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by Ian MacLachlan and Bruce MacKay

For the first nine years of trans­ continental service, 1939-1948, Lethbridge was western Canada's principal . 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 , air 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 to 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" , and Emerson, . 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 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 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 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 and the and later , 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 . 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 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 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 , 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. vital and costly prerequisites to Canada's tenuous east-west scheduled . In total the airway TCA's first twin-engine aircraft was the cost some $5 million to $6 million, a linkages." Lockheed 10-A, similar to the plane that massive investment at that time.12 carried Amelia Earhart half way around the world and ultimately to her death. As Surveys for the Trans-Canada Airway the airline prepared for regular began in 1928 and construction was transcontinental service, it acquired a underway by the next year. With their stretched and longer range version of the chain of radio beacons and airfields, Lockheed 10-A known as the Lockheed "airways" were conceived as linear 14H, the Super Electra, which had a routes much like railway tracks; a maximum capacity of ten passengers. scheduled aircraft service could not Ten of the new Lockheed 14H's carrying safely deviate from them. Added to these ten passengers and three crew were required to inaugurate the transcontinental passenger service. While official specifications rated it at a ceiling of 24,300 feet and a range of 2,060 miles, in practice the Lockheed Super Electras seldom flew at altitudes over 11,000 feet or for distances much in excess of 800 miles. Originally powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney Hornet engines developing 875 horsepower, the Lockheed 14H was plagued with cylinder head failures." The TCA fleet was re-engined with 1,200 horsepower Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines, and the aircraft were redesignated as the Lockheed 14-08. While the Lockheed 14-08 never enjoyed the popularity of the larger Douglas DC-3, it was

Alberta History / Summer 2000 A. PACIFIC TIME MOUNTAIN TIME X CENTRAL TIME TRANS-CANADA AND CONN EC1

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TRANS-CANADA AIR LINES

• AIR MAIL & AIR EXPRESS SERVICE ONLY

- - - CONNECTING SERVICES To I ARGO, MINNK OLIS Jo SAN FRANCISCO i I.OS ANGELES

technologically-driven safety concerns 150 feet of additional length was were the political imperatives of required for each 1,000 feet above sea nationalism. An all-Canadian airway level. Thus, for example, the Lethbridge system would help to keep Canadian Airport at an elevation of about 3,000 traffic at home and fend off the leviathan feet, required runways of 3,450 feet. In to the south.11 The Trans-Canada Airway fact, its first two runways were 3,400 was built and maintained by the federal and 3,700 feet long.16 Department of Transport; it owned no planes, operated no flights, and sold no The preparation of airports was tickets. Yet it was a sine qua non of especially arduous in the Canadian scheduled civil aviation in the early Shield country of Ontario where 1930s. clearing and stumping were the first phases of construction. In the grasslands A Development of the airway accelerated of the prairie west, grading and seeding in 1933 when it became part of a relief to grass were the most important project of the Depression, organized by requirements in creating runways and TCA the government of Prime Minister R.B. taxiways. Major centres such as Calgary Bennett. Clearing, stumping, and already had a municipal airport and the grading remote airports was thought to airway required only that these have be an "admirable task for the re­ hard surfaced runways and full lighting. employment of single, homeless men."14 In the case of Montreal's St. Hubert Construction camps housing thousands Airport, the major task was to dismantle of tradesmen were established from the mooring mast that had been built as to the Maritimes to the eastern terminal for trans-Atlantic build , each with two or dirigibles but was used only once. more 3,000-foot landing strips, field and runway lighting, and a variety of A transcontinental air service of sixteen buildings to accommodate radio and hours duration required night flying; Top: meteorological staff and equipment. The thus the Trans-Canada Airway required This map was prepared by Trans- airway's nineteen principal airports each lighted beacons to visually show the way Canada Airlines in 1939 to mark had two or more paved landing strips. and to mark obstructions such as its route across Canada They were surveyed in the form of a antennas and industrial chimneys. triangle, el, cross, or tee, while the Airports needed full field and runway remainder of the field was only rough lighting for safe landings and takeoffs. 15 graded and seeded to grass. The In an age when flying depended on runways were 3,000 feet long at sea visual navigation, the airway was level and to make allowance for the illuminated with acetylene lanterns on thinning of air as elevation increased, squat steel towers at fifteen-mile

Alberta History / Summer 2000 intervals. At each airport along the "hundred mile airports" were built at airway, there was a one million locations such as Cowley and Red Deer candlepower rotating light beacon. In to provide a lighted all-weather airfield remote locations that were off the for emergencies. Due to the limited electrical grid, a diesel-powered range of the aircraft, two airports in generator was essential for lights and remote locations in northern Ontario radio beacons.17 were carved out of the bush and built from scratch: Kapuskasing and The airway was also equipped with radio Armstrong (initially called Wagaming). beacons to enable aircraft to use the first Like divisional points on the generation of radio direction-finding transcontinental railway which were (RDF) apparatus. "Radio ranges" were essential to provide coal and water to constructed of four steel towers forming steam locomotives, these airports were * a 600-foot square connected by antenna necessary for refuelling, not for their leads to enable directional radio passenger generation potential. When transmission. The radio ranges completed, the Trans-Canada Airway transmitted the morse signal for the had nineteen principal airports at which TDM. letter "A" (dot-dash) to the northwest regular stops were made, twenty-four and southeast quadrants and the letter intermediate fields with radio ranges, "N" (dash-dot) to the northeast and and forty-two emergency fields, the southwest quadrants. When an aircraft latter mainly in unsettled and difficult equipped with RDF was pointed directly parts of the country where there was no towards the radio range, the two signals level cleared land at hand for an 18 were heard in the pilot's earphones with emergency landing. equal intensity, merging into a steady drone. As long as the pilot heard this From Montreal to Winnipeg, the Trans- steady drone, the aircraft was "on the Canada Airway followed Canada's beam" and could fly directly from radio northernmost rail lines, most of which range to radio range even though the had been cobbled together in 1923 to ground was not visible. When the drone create Canadian National Railways. It stopped, the aircraft was in the "cone of followed the Canadian Northern (CNR) silence" directly above the radio range line from Montreal to Ottawa and on up so that pilots flying on instruments could the Ottawa Valley to North Bay. At determine their position with exactitude. North Bay, the airway struck north along the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Between the major terminal airports Railway to Cochrane. At Cochrane, the where regular traffic was expected and airway turned west and followed the refuelling was necessary, secondary or route of the National Transcontinental

Alberta History / Summer 2000 closely? The chain of airports that made up the airway demanded road or rail access to bring in the massive machinery to clear and grade the airports, construction materials for runways and buildings, and the heavy equipment required to actually operate the airports and supply fuel to aircraft. In some regions the equipment and supplies could be shipped in by road. But the great difficulty in building the Trans- Canada Airway was that it preceded completion of the Trans-Canada Highway by some thirty years. There was no Canadian highway link crossing northern Ontario on the 800-mile route between Cochrane and Winnipeg. In British Columbia, the Columbia Mountains had been broached in two places by the CPR but there was still no Railway (CNR) all the way through roadway through the Monashee Range Kapuskasing, Wagaming, Sioux between Castlegar and Penticton in the Lookout, and on to Winnipeg. south and across the Selkirks between Revelstoke and Golden. Thus the Trans- The National Transcontinental Railway Canada Airway had to follow the line crossed easier country than either railway route across the country because the Canadian Pacific or Canadian there was no other way that a series of Northern rail lines through northern airports, like beads on string, could be Ontario. The climate was colder but the built sufficiently close together to variance in temperature was less. The support the scheduled and emergency northernmost rail line also provided needs of aircraft with an operating range better access to the mining communities of less than 800 miles. of northern Ontario and . Finally, suitable sites for the intermediate The prairie section of the Trans-Canada aerodromes were difficult to find or Airway proved to be the easiest to build unavailable along the rugged and rocky and by March 1930, a nightly mail Canadian Shield that lined the two more service from Winnipeg to Calgary and southerly rail lines.IV In essence the route north to was in operation. through northern Ontario cut a chord When crossing the Rocky Mountains the across the southern lobe of the Hudson decision was made to route the airway Bay lowland; it required many fewer through Lethbridge and the Crowsnest Above: rock cuts and though heavily forested by Pass on its way to Vancouver. Thus Trans-Canada Airlines was the first black spruce, its relief is quite low. From Lethbridge, with a population of 13,500 North American airline to enter the Winnipeg westward, the airway became an important junction point turboprop age in 1954 with the Vichers followed the southernmost railway in while Calgary, with a population of Viscount, seen here as part of a TCA Canada, the CPR main line, through 103,000 in 1931, was bypassed. advertisement. The Viscount was still in Brandon, Regina, and Swift Current to service when discontinued Medicine Hat. From there it followed The standard explanation for this routing Lethbridge operations in 1970. the CPR's Crowsnest Pass route to is that Trans-Canada Airlines elected to Lethbridge, Cranbrook, Grand Forks, follow the Crowsnest Pass because the Right: Hope, and on to Vancouver. mountains were lower and the Lockheed A DC-3 is refuelled in Lethbridge 14 aircraft then in use cruised most about 1947. Why did the Trans-Canada Airway efficiently at 8,000 to 10,000 feet.20 A follow the geography of the railways so glance at any aeronautical chart shows

Alberta History / Summer 2000 that this is indeed the case though the Nest Pass was taken in 1931, six years difference in elevations is not great. The before the incorporation of TCA and highest terrain elevation on the route three years before the maiden flight of from Calgary to Vancouver is 12,000 the Lockheed Electra. The Trans-Canada feet while the highest elevation along the Airway was surveyed and planned in an Lethbridge to Vancouver route is 10,900 earlier technological era in which the feet. The Crowsnest pass route is only maximum ceiling of the larger aircraft in 1,100 feet lower than the Kicking Horse use in Canada such as the Fairchild 71 "The decision to route air traffic Pass route. Considering the cost and was 14,150 feet, making the elevation inconvenience of serving Lethbridge difference of much greater concern. through Lethbridge... was taken with a feeder line joining Calgary and Edmonton, the slight difference in Between the time the route was surveyed in 1931, six years before the elevation seems trivial as a motivating and the time it was finally used for factor. TCA pilots were required to scheduled passenger flight, it had incorporation of TCA. The Trans- maintain a minimum altitude through already become obsolete as a result of the Rockies of 11,000 feet to provide a technological improvements such as Canada Airway was surveyed 1,000 feet of clearance over the highest streamlining, weight reducing 21 peaks. Clearly other factors were at monocoque construction, more powerful work which militated in favour of the engines, and the variable pitch propeller. and planned in an earlier southerly route. According to J.A. However, as a federally regulated Wilson, Controller of Civil Aviation: agency under the Trans-Canada Airlines technological era in which the Act, the airline was required to fly such Exhaustive surveys showed that the routes as were set out under contract and maximum ceiling of the large 23 Crow's Nest route through southern designated by the cabinet. British Columbia was preferable in aircraft in use in Canada was every respect. It was shorter, the Transcontinental passenger service climate was better, it passed through a began on Saturday, April 1, 1939, with 14,150 feet." more settled area and the difficulties an eastbound flight leaving Vancouver of constructing aerodromes were less and a westbound flight leaving there than on the alternative routes via Montreal. The flight from Vancouver the Yellowhead and Kicking Horse arrived in Lethbridge on time and met Passes. Aerodromes were already in the "feeder line" connection that had existence on the route at Fernie, flown south from Edmonton via Cranbrook, Trail, Grand Forks and Calgary. The inaugural westbound flight Chilliwack which would decrease the cost of construction.22

In addition to the data provided by these early surveys, there was a powerful precedent set by the first flight across the Rockies and the early air mail flights which had followed the Crowsnest Pass route due to its lower elevation.

Thus, the decision to route air traffic through Lethbridge had nothing to do with Trans-Canada Air Lines, the operational ceiling of the Lockheed Electra aircraft, or the 1,100-foot difference in the elevation of the Rocky Mountains between the Kicking Horse and Crowsnest passes. The decision that the airway should take the southern route through Lethbridge and the Crow's

Alberta History / Summer 2000 was less fortunate. It arrived in Lethbridge on Sunday morning but was MONTREAL-WINNIPEG-VANCOUVER-VICTORIA then held there by bad weather. The TRIP SCHEDULES—DAILY unfortunate plane attempted to leave on Westbound— Kead Down Eastbound — Rend Up the Monday but was forced to turn back while over Cranbrook due to excessive Trip Trip Trip Table No. 1 Time Trip Trip Trip No. No. No. I -: No. No. No. icing of wings and control surfaces. By Monday, a second plane had arrived I from the east and it finally flew through 9 OOPM o I v Montreal KST 12 15PM :4 9 50 PM 110 A i Ottawa 11 25 AM to Vancouver. Thus the first ever Trans- 10 OOPM I.v Ottawa 11 1 5 AM 25 PM 307 Ar North Bay. . 9 50 AM Canadian passenger flight from east to 10PM I v North Bay. 9.35 AM west was never completed. 25 AM \i Kapuskasing 7 50 AM .15AM I.v Kapuskasing 7 4 0 AM 20 AM K7C \r Wagaming (i. 4 1 AM 55 AM 1212 \r Winnipeg CST 3 25 AM Once established, the transcontinental io AM| I.v Winnipeg 3. 10AM 25 AM; \i Regina M ST 12.20 AM air service was quite tightly scheduled. 35 AM| I.v Regina 12 10AM The east bound and west bound aircraft 55 AM: y-i: Ai Lethbridge 10. 05 PM I0AMJ I.v Lethbridge 9 50 PM arrived in Lethbridge at 08:55 and 09:50 10 AM! 411 Ar Vancouver PST G. J5PM respectively and remained on the ground l-A for a fifteen minute refuelling stop 9-A Daily | 15-A Via Canadian 10-A 16-A 2-A 25 ex. Sun 8 ex. Sun Airways Ltd. ex. Sun ex. Sun Daily before resuming flight. The arrival and

9 00 AM 11 30 AM 3 00 PM I.v Vancouver Ar I'ST 10 30 AV 2 ,00PM, 4 40PM departure of aircraft on the Calgary- 9.30AM 12. 10PM 3 30PM Ar Victoria I.v 10.00 AM 1.30PH, 4.00PM Edmonton spur line was timed to facilitate the transfer of passengers - WINNIPEG - VANCOUVER - VICTORIA originating from and destined for points TRIP SCHEDULES DAILY both east and west. This principle of Westbound Read 1), U'll Eastbound Read Up timed convergence and divergence of aircraft is the essence of airline hub Trip Trip Trip -7Zi Table No. 2 rime Trip Trip Trip No. No. No. No. No. No. operations up to the present day. 21 22

10.00 PM 0 I.v Toronto A i KST 11.15AM The first TCA airline schedule 11 20 PM 1H7 Ar North Bay.. . I.v 9 55 AM demonstrates some of the culture shock 1 that the air age induced on a country that 11.40PM I.v North Bay. 9.35 AM had only just become accustomed to 1 25 A* 455 Ar Kapuskasing 7.50 AM reliable intercity train service. TCA was 1.35AM I.v Kaputkasing 7.40 AM 3.20 AM * 750 Ar Wagaming .. . 6 41 AM owned by Canadian National Railways 4.55 AM 1122 Ar Winnipeg CST 3.25AM 5. 10AM I v Winnipeg . 3. 10 AM and shared its officers and some upper 6 25AM 1455 Ar Regina MST 12.20 AM 6.35AM I.v Regina 12. 10AM level management. Little wonder then, 8 55 AM 1822 \r Lethbridge 10.05PM that the airline's timetable was 9. 10AM I.v Lethbridge 9.50 PM 11.10AM 2291 Ar Vancouver. . . I'ST 6. 15PM structured in exactly the same way as a

l-A train timetable. TCA operated four 9-A Daily 1S-A Via Canadian 10-A 16-A 2-A numbered "trips" (they could hardly be ex. Sun. ex. Sun. Airways Ltd. 8 x. Sun ex. Sun, Daily called "trains"), predating the use of 9.00 AM 11.30 AM 3.00 PM 0 I.v Vancouver. .Ar l'ST 10.30 AM 2.00 PM 4.40 PM 9 30 AM 12.10 PM 3.30 PM 53 Ar Victoria .. . Lv 10.00 AM 1.30 PM 4.00 PM numbered flights. The westbound flight from Montreal to Vancouver was "Trip 1" and the eastbound flight was "Trip 2," the same numbers used by the crack passenger trains on the transcontinental Above: route. Similar to a train schedule, TCA's A TCA airline schedule, seen here for flight schedule had a central column of November I, 1939, was patterned after places, a westbound column of times a railway timetable. Each flight was a which were "read down" and an "Trip" and was read downwards for eastbound column of times which were westbound trips and up for eastbound "read up." ones.

[j Alberta History/Summer 2000 The transcontinental routes originated in Montreal and went to North Bay via Ottawa where they met a connecting flight from Toronto. The passengers from both cities then proceeded across the continent on a single aircraft in exactly the same ways as the trains did. For passengers going to or from the Maritimes, the TCA schedule promoted a direct connection between Montreal's St. Hubert Airport and the Canadian National Railways' Ocean Limited, which stopped at the airport for connecting passengers.26 This was the only time that a Canadian airport ever had a direct railway connection, a feature which is commonplace at many European and Japanese airports. Air service was gradually extended eastward, first to Moncton, then to Halifax; service to St John's was finally inaugurated on May 1, 1942. However, American version was equipped with this occurred during wartime and the four Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp eastern service was viewed as part of engines, developing 1,450 horsepower, "hemispheric defence" so few seats were and could stay airborne even if two available for civilians. engines were out of action. To foster its place in the peacetime aviation industry, During World War Two, Canada's the Canadian government encouraged fledgling aircraft industry concentrated the production of this large four-engine on the assembly of aircraft that had been aircraft. Using equipment and parts from designed, flight tested, and proven in a war surplus Douglas Aircraft plant in Britain or the United States. Thus it Illinois, the North Star was built at seemed natural that the post war 's Cartierville plant and was first flown in middle 1946. It was a requirement for a longer range and Above: higher passenger load be unique "Made in Canada" blend of satisfied by manufacturing foreign American and British aviation This Northstar prototype arrived at aircraft under license. Boeing had been technology. The airframe employed a Lethbridge in 1947, likely on one of its preoccupied with long range bombers slightly shortened DC-6 fuselage, nose, first east-west flights. Note the row of while Lockheed's Constellation was not and landing gear, while the tail section exhaust ports and the massive air yet ready. Thus Montreal-based wings and control surfaces were based intakes below the propeller which Canadian Vickers, soon to become on the DC-4. It was felt that the aircraft indicate in-line, liquid-cooled Rolls Canadair, turned to the Douglas needed more power than the standard Royce Merlin engines corporation that had produced so many DC-4 to permit it to fly at altitudes of up of the legendary DC-3's in the United to 25,000 feet to avoid the notorious States. weather of the North Atlantic. At the same time, additional take-off power The North Star was a Canadian version was essential because some Canadian of the Douglas DC-4, with some added runways were snow-covered for a features of the DC-6. The DC-4 brought significant portion of the year. wartime innovations into the post war era: it had four engines, power-assisted In the British aircraft design tradition, controls, flush rivetting, and a steerable the North Stars were equipped with nose wheel in a tricycle configuration to liquid cooled in-line Rolls Royce Merlin replace the tail-dragging DC-3. The engines instead of the air-cooled radials

Alberta History / Summer 2000 used in the United States. With a top from Calgary until 1970 when it was speed of 200 mph compared to the discontinued and Air Canada pulled out at 280 mph, the of Lethbridge entirely. aircraft were slow but reliable. The first versions of the North Star (DC-4M-1) As well as being a critical refuelling stop 'For nearly ten years, between were designed for the RCAF and were and junction on TCA's east-west "coast not pressurized. The later versions (DC- to coast" service, Lethbridge was also 1939 and 1948, Lethbridge 4M-2), designed for TCA and later used the point of entry for Western Air Lines by Canadian Pacific Airlines and (later merged into Delta Airlines). A attained a status in Canada's BOAC, were pressurized like the "Pine to Palm" Service was inaugurated Douglas DC-6.27 with a daily return flight from Great airline system that was quite Falls, Montana, to Lethbridge. The North Star gave Trans-Canada Passengers could then continue north to Calgary, west to Vancouver, or east to unwarranted given its small size Airlines a forty-passenger Canadian- built plane to replace the converted Regina on TCA. This service began on Lancaster bombers used on TCA's trans- June 1, 1941, using Douglas DC-3 and peripheral character... Once Atlantic route, and the aging Super aircraft, adding to other north-south Electras and Lodestars in the services such as Moncton-Bangor, pressurized long-range aircraft transcontinental service. The North Star Maine, and Vancouver-Seattle. By 1947 "Skyliners" entered service with TCA Western had added a number of made non-stop high altitude on April 1, 1948, on the Montreal to additional stops to its south-north New York run. The aircraft were service. Leaving Salt Lake City at 8:45 transcontinental flight feasible, scheduled to fly from Calgary direct to am, Western included stops in Pocatello, Vancouver beginning June 1, 1948, but Idaho Falls, Butte, Great Falls, and Cut the situational advantage severe flooding of the Fraser River had Bank (to clear customs) before arriving cut road and rail service to Vancouver a in Lethbridge at 3:00 that afternoon. The DC-3 was turned around in 45 minutes conferred on Lethbridge by its few days earlier. For the first time in its history, Vancouver was isolated from the and made its way south back to Salt rest of Canada for nearly three weeks Lake City by the same route, arriving at location evaporated." and, as a harbinger of things to come, 10:00 pm. Thus from 1941 until 1950. TCA stepped into the breach and ferried Lethbridge was Alberta's only all of the rail passengers between . Calgary and Vancouver with thirty flights per day using its brand new North Beginning on May 1, 1950, Western Stars. By the time rail service was Airlines added a DC-4 service that finally restored on June 16, Calgary's terminated in Edmonton. In 1959 main runway 16-34 was so badly broken Calgary gained its first international up by the heavy traffic and spring runoff flight when Western adopted the new that it had to be closed and the trunkline Lockheed L-188A Electra turbo prop service reverted to Lethbridge for 28 aircraft for a daily flight from Salt Lake several months. City that overflew Lethbridge. When this occurred, Western Air Lines' Alberta 29 When the Calgary runway was finally terminal was shifted north to Calgary. reopened, the trunk line service with North Stars returned to Calgary For nearly ten years, between 1939 and permanently. Lethbridge's slide to 1948, Lethbridge attained a status in obscurity had Canada's airline system that was quite begun. TCA's "Prairie Service" saw a unwarranted given its small size and daily flight hedgehop from Regina to peripheral character. The city was Calgary via Swift Current, Medicine selected as a hub due to its fortuitous Hat, and Lethbridge between May 1, situation relative to the route first 1948 and September 1963, when it too selected for the Trans-Canada Airway. was abandoned. Lethbridge was the Lethbridge was favoured by its destination for a daily midday flight intermediacy in relation to Vancouver,

Alberta History / Summer 2000 Calgary, Regina, and Great Falls. But it NOTES 13 Ibid. was never able to parlay this 14 Ibid, 20. 1 This paper benefited from consultation and advice intermediacy into centrality and achieve from Greg Ellis, Archivist, Sir Alexander Gait Museum 15 Ibid, 30. and Archives; Stephen Payne, Curator of Aero a level of administrative, financial, or Technology, National Aviation Museum; Peter Pigott, 16 McGrath op. cit, 138. Byron Reynolds, Reynolds Aviation Museum; and corporate dominance commensurate Jennifer Romanko, Curator, Canada's Aviation Hall of 17 Smith op. cit., 21. Fame. with its position in the airline network. 18 Wilson op. cit. 49. 2 G.P. de T. Glazebrook, A History of Canadian Lethbridge's intermediacy was Transportation Volume II (Ottawa: Carleton Library 19 Ibid, 20. Reprint, McClelland and Stewart, 1964), 256. contingent upon a fleeting technological 20 Bruce W. Gowans Wings Over Lethbridge, 1911- 1940. advantage. Once pressurized long-range 3 Philip Smith, It Seems Like Only Yesterday: Air Canada Occasional Paper No. 13 (Lethbridge: Historical Society the First 50 Years (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, of Alberta, 1986) 66; Alex Johnston and Andy den 1986), 11. Otter Lethbridge: A Centennial History (Lethbridge: aircraft made non-stop high altitude The Lethbridge Historical Society, 1991), 139. transcontinental flight feasible, the 4 Fergus Grant, "Across Canada by Air" Canadian 21 Smith op. cit., 65. situational advantage conferred on Geographical Journal 18:5 (May 1939), 278. 22 Wilson op. c/t.,20. Lethbridge by its location evaporated 5 de T Glazebrook op. dr., 262. 23 Smith op. c/t.,51. and the city's role reverted to the 6 T.M. McGrath, History of Canadian Airports (Ottawa: Lugus Publications in cooperation with Transport 24 Lethbridge Herald April 3, 1938: 7. peripheral status that lingers to the Canada, 1992), 40-41. 25 Trans-Canada Airlines Timetable: April 1, 1938, present day. 7 Renamed Air Canada in 1965. National Archives of Canada (RG70, Volume 45).

8 Garth Stevenson, The Politics of Canada's Airlines 26 Ibid: November 1, 1939. (University of Toronto Press, 1987), 12. Ian MacLachlan is an Associate 27 Canadian Aviation 1947 "Salute to the North Star" 9 Smith op. cit, 66. 20:1 (January 1947), 39-54; K.M. Molson and H.A. Professor and Bruce MacKay is a Taylor Canadian Aircraft Since 1909 (London: Putman, 1982). Sessional Lecturer, both in the 10 Lethbridge Herald, April 8, 1938, 7. 11 Allan R. Hunt, "TCA: The Formative Years" Canadian 28 Calgary Herald May 28-June 16, 1948; McGrath op. Department of Geography, The Aviation Historical Society Journal (Summer 1980), 54. cit.,64-65.

University of Lethbridge. 12 J.A. Wilson, 1948 Development of Aviation in Canada 29 Ibid, 65; Western Air Lines Timetable, May 1 1947, (Ottawa: Department of Transport 1948),19. Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame Archives.

Dirty Linen in 1889

Nine hundred miles is a long distance to send linen to be laundered, and perhaps there is no other country on this mundane sphere but this where such a thing is done. It is common here and affords a lucrative business in one of Winnipeg's largest laundries. Linen is sent from Edmonton, Battleford, Prince Albert and other remote parts of the Territories, as well as from places a few hundred miles nearer the city.

"Here are a few bundles of clothes that 1 received today," remarked a laundryman to a reporter yesterday. "This one is from a prominent Government official at Edmonton, and this one comes from a Mounted Police officer stationed at a post somewhere north of Battleford. That large one there is from a rancher in Alberta, and the others belong to young farmers living in various parts of the North-West.

"Yes, they send all sorts of clothes to be washed, but chiefly shirts, collars, handkerchiefs, etc. We frequently get cricket and lawn tennis suits to be done up also. Out in those far away places persons who are in the least fastidious about their linen cannot get it done up to suit them at home, so they are compelled to send it to Winnipeg to be manipulated professionally and artistically, so to speak.

"In a great many cases, too, they are bachelor farmers or ranchers, and have no facilities for doing their washing at home. Oh, yes, we have a few lady customers in the far West also. We have some linen in hand now that will probably do duty at the ball at Banff this month and also at other vice-regal events."

This is a great country and the people do great things sometimes, but this matter of sending clothes nine hundred miles will strike most mortals as being a queer characteristic of our western pioneers.

Lethbridge News, October 16, 1889.

Alberta History / Summer 2000