Orville Wright piloted that first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Now, 100 years later, powered flight has taken pilots and passengers around the world and into space to the moon.

Members of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society, New Brunswick, Turnbull Chapter, are marking the anniversary of flight with a proposed fly-by over Prospect Street on Wednesday, weather permitting.

"We are trying to get three or four aircraft to fly above Prospect Street," said Bruce Atkinson. "They won't fly vintage aircraft but modern planes."

Veteran pilots Atkinson, Pepi DiGiacinto and Ernie McLean agree the most dramatic aspect of the evolution of flight has been the ability to control a flying machine.

"We share a brotherhood in the enthusiasm of the Wright Brothers and the advances in aeronautical technology," DiGiacinto said.

DiGiacinto piloted a Second World War Lancaster bomber that is now a monument in Edmundston. He was flying for Maritime Central Airways at the time. He went to Trenton, Ont., just before the plane was to be taken apart and shipped to Fredericton.

DiGiacinto insisted the plane be flown to Fredericton and three months after arriving in Fredericton he flew it to Edmundston in August 1964.

The refinement of flight from being able to control a basic flying machine with fabric stretched over a wood frame to the agility of a giant 400-tonne, 515-passenger jumbo 747 is remarkable in terms of a century, said DiGiacinto.

McLean said Fredericton has an interesting aviation history. He said there has been a number of airports in the area, including a seaplane base on the St. John River near the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

"Seaplanes used to dock in front of the legislature," he said.

The first airport in New Brunswick was located in Blissville and that was established in the early 1940s. The Barkers Point airport operated from 1941 to 1951 and handled passengers and mail service until the Fredericton Airport opened in 1953 with two runways.

The society is also trying to include the Fredericton Airport in the celebrations. The society has asked the airport authority to allow artist John Christenson to establish a permanent display of historical photographs at the airport.

RICHARD DUPLAIN
The Daily Gleaner
As published on page A4 on December 16, 2003

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