Canada's First Airshow/Aviation 2010
As you guys from the modeling forum know ,I am planning to build a Bleriot diorama depicting the airplane that participated in the first airshow in Canada and the first to fly over the city of Montreal.
Here is a brief history of that event.The airshow/air meet was held in a rented farmers field in Pointe Claire, in what is now called the City of Montreal's West Island area, from June 24 to July 2 ,1910.The event was sponsored by the local Automobile and Aero Club.It cost $74,000 dollars to put on, of which only $50,000 was recovered in revenues.While not a financial success it was a huge success with the public.Fifteen thousand people(approx) attended the first day which was a large number at the time, considering the site is well outside the city limits of the day and aviation was but a curiosity at the time. to be cont....

cont....
They built a 1,100 X 40 foot high grandstand for the event,as well as a special railway platform to handle the crowd.Police and a squad of dragoons were required for crowd control.
Some of the events included flights by two small motor-driven dirigibles ,parchute jumps from balloons ,huge kites,and a mock bombing attack.The young pilot Walter Brookens of the Wright Brothers team,a pilot himself of only three months,dropped sand bombs from a 1,000 feet which "exploded with great noise" on a especially built fort in the middle of the showgrounds.Sir Frederick Borden declared that "this science will bring enormous change in modern military strategy.(how right he proved to be) to be cont......

Cont....
On July 2nd two pilots made history at the airshow.Walter Brookens of the Wright team in his Wright airplane and Count de Lessops of the European team in his Bleriot XI monoplane.(who only a month earlier was the second pilot after Bleriot himself to cross the English Channel.)The Bleriot took off first,circled the field a few times and then headed down the river to Montreal,flew over Mount Royal and circled the downtown area,back over Lachine and made a perfect landing back at the airfield.Brookens took off and broke the Canadian endurance and altitude record of 45 mins and 22 sec and 3,510 feet.(A feat that remained unchallenged for two years.)He wished he could have stayed longer but at this altitude "I almost froze my ears."Earlier on June 27 Brookens had flown for only 9 mins and 50 sec.In all six pilots and eight airplanes participated ,four Wright biplanes,a McCurdy biplane and three French Bleriot monoplanes. By all accounts the show was a resounding success.

Aviation 2010
We are a volunteer steering committee that is part of Aviation 2010 which was organized to help stimulate interest and to organize events to commemorate the first international airshow held in Canada.As well as attend meetings ,I will be building a 1/12th diorama of the BleriotXI "Scarabee "airplane as it was at the airshow in 1910,to help publicize the event.

Why am I so interested in this? Well I must admit that it grew out of my own ignorance.I couldn't believe that I attended and taught woodcarving at a high school that now sits on the actual field from where this event took place.The hobby store that I frequent is just down the hill and I have lived only a couple of miles away from the site for many years.No one in my circle of aviation friends, and that goes back fifty years and more ,had never even mentioned this event.I have heard plenty about exploits just south of the border and in Europe during this era but nothing about this historical event that took place on my own doorstep.
I am not alone however,most Montrealers,in fact most Canadians are ignorant of their own aviation history.Our growing committee is hoping to change all that in the next three years.Montreal is and has long been the hub of aviation in Canada for a very long time.

The above pics courtesy of The Gazette,Montreal.

pics courtesy of The Gazette,Montreal

The first shows Count de Lesseps ,in the foreground,standing in front of his Bleriot monoplane "Scarabee"
The second is "Scarabee" prior to takeoff.
The third is of Walter R. Brookens sitting in his Wright biplane.
Cheers! John.

An interesting site!
This is a very dedicated group that I belong to,as a volunteer, here in Montreal.

http://www.cahc-ccpa.com/main_eng.htm

Cheers! John.

Another pic

The last 2 pics courtesy of Rod Filan

Armbands worn by pilots at the airshow.In the first pic it looks like Brookens judging by the bottom half of the face.The second pic actually says Montreal and the airshow dates. Thanks Rod!

Airshow for 2010?
From what I understand the chances of an airshow anywhere near Montreal are about nil.The best we could hope for would be a flyby by the snowbirds or even are few antique airplanes.
I believe that they are planning to fly the Bleriot in Ste. Anne's off a farmer's field,probably attaining only a few feet in height and a few yards in length just to say they did it.
At our first steering committee meeting I suggested that maybe we could arrange ,with the approval of the CAM and Montreal airport officials,to have a Bleriot that is now in storage at the CAM reassembled in the atrium of Trudeau airport.What better way to publicize Canada's first airshow?Millions pass through there every year .We have the expertise in the Montreal area to put this airplane together ,and it could be done in plain site, much like was done at Expo 67 when they built a large boat on the exhibition grounds, and people were still talking about it years later.
Ambitious yes,but it could be done!

The Forgotten Airshow!
We held our third meeting of the 2010 steering committee for the 100th anniversary of the airshow.Our numbers have tripled to nine !We have big dreams but you gotta start somewhere. Luckily,we do still have three years until the event.
On my way home I stopped at the local bookstore to see what I could find.The only book that even mentions this mostly forgotten air show ,was "On Canadian Wings" by author Peter Pigott .Among other things I learned was that a future president of Air Canada(TCA) Gordon McGregor attended this airshow at the age of nine years old.I wonder how many other young lives were influenced by this event.McCurdy of Silver Dart fame was also there as the only Canadian pilot but failed to get airborne due to mechanical problems. Will keep ya posted!
Cheers! John.

Interesting fact that you've found of future T.C.A. president Gordon McGregor being in attendance. Namely Group Captain Gordon Roy McGregor, Commanding Officer 126 Wing 2nd Tactical Air force, who had gone overseas with #1 Squadron from Montreal and flew during the Battle of Britain.

Contemporary newspaper articles of the day will probably turn up a clearer picture of the Lakeside Meet. There was another Canadian entry - R. Baker Timberlake, from Montreal; and John McCurdy did have mechanical problems, to say the least--as a result of being airborne.

1910, July 8, Beinn Bhreagh Recorder 139/140
Montreal News

June 30, Montreal Daily Star: Two trial flights were made early this morning, and both resulted in destruction. The McCurdy machine sustained the most damage, while Mr. Timberlake's Bleriot had its right main wing torn off.
Both Aviators, Mr. Timberlake the only local aviator, and the McCurdy brothers, were about their aerodromes at an early hour this morning, and with the aid of their mechanics got their machines in readiness on the runway.
Mr. J. A. D. McCurdy was the first to have his biplane, Baddeck No.2 in readiness for a flight. He had it taken to the eastern end of the runway, and made an excellent start, gaining good momentum on the leveled field. As his biplane reached the part of the course near the pylon marking the western extremity of the aero course, he left the ground. It looked as if at last the McCurdy brothers had obtained success. Everything seemed to be working to perfection and the big machine Baddeck No.2 being much larger than any other aeroplane here, mounted in air gracefully. It turned the western curve northwards in good style and seemed to be making a most successful flight though it swayed from side to side a great deal. While on the way to success, in which direction everything pointed at this stage, the machine came to the ground heavily for no apparent reason. It came down near the northwestern pylon, three farms north of the course. The hay here stands waist high, and in this the machine got entangled. The left wing of the biplane seems to have touched the ground first, for at this the main canvas surface and lattice work is smashed into splinters.
Besides the main plane almost totally smashed in its coming in violent contact with the earth, the wheels on which the machine is built are knocked into all sorts of queer shapes, and beyond repair. Several uprights on the right main wing are also broken, and the guy wires are entangled into each other. The machine is a bad wreck, having fallen about 30 feet.
-

FLYING MACHINE WRECKED
Daily Journal and Tribune,
Knoxville, Tennessee: June 30, 1910

Lakeside, July 1. - The McCurdy brothers in attempting a trial flight at the international aviation meet, early today, wrecked their machine. In charge of John McCurdy, it was flying about fifty feet above the ground. The machine dropped into a field near the park. Mr. McCurdy escaped uninjured.

The above courtesy of Mr Rod Filan of the aerodrome.com