John Alexander Douglas McCurdy

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John AD McCurdy at the wheel of the AEA Silver Dart

John Alexander Douglas McCurdy (born August 2, 1886 in Baddeck , Nova Scotia , † June 25, 1961 in Montréal ) was a Canadian aviation pioneer and politician.

Life

After attending St. Andrew's College ( Aurora (Ontario) ), he graduated from the University of Toronto in mechanical engineering in 1906 . In 1907 he began working in Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association (AEA).

On February 23, 1909, John Alexander Douglas McCurdy became the first Canadian to fly an airplane. McCurdy started with an AEA Silver Dart from the ice of Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia. In 1910 he was the first Canadian to receive a pilot's license.

In November 1910, McCurdy almost became the first person to take an airplane from a ship. First it was supposed to take off from a departure ramp set up on the bow of the German passenger liner Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria , but bad weather conditions prevented the start. The purpose of the test flight was to accelerate mail traffic in the North America service by taking a bag of mail with you on the plane, by flying an aircraft a few hundred kilometers before the ship reaches its destination in the USA or Germany. The next attempt at take-off was scheduled for November 24th, but was brought forward to November 12th and McCurdy was now to leave the passenger steamer Pennsylvania , which also belonged to the German shipping company HAPAG , in a Curtiss biplane. Due to a flight accident by McCurdy in Charlotte, North Carolina, he was no longer able to reach Pennsylvania, which is located in Hoboken near New York, and the pilot James Cairn "Bud" Mars was quickly called in for the flight. But Bud Mars was also unable to take off from the ship because his plane was irreparably damaged during an engine test on board the Pennsylvania .

In January 1911, McCurdy was the first to fly non-stop from Key West , USA to Havana , Cuba . In 1916 he gave up his flying career.

During World War II he was an assistant government director of Canadian aircraft production. From 1947 to 1952 he was Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia and thus Deputy to the British Crown. In 1959 he received the Canadian Aviation Award, the McKee Trophy . In 1973 he was inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Hadeler: The aircraft carrier , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968, pages 11-12
  2. ^ Bernhard Ireland: Naval Airpower , HarperCollins, London 2003, ISBN 0007111525 , page 37
  3. http://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.de/2016/11/how-one-piece-of-fod-changed-naval.html