Taming the Skies: A Celebration of Canadian Flight

Gordon C. Shaw is professor emeritus in the Faculty of Administrative
Studies at York University.

Flight is one of humanity’s most extraordinary achievements. Taming
the Skies, published to recognize the centenary of the first flight in
December 17, 1903, describes 50 military and civilian aircraft that have
made a distinctive contribution to Canadian aviation. The story starts
with “The Silver Dart,” the experimental aircraft that made the
first controlled power flight in Canada on February 23, 1909, over the
Bras d’Or Lakes in Nova Scotia. Based on this success, the
partnership—comprising J.D. McCurdy and Frederick Baldwin, both
engineers; Dr. Alexander Graham Bell (whose wealthy wife financed the
venture), and Glenn H. Curtiss, an American motorcycle designer and
recognized expert on gasoline engines—incorporated Canada’s first
aircraft manufacturing company, with the goal of supplying planes to the
military.

The author devotes a short chapter to each aircraft type in which he
gives a short history of the plane, accompanied by two or three
excellent pictures, some of which are in colour. The list of planes
includes such well-known (but not necessarily Canadian-built) aircraft
as the B–17 Flying Fortress, the De Havilland Canada Beaver, the
Vickers Vanguard, the Boeing 767, and the Mc-Donnell Banshee.

A particularly interesting chapter considers the Avro C–102
Jetliner, which, if it had obtained the desired Rolls Royce Avon jet
engines, would have made Canada a world leader in the production of jet
passenger planes. Unfortunately, these engines did not become available
for civil aircraft and, ultimately, the Jetliner project was dropped.

This is a well-written book with excellent pictures, albeit with no
bibliography or index. As such, it is recommended for the general reader
rather than for the serious historian.