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Aviation Nation: The past, present and future of the Royal Canadian Air Force
A new children’s book from the RCAF Foundation hopes to inspire the next generation of aviators
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In 1909, the first Canadian plane took to the skies above the ice of Baddeck Bay, N.S.. The plane, called the Silver Dart, was made of steel tubes, bamboo, friction tape, wire and metal, and had been pulled onto the ice by horse-drawn sleigh. The pilot and principal designer, John Alexander Douglas McCurdy, sat in a small box between the wings on the top and bottom of the plane. On its second flight attempt, the tiny plane soared three to nine metres above the ground for just less than a kilometre, cheered on by about a hundred of co-designer Alexander Graham Bell’s neighbours. The Silver Dart was fragile and only lasted around 200 flights — but it sowed the seeds for Canada’s future in aviation.
Aviation history like this can be found in the pages of Aviation Nation, a new children’s book from the RCAF Foundation containing more than 65 stories of the people and planes that turned the Royal Canadian Air Force into what it is today.
“We wanted to feature people, events and machines,” says Jeremy Diamond, founding CEO of the RCAF Foundation. “You could do a whole book on people and the stories of those individuals, but that’s only part of the story. So, we wanted to [cover] a select number of people who have made an incredible contribution to [the RCAF], but also talk a little bit about aircraft and Canadian achievement.”
The stories in Aviation Nation, written by former RCAF commander Michael Hood and Tom Jenkins and illustrated by Josh Rivers, showcase the history of the RCAF, but also uplift some lesser-known stories.
“The RCAF has been a trailblazer in terms of an institution involving women before many institutions did, giving them an opportunity to do all the things the men were doing in the Air Force,” says Diamond. “[Aviation Nation highlights] some of the stories of those that would be considered underrepresented in Canada, whose stories just haven’t been told at the same level and the same frequency as some others.”
Among the stories are those of Elsie MacGill and the Carty brothers. In 1929 MacGill became the first woman in the world to receive a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. During the Second World War, MacGill headed the Canadian production of Hawker Hurricane fighter planes, earning the nickname “Queen of the Hurricanes.” The Carty brothers were from a Black family; all five would become airmen in the RCAF during the Second World War, when regulations surrounding recruitment restricted the ability of Black people to serve in the Air Force. The RCAF Foundation hopes sharing these stories will allow kids to see they could have a place with the RCAF in the future, no matter who they are.
“It is also a way to really try and inspire young people that are thinking about what they want to do when they grow up,” says Diamond. The rest of the book covers different careers in aviation, such as avionic technicians and fighter pilots. The careers portion of the book showcases real people working these jobs as a way to show kids pathways they might follow in the future.
Robert “Scratch” Mitchell, 55, is a former fighter pilot with the RCAF. Mitchell says his career was extremely rich. “It really taught me to think critically and creatively,” says Mitchell. “It’s actually a misnomer when people think it must be so rigid. It’s actually the opposite. I found in the Air Force I had so much freedom of decision, to guide my own career and to influence the people around me.”
Aviation Nation is set to release on April 1, 2025, with all proceeds going to the RCAF Foundation. The Foundation educates students on aviation, offers scholarships for post-secondary students and works with teachers to implement aviation lessons into the curriculum.
Companion classroom resources for students in Grades 4-8 were developed in partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University.
“Working with teachers, working with young people and, of course, working with their parents indirectly is a way for kids to be thinking, ‘I never knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I met this person, or I read this story or I learned this in school, and now I think this is what I want to do,” says Diamond. “We’re hoping for a holistic approach to education — of publications and storytelling — but making sure that we highlight the history and the future of an incredible part of Canadian history.”
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