Alberta
Skies
This
book in the Air Pilot Navigator series deals with the
development off aviation in Western Alberta. In general it
follows the growth of the air activity after World War One.
Prior to the Great War of 1914-1918, aviation in Alberta
was limited to flights often flown by American pilots
demonstrating their primitive aircraft at exhibitions.
During the war most civil flying in Canada was restrained
with the exception of American aviatrix Katherine Stinson,
a twenty year old who flew her various aircraft flawlessly
and without major incident at six locations within Alberta
in 1916, 1917 and 1918.
With the
end of the war, a great many Canadian pilots, who had
served with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air
Service, wished to remain in aviation in the post war
period. The only possibility for this in Western Canada was
to acquire a war surplus Canadian built Curtiss JN-4 (CAN)
Canuck trainer and start “barnstorming” their own territory
offering rides as well as giving the opportunity to learn
to fly. At this point there was no aviation regulation in
Canada and to some extent, chaos resulted from uninhibited
“joy riding” and stunt flying by many former air force
veterans.
On June 6, 1919 the Canadian Government enacted the Air
Board Act, which created an agency to control all flying in
Canada. Another function of the Air Board was to establish
air stations across the country with a compliment of ex-air
force aircraft and veteran pilots. These air stations would
carry out specific flying needs of both the provincial and
federal governments.
In Alberta, a station was established in the summer of 1920
in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at Morley, The
mandate of this air station was primarily to patrol the
forests along the Rocky Mountains and report forest fire
activity. The location at Morley, however, was found
undesirable due to strong, gusty winds, and the following
spring (1921) the station relocated to High River.
By 1924 the Air Board had become the Royal Canadian Air
Force, but activity from High River continued to be
strongly related to forest fire patrols, although the
station was also responsible for the licencing and testing
of Alberta’s pilots and their aircraft.
During the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the High River Air
Station carried out numerous surveys for the establishment
of the Prairie Air Mail.
The Prairie Air mail had become a reality in 1930 serving
Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton, but with the onset of the
economic depression, federal government cutbacks forced it
to come to an end on March 31, 1932.
With war clouds on the horizon in the late 1930’s the
Department of Transport was created and was ordered to
locate sites for air training stations. In Alberta the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan would dominate
aviation throughout the war years with no less than
thirteen different air training schools.
The American entry into the Second World War on December 7,
1941 brought a tremendous growth to the airfields of
Alberta. Thousands of aircraft were ferried up the North
West Staging Route from the United States, passing through
Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton. The legacy left by the
BCATP and the North West Staging Route was an
infrastructure that would vastly assist the development of
aviation in post war Alberta.
Alberta
Skies
Air Pilot Navigator ( Volume Seven)
Chris Weicht.
Creekside Publications. (2009)
ISBN:978-1-4269-0686-2