Aerial Experiment Association - Later Designs

Later Designs

The AEA's work progressed to heavier-than-air machines, applying their knowledge of kites to gliders. The AEA collaboration led to very public success. Casey Baldwin became the first Canadian and first British subject pilot on 12 March 1908 flight of Red Wing.

Its successor, White Wing was the first plane to have Bell's ailerons. One of their aircraft, the June Bug, won the Scientific American Trophy by making the first official one kilometer flight in North America, although, the Wrights had already accomplished this in 1904. Their fourth flying machine, the Silver Dart, constructed in 1908, made the first controlled powered flight in Canada on 23 February 1909 when it was flown off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck by McCurdy, who had been one of its designers.

On 10 March 1909, McCurdy set a record when he flew the Silver Dart on a circular course over a distance of more than 32 km (20 mi), a feat that the Wrights had already accomplished in 1905. The Association made the first passenger flight in Canada on 2 August, also in the Silver Dart. Much development also took place in Hammondsport, New York where experimentation was done on development on pioneering seaplane experiments carried out by Curtiss, before Henri Fabre in France successfully flew the first powered seaplane in history, the Fabre Hydravion, in March 1910.