for on July 13 of that year local aviation history was made.
Count Jacques deLesseps, who became the first person to pilot an aircraft over the city of Toronto.
Courtesy of Michael deLesseps (Jacques’ grandson).
It all started a few days earlier as the first Toronto Aviation Meet got underway on July 8. Sponsored in part by the Ontario Motor League (now the CAA), daily admission to the nine-day show was $1 for adults and 65¢ for children. The event was held at the Trethewey Model Farm northwest of the city near the town of Weston and was advertised to run through July 16 (but never on a Sunday in good old Toronto). Several well-known aviators were invited to attend and demonstrate their newest “flying machines.”
Among the guests was French aviator Count Jacques deLesseps, who arrived at the temporary airfield on the opening day following his participation at a similar air meet in Montreal that had only recently ended. The count, who was one of the first to fly an airplane across the English Channel, brought with him two of his monoplanes, both Bleriot models, one of which was his famous “La Scarabee.”
This map shows the route deLesseps flew. The twenty-six-minute, twenty-four-mile jaunt provided many Torontonians with their first glimpse of an airplane.
Over the next few days, aviators and their “state-of-the-art aeroplanes” performed for the crowds that had made their way out to Mr. Trethewey’s farm by way of either the Grand Trunk or Canadian Pacific Railways, each of which provided transportation (“at close intervals”) to and from the city’s Union Station, which at that time was located west of York Street at the foot of today’s University Avenue.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
