As World War I started, the federal government passed an
Order-in-Council to stop all non-military flying except by
permission. When Frank
Ellis and Tom Blakely wanted to fly their tiny Curtiss
biplane, they had to first get permission from the RCMP. There
were no flying exhibitions until 1916, when the well-known
American pilot, Katherine Stinson arrived in Alberta.
Stinson flew in Edmonton and Calgary in 1916, performing
breathtaking stunts that no one had seen before. She
demonstrated night flying, using smoke "bombs" so that visitors
on the ground would be able to see her flight pattern. She flew
loop-the-loop even under very windy conditions. In one case, she
flew directly into a strong wind, appearing as if she was not
The following year, 1917, Stinson returned to Calgary, but
was dogged with engine problems that delayed all of her flights.
Once she was finally up flying again, she tried to race her
plane in the sky against a car on the ground but strong gales
pushed her off course. In Edmonton later that year, her troubles
continued. When she tried to take off, Stinson lost control of
the airplane and it rushed perilously toward the grandstand. She
shut off the engine and pushed the biplane to the ground,
stopping a tragedy from occurring, but damaging her aircraft.
One evening a few days later, her biplane repaired, Stinson
put on a show for the crowd burning smoke bombs again so that
spectators could follow her flight. She also put on a
demonstration of bombing trenches with paper bombs to show a
sanitized version of what aircraft were being used for at the
front as the First World War waged on.
Katherine Stinson Demonstrates World War 1 Flying Techniques
While Stinson was demonstrating her flying skills, many knew
that one man from Edmonton and another from Calgary had
travelled to San Antonio, Texas, to train at the Stinson Flight
School. The school, run by Katherine, her sister, and brother,
had an excellent reputation and trained 60 Canadians for the
First World War.
In 1918, Stinson unexpectedly returned to perform at the
Calgary Exhibition to make up for her poor showing the year
before. She had been able to keep her presence a secret by
assembling and flying her biplane from a golf and country club
in Calgary to the exhibition site. She did this every day of the
exhibition. During this time, it was announced that she would
deliver the mail in her
airplane from Calgary to Edmonton, a first for Western Canada.
In addition to her skills as a pilot, this Alberta fair
favourite drove a race car, setting a new one-mile record for
women car racers.
Stinson went on to perform at summer exhibitions at
Lethbridge, Red Deer, and Camrose.