Armstrong-Whitworth had sent a pair of Siskins to Canada for winter testing, and in 1927, the Canadian government allowed the RCAF to purchase nine Siskins and six Atlases. These were the first new fighter aircraft since the Great War and, at the time of purchase, the latest in technology. The Atlases were for an army cooperation role, but the Siskins were sent to No. 1 Fighter Squadron. When assembled at Camp Borden, three of them were designated as part of the RCAF’s first aerobatic team: the Siskin Flight, which performed at air shows until the mid-1930s. The RCAF was starved of aircraft purchases after that, and the Siskin Flight was the closest that the poor RCAF pilots got to combat conditions. The Siskins laboured through the decade with No. 1 Fighter Squadron at Trenton until the purchase of the Hurricanes in 1939.
Courtesy of the Department of National Defence
Armstrong-Whitworth Siskin at Rockliffe.
WESTLAND WAPITI
The early 1930s were characterized by two trends worldwide: the Depression and disarmament. The first meant that there was little money to buy new aircraft for the RCAF, and the second gave a reason not spend what money there was. As a result, even with the rise of Fascism in Europe, in 1935 the Canadian government could afford only second-hand, inferior fighter aircraft like the Westland Wapiti.
The return to power of Prime Minister Mackenzie King in 1935 allowed for the reorganization of the air force to provide for some token coastal defence. The RCAF, like the two other services, was tied to its British counterpart (the RAF) for organization and equipment. Accordingly, although the purchase of American aircraft would have been cheaper, Canada continued to look toward Britain for its equipment. In 1935, Ottawa ordered six Westland Wapiti bombers and four Blackburn Shark torpedo bombers. Neither aircraft was adequate for Canadian purposes; both were second-hand from the RAF. The Westland Wapiti biplane had been named after the North American elk — appropriately, for like that creature, it was defenceless. The aircraft itself was little more than a copy of the De Havilland 9A of Great War vintage. It was underpowered, poorly designed, “glided like a brick,” and had little to recommend itself. The RAF had found it wanting even for use at its stations in the Middle East and was pleased to unload it on the penniless Canadians. The biplanes, having braved the desert and tribesmen’s bullets, arrived in Canada in deplorable condition. The contract to clean their cockpits of scorpions and camel dung (if the hapless RCAF pilots were to be believed) was given to an Ottawa street car company that was owned by the Ahearn family, which, by coincidence, had been generous supporters of the Liberal party’s re-election.
National Archives of Canada PA 63307
Westland Wapiti.
But the Wapitis (nicknamed “What a pities”) were Canada’s only bomber in the 1930s and were assigned to RCAF No. 3 Squadron. Based at Ottawa, they took part in military exercises at Camp Borden until 1938, when No. 3 was moved to Calgary to better train on bombing runs. With the war, the RCAF gratefully demoted the Wapitis to training and observation roles.
National Archives of Canada PA 63J19
Wapitis at Ottawa, the RCAF’s only bomber in the 1930s.
Courtesy of De Havilland Canada
Tiger Moth.
THE TIGER MOTH
Given birth by the Golden Age of flying in the 1920s, the De Havilland Tiger Moth became the basic pilot trainer for Commonwealth air forces during the Second World War, serving with the Royal Air Force until 1953. When, between the world wars, flying developed into a fad for youthful aviation enthusiasts (both male and female) the director of British Civil Aviation, Sir Sefton Branckner, looked for a cheap, uncomplicated airplane with which to launch a national flying club scheme. And so was born one of the most beloved biplanes in aviation history: the De Havilland Tiger Moth.
Geoffrey de Havilland said that he built the two-seat biplane for his own use and, as a natural history hobbyist, thought the name “Moth” perfect, keeping to that family of insects to name the whole series of light aircraft. On February 22, 1925, he test flew the first Moth, the DH 60 Cirrus, himself. It wasn’t only the aircraft’s robust simplicity that attracted the public, but the fact that it was an affordable £885, the price of a car — and indeed, with the wings folded, it could be towed by the family car. It was the first “people’s plane,” and it was said anyone could learn to fly or service a Moth, so uncomplicated were its controls and engine. Branckner agreed and ordered ninety, putting De Havilland into the main ranks of British aircraft builders. The Royal Air Force had misgivings about its lack of forward visibility and the maze of struts that hampered access to the front (or student’s) cockpit. To overcome both these defects, the DH 60 evolved into the DH 82 Tiger Moth, which would fly on October 26, 1931. Distinguished by its swept-back wings for improved cockpit access and powered by a 120 hp inline Gipsy four-cylinder engine (which by 1937 had been upgraded to a 130 hp engine), it cruised comfortably at 100 miles per hour, had a ceiling of 13,600 feet, and had a range of 285 miles. In fine weather, the Tiger Moth was a delight to fly. By the time the war began, 1,153 Tiger Moths had been built, and it was the Royal Air Force’s basic trainer.
Geoffrey de Havilland would never have guessed how many millions of pilots worldwide would learn to fly on his aircraft before moving on to Harvards and Ansons, and ultimately Spitfires, Lancasters, and commercial airliners. Simple enough to be built by even the most basic aircraft industry, Tiger Moths were made in four dominions (with a few variations), as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. De Havilland Canada turned out 1,747 Tiger Moths as the DH 82C, distinguished by their enclosed canopies; some had 160 hp Pirate D.4 engines. There were 345 manufactured in New Zealand, and in Australia, the 1,085 Tiger Moths built locally were known as Jackaroos. Of the many historic flights that Tiger Moths made in Canada, one of the most colourful took place on June 24, 1968. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Canada’s first airmail flight, Trans Canada Airlines captain Donald Chamberlin and ex-RCAF pilot Thomas Lee re-enacted the famous flight with a Tiger Moth. The original pilot, Captain Brian Peck of the RAF, had used a Curtiss Jenny to fly 120 letters in a mail sack from Montreal’s Cartierville Airport (then Bois Franc polo grounds) to Toronto’s Leaside airfield, completing the trip in seven hours. A co-owner of the Tiger Moth, Chamberlin took same number of letters in the original mailbag from thirteen-year-old Brian Peck, Captain Peck’s grandson. The Tiger Moth made the flight in five hours, with the same stops at Kingston and Desoronto, and landed at Malton Airport, as Leaside had become a suburb of Toronto.
FOKKER UNIVERSAL
The first bushplanes in Canada were war surplus HS-2L biplane flying boats, which were restricted to use in the short summer months. For year-round operation, what was needed were radial-engined, wooden-winged monoplanes that could be adapted to the season and used with wheels, floats, or skis. Anthony Fokker’s Universal was just that.
The Dutchman’s business was flourishing during the 1920s, especially in the United States. Because of that country’s late entry into the Great War, American aircraft designers had little experience in aircraft. Fokker did, and his planes were constantly used in record-breaking flights — the first across the United States non-stop in 1923, the first to fly from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Indonesia) in 1924, the first over the North Pole with Admiral Byrd in 1926, and the first flight from the mainland United States to Hawaii in 1927.
Initially importing his aircraft into the United States, in 1926, he opened