The history of the first flights in Toronto

Travel to and from Toronto via aircraft is so routine nowadays that it's easy to forget how truly extraordinary flight once was for both pilots and spectators.

In the early 20th century, airplanes were innovative, experimental machines, and flying them was a dangerous feat reserved exclusively for daring individuals willing to risk their lives. What you might not know is that long before aviation became an everyday part of life, Toronto played a quiet, albeit important role, in the early days of air travel in Canada.

Following the world's first successful flight by the Wright brothers in North Carolina in 1903, Toronto and its waterfront emerged as a key setting for the development of the emerging technology. At the time, flying was viewed less as a mode of transportation and more as a public spectacle to marvel at, but the potential was evident early on.

Aviators were commonly referred to as "birdmen," and travelled from city to city to showcase their aircraft and attempt new records.

Toronto hosted what is widely considered the first public exhibition of Canada on Sept. 7, 1909, at Scarboro Beach Park, a lakeside amusement park that operated from 1907 to 1925. The daring feat was accomplished by Massachusetts-born aviator Charles Willard and his aircraft "Golden Flyer."

Charles Willard sitting in a biplane in 1911. Photo: City of Toronto Archives.

At the time, Willard was a 25-year-old Harvard graduate and was one of the first students taught to fly by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. He received his first and only flying lesson on July 18, 1909, and made his first independent flight less than two weeks later on July 30.

The Golden Flyer was the first aeroplane built under the Curtiss name, and was acquired by the New York Aeronautic Society in the summer of 1909, to display it at public exhibitions. A short time later, the Society received a request from Scarboro Beach Park's management for an exhibition flight at the amusement park.

Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive.

With only a handful of flights ever successfully taken, barely anyone (let alone those in Toronto) had ever seen an airplane face-to-face. The exhibition grounds, where Willard had arrived on Aug. 28, also lacked a proper runway, forcing the aviator to take off "from an alley between some of the permanent buildings on the fairgrounds that led to a three-foot drop over a breakwater on the shore of Lake Ontario," according to Downsview Aerospace Innovation & Research.

With just six feet of space on either side of the aircraft's wings, a 90-metre wooden trough was created to help the front wheel landing gear reach the lakefront.

The young aviator attempted his first flight on Sept. 2, but ultimately crashed in the water after the front wheel of the aircraft began to rub along the trough, making it impossible to reach the speed needed to take off.

On Sept. 7, after the aircraft dried out, Willard made another attempt, and this time, was successful. The aircraft successfully flew over Lake Ontario for roughly five minutes, to the astonishment of local spectators, who gave the aviator "quite a cheer" upon his landing on the lake.

Count Jacques de Lesseps in 1910. Photo: City of Toronto Archives.

The following year, Count Jacques de Lesseps from Paris successfully completed the first flight over Toronto. Count de Lesseps flew his aircraft, "Le Scarabee," from Trethewey Farms in North York to Lake Ontario and back.

Count de Lesseps' Bleriot Monoplane. Photo: Toronto Public Library.

In 1911, Charles Willard made history in Toronto once again alongside Canadian aviation pioneer John McCurdy. Together, they completed a 35-mile flight from Hamilton to Toronto.

"Willard flew the distance along the shoreline, landing at the Exhibition Grounds, while McCurdy flew over the lake and landed on Fishermans Island, once part of the Toronto Islands," according to Heritage Toronto, with Willard's flight taking 43 minutes and McCurdy's taking 36 minutes.

McCurdy sitting in a biplane in 1911. Photo: City of Toronto Archives.

In 1914, American aviator Theodore Macaulay took a Toronto Daily Star reporter, Lou E. Marsh, on a flight between Toronto and Hamilton on board a seaplane named "Sunfish," attempting to top the previous record time set by McCurdy. The journey marked the first time a passenger had travelled by air between the two cities and beat out the previous record by three minutes.

Following the light, Marsh, who had expressed a fear of crashing earlier, sent a telegram to the Daily Star newsroom, writing, "Phone Mrs. Marsh am O.K."

A Curtiss-type "Pusher" biplane flown by Willard in 1911 at Donlands Farm, Todmorden Mills. Photo: City of Toronto Archives.

Beyond more spectacles and machine experimentation, aviation along Toronto's waterfront soon took on more practical roles, including military training. In 1915, a Curtiss Aeroplanes and Motors Ltd. factory opened near the Exhibition Grounds, and built aircraft during the war effort.

After returning to Toronto from the war, flying aces Billy Bishop and William Baker acquired war-surplus seaplanes and used them to open up the city's first commercial aviation company, Bishop-Barker Aeroplane Ltd.

The Curtiss K "Flying Boat" used for seaplane training. Photo: Toronto Public Library.

The planes were equipped to carry three people and provided air charter services from Toronto Harbour to Muskoka.

Together, these early lights and experiments laid the groundwork for the development of aviation in Toronto and beyond. Today, over 1,000 flights take off and land at Pearson Airport daily, while Billy Bishop Airport sees an average of 47 to 90 departures daily, worlds away from the days when a single flight was enough to draw a massive crowd.