlings were crew pushes the boarding stairs TCA began carrying passengers on fitted over the front of radial engines to into position. Canadian Airways' former Vancouver to reduce the drag created by their massive Seattle route. But the primary goal of finned cylinders and added to their TCA was transcontinental service and streamlined appearance. Twin engines n Alberta History / Summer 2000 were built into the leading edge of the advertised by TCA as the world's fastest wing and equipped with variable-pitch commercial transport, an essential propellers to optimize take-off power feature, given the enormous distances to and cruising speed at a constant rate of be covered and the relatively small size rotation. of the Canadian cities to be linked. In 1941 TCA began acquiring a stretched The principal representatives of this new version of the Lockheed 14-08 known as generation of airliners were the Boeing the Lockheed 18 or "Lodestar" which 247 introduced in 1933, the Douglas had a capacity of fourteen passengers DC-2 in 1934, the Lockheed 10-A but similar operating characteristics. "During the 1930s there was a Electra in 1934, and the Beech 18 in 1937. The flowing, almost voluptuous, A clear distinction was indicated in the growing realization that Canada curves of these "streamlined" aircraft Trans-Canada Air Lines Act between an made them quite distinct from the "air line," the organization which owned would have to take preemptive typical bush plane with its boxy and operated passenger aircraft fuselage, strut-braced high wing, according to a regular schedule, and an action to safeguard its skies and exposed radial engine and huge fixed "airway," a government-owned system pontoons. But the streamliners shared of airports, navigational aids, and two of the bush planes' ineluctable meteorological services. Infrastructure prevent American airlines and limitations: they were not pressurized in the form of airway radio beacons and nor were they initially equipped to airports for regular landings and take- air routes from tapping into provide oxygen; thus they operated at offs and for emergency purposes, were comparatively low altitudes.