Silver Dart

The Silver Dart was the first powered, heavier‑than‑air aircraft built in Canada and the most celebrated product of the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), a collaborative group founded in 1907 by Alexander Graham Bell, Glenn Curtiss, and several pioneering engineers. After a series of experimental gliders, the AEA completed the Silver Dart in early 1909 as a biplane of wooden framework covered with silver‑tin‑plated fabric, which gave the plane its name. It featured a 50‑horsepower Curtiss V‑type engine driving a two‑bladed propeller, a wing span of 27 feet, and a modest 260‑pound empty weight. The aircraft’s controls combined a movable elevator and rudder with wing warping for roll, reflecting the transitional technology between the Wright brothers’ designs and later aileron systems. On February 23, 1909, pilot John McCurdy piloted the Silver Dart from the frozen surface of Baddeck Bay, Nova Scotia, achieving the first powered flight in Canada and proving the AEA’s engineering concepts. Though the aircraft crashed after a short flight, its success demonstrated that reliable, domestically built aircraft could be produced outside the United States, inspiring a generation of Canadian aviators and laying groundwork for an independent national aviation industry.