Aerial Experiment Association
The
Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was formed in
1907 under the tutelage of Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell.
The AEA came into being when
John Alexander Douglas McCurdy and his friend
Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, two young engineers fresh out of the
University of Toronto, decided to spend the summer in
Baddeck, Nova Scotia. McCurdy had grown up there, and his father was the personal secretary of Dr. Bell. He had grown up close to the Bell family and was well received in their home. One day, as the three sat with Dr. Bell discussing the problems of aviation, Bell's wife, Mabel, suggested they form a company to exploit their collective ideas. Being independently wealthy, she offered to bankroll the idea, taking care of one of the major problems facing aviators of the day.
The American motorcycle designer and manufacturer, and recognized expert on
gasoline engines,
Glenn H. Curtiss also became a member of the association. Curtiss had visited the
Wright Cycle Company to discuss
aeronautical engineering with
Wilbur and
Orville Wright but the Wrights did not want to cooperate with him in the development of aircraft. The group attracted sufficient attention to inspire the
United States government to request that an official observer be allowed to join. Their nominee was US Army Lieutenant
Thomas Selfridge who was later to be the first person killed in an airplane accident.
This collaboration lead to very public success. Casey Baldwin became the first Canadian pilot during a March
1908 flight of
Red Wing. Its successor,
White Wing was the first plane to have Bell's
ailerons. One of their planes, 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
February 23 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
March 10 1909, McCurdy set a record when he flew the airplane on a circular course over a distance of more than 32 km (20 miles), a feat that the Wrights had already accomplished in 1905. The Association made the first passenger flight in Canada on
August 2, also in the
Silver Dart. Much development also took place in
Hammondsport, New York where experimentation was done on development of the first
seaplane.
The association disbanded on
March 31,
1909.
