On this day in Canadian Aviation History

 

01 May

1942

No. 130 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Bagotville, Quebec.

1943

No. 432 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

02 May

1917

Camp Borden Aerodrome was formally taken over by RFC Canada - the first of the new training fields.

03 May

1983

The first CC 134 Challenger Jet was delivered to 412 Squadron.

04 May

1943

S/L BH Moffit and crew in Consolidated Canso of No. 5 (BR) Squadron, Eastern Air Command, sunk the German submarine U-630 in the West Atlantic Ocean.

1944

F/L LJ Bateman and crew in a Vickers Wellington of No. 407 Squadron sank the German submarine U-846 west of the Bay of Biscay.

05 May

1955

An agreement was concluded between the United States and Canada for the construction and operation of distant early warning (DEW) radar defence line.

06 May

1937

German airship Hindenburg exploded at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

07 May

1945

All German forces surrendered unconditionally.  The instrument of surrender was signed at Berlin, Germany on 8 May, V.E. Day.

1969

First flight of the Sikorsky Sea King helicopter took place.

08 May

1941

No. 407 (Coastal) Squadron was formed in England.

 

          1945

                    V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

 

09 May

1964

De Havilland's Chief Test Pilot Bob Fowler took the first flight of the Cariboo.

10 May

1915

Curtiss Aviation School commenced operation from Toronto Island using Curtiss F flying boats.

1941

No. 406 (Night Fighter) Squadron was formed in England.

11 May

1957

Nimble Bat 3: CF-100's of 440 Squadron flown from Bagotville to Zweibrucken.

12 May

1958

Canada and the United States became partners in a mutual commitment to NORAD.

13 May

1963

NORAD Region Headquarters was moved from St Hubert to North Bay.

14 May

1917

Flight Sub-Lt Robert Leckie and crew of Curtiss H-12 flying boat shot down Zeppelin L-22.

1938

First production Spitfire flew for the first time.

15 May

1923

First course of Provisional Pilot Officers began training at Camp Borden.

1950

First flight of the Canadair North Star, piloted by Al Lilly and Bill Longhurst.

16 May

          1942

                    Canadian Pacific Airlines was formed.

 

1959

Newly-formed RCAF aerobatic team, the Golden Hawks, flying gold-finished North American Sabres, performed its first demonstration at Torbay, Newfoundland.

17 May

1929 

C.S. (Jack) Caldwell was testing Vedette G-CYZF (CV 122), when on entering a spin he found he was unable to recover.  He abandoned the machine by parachute and landed safely on an island in the St Lawrence and became the first Canadian to save his life by a parachute.

1943

Pilot Ken Brown, of Moose Jaw, Sask., takes to the air in a Lancaster bomber, one of 19 tasked with the mission of destroying three German dams long thought indestructible. Flying low, Mr. Brown avoids a castle and church steeple only to find his target shrouded in mist. He makes eight passes before delivering his bomb on target, then flies home through a barrage of flak.

18 May

1919

The earliest air-mail attempt across the Atlantic started from St. John's Newfoundland but was forced down in the Mid-Atlantic.

1942

No. 423 (Coastal) Squadron was formed in England.

19 May

1942

No. 162 (BR) Squadron was formed at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

1951

No. 410 Squadron began re-equipping with North American Sabre fighters.  It was the first RCAF squadron to receive this new fighter.

1996

Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau blasted off from Cape Canaveral in the shuttle Endeavour for his second trip into space.

20 May

1932

Amelia Earhart arrived at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, and departed for Ireland in a Lockheed Vega.  She became the first woman pilot to fly Atlantic.

1965

DHC-6 Twin Otter prototype was test flown at Downsview by R.H. Fowler.

21 May

22 May

1946

DHC-1 Chipmunk prototype was test flown at Downsview, by WIP Fillingham.

1953

S/L Keith R. Greenaway won the McKee Trans-Canada Trophy in recognition of his new methods of aerial navigation in the Arctic regions.

23 May

1940

S/L FM Gobeil, an RCAF exchange officer and CO of No. 242 Squadron RAF, was the first RCAF officer to enter combat.  He engaged a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Berck, France.

24 May

1928

Stevenson Aerodrome, an airfield in the Rural Municipality of St. James, named after the late Western Canada Airways pilot who had died in a test flight at The Pas, began operations.

1960

After the pilot of his Avro CF-100 suffered a lack of oxygen, navigator F/O CM Alexander assisted him to make a safe landing.  Alexander was awarded the Air Force Cross.

1983

First CF-18 Hornet aircraft arrived at Cold Lake, Alberta.

25 May

1929

The first “air meet” in western Canada was held in Winnipeg.

1978

The first Challenger was rolled out at Cartierville, Montreal.

26 May

1961

Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter Canadian prototype (Canadair CL-90) was test flown at Palmdale, California.

27 May

1999

Julie Payette flew aboard Discovery on STS-96.  She became the first Canadian to visit the International Space Station.

28 May

1959

Twenty-five ex-RCAF Beech Expeditors flew across the Atlantic under the Military Assistance Program, to Portugal and France.

29 May

1929

Boeing Aircraft of Canada was incorporated by William Edward Boeing of Seattle, Henry Stonestreet Hoffar and Charles George Beeching of Vancouver, to design and build aircraft and to take over, as a going concern, the Hoffar-Beeching Shipyards at Vancouver.

 1953

On 29 May 1953, the first of two 40 passenger de Havilland Comets arrived in Ottawa. With the arrival of this Aircraft, the RCAF became the first air force in the world to operate jet transports and the first operator to make scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings.

1980

Canadian Armed Forces accepted the first CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft at CFB Greenwood, NS.

30 May

1940

RCAF F/O A.B. Angus was posthumously awarded the DFC for becoming the first Canadian "ace" of WWII (RAF 85 Squadron).

1952

Twenty-one North American Sabre fighters of No. 439 Squadron flew in stages from Uplands, Ontario to their new base at North Luffenham, England.

31 May