John Alexander Douglas Mc Curdy - Aviation

Aviation

In 1907, he joined Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association. In 1908, McCurdy helped another AEA member, Glenn Curtiss to set up the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.

After co-developer Frederick W. Baldwin first flew in 1908, on February 23, 1909, McCurdy became the first British subject to fly an aircraft in the British Empire when he piloted the Aerial Experiment Association's Silver Dart off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia. The Silver Dart was the first designed Canadian aircraft to fly. In 1910, he was the first Canadian to be issued a pilot's licence and the following year, he made the first flight from Florida to Cuba. For the next few years, he continued to set aviation records in Canada and North America, until 1916, when vision problems grounded him.