1950 CPAL Public Timetable

Here is an airline with a 'flag stop' at Kenora and numerous other locations! Will passengers arrive at a crude shelter by the runway and stop their plane in the daytime by using a flag ... and at night time by using a kerosene lantern?!

... Before Canadian railways adopted aviation-inspired terminology and practices (such as Rail Traffic Controller instead of Dispatcher) this airline used the term 'flag stop' to denote an optional stop which would probably be based on tickets purchased and registered before the flight departed.

Once again, a document collected by LC Gagnon provides interesting perspectives into the history of Canadian transportation.

Service to Shanghai was 'suspended' in this 1950 timetable. The Chinese Communist Revolution was in progress at this point in history. Shanghai was taken over by the People's Liberation Army in May 1949.

As noted in other posts, the government's original policy was that no airlines (public or private) were to be allowed to compete on the same route. This ruling was probably inspired by the ruinous competition seen during Canada's railway boom. Trans-Canada Air Lines (a crown corporation) was to have a monopoly on 'main line' Canadian routes and (all) international routes.  Here, we can see that CPAL has now been allowed to operate on Pacific international routes.

Canadian Pacific Air Lines - Glad to have you aboard! (c. 1950)

This undated pamphlet probably came from a rack in Windsor Station when LC Gagnon was working for the railway there. 

LC Gagnon had a great interest in aviation developments during the Second World War. He travelled out to see what was then known as the airport 'at Lachine'. There, he witnessed the early efforts Canadian Pacific organized to ferry aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean early in the war - via Dorval and Newfoundland. Later in the war, this ferry work was taken over by RAF Ferry Command and the British Ministry of Aircraft Production.

Readers will probably be very familiar with the history of railway development in Canada. Small companies with small networks of lines developed ('portage railways' between navigable waterways were an early Canadian specialty). As investment was attracted, an integrated system developed. Large companies often acquired control of smaller, older railways to facilitate their own growth and to manage competition. 

A similarly complex situation evolved with the corporate development of Canada's aviation sector in the 1920s and 30s. Unlike the railways, aside from transportation equipment, commercial aircraft operators had no terrestrial assets of any significance, so most companies were privately owned. I checked for aviation securities (stocks, bonds, etc) in a Financial Post reference book from 1928 and only a flying school in British Columbia was listed as an issuer.

Until curtailed by Prime Minister RB Bennett during the Great Depression, airmail services subsidized the early air routes. Beyond the typical Canadian east-west routes between cities, aircraft travelled where most railways did not - to the Canadian north for the purposes of developing natural resources. Depending on the season, skis or pontoons were used to land on the northern lakes before permanent runways were built. 

Trans-Canada Air Lines was established in 1937 (nested under Canadian National Railways administration) with Sir Edward Beatty and the CPR bowing out of the proposed joint participation with the CNR. Beatty felt that putting up 50% of the capital for the project was not consistent with having less than 50% representation on the board of the TCA. 

In 1943, Prime Minister Mackenzie King demonstrated that the federal government had the capacity to learn from its past mistake of allowing too much railway overbuilding and ruinous competition. His policy statement in the Commons was:

• TCA would be the only airline operating international air services.
• TCA would operate all transcontinental ... and 'main line' services as designated by the government.
• Competition over the same route between TCA and a private airline ... or between two private airlines ... would not be permitted.

... As a result of this policy statement, the air transportation companies already acquired by the CPR would remain as providers of regional and north-south transportation for the time being.

Many readers will easily identify the DC-3 aircraft shown in the pamphlet. A total of about 11,000 aircraft of this design were built between 1935 and 1946.  In 1946-7, Canadian Pacific Air Lines acquired 17 war surplus C-47 aircraft (the military transportation variant of the DC-3) and fitted them for passenger service. Most of them were sold off by the end of the 1950s.

Much of this short historical account has been taken from the exquisitely detailed story of CPAL's origins in Canadian Pacific Air Lines - Its History and Aircraft; DM Bain; 1987; Kishorn Publications. 

... Bain notes that the DC-3s were probably the first true airliners seen in the northern communities they served. 

(There are additional posts on CPAL and TCA - just press the Short Subjects 02 radio button above.)

I believe the 'ring' below the aircraft's nose is a radio direction finding antenna.

Radio 'beams'  and beacons had long been used to help aircraft crews find their way across the continent.

From above: 'select any seat you wish'.

'Seat' is singular, but here we can see the very first 'business class' being created (extreme left).

You may notice that the aircraft image from the Nicholas Morant photo below ...

has been modified and used in the aircraft image above.

(Compare the buildings, ships etc.)

from: Canadian Pacific Air Lines, Its History and Aircraft: DM Bain; 1987; Kishorn Publications.

Many readers will recognize Vancouver in the photo above.

1943 Canadian Pacific Air Lines, Northern Air Routes

It was Thomas Shaughnessy who got Canadian Pacific into the airline business. At least it was he who, in 1919, had Parliament change the company's corporate charter to enable it to own and operate a wide range of air services. 

I'm short of time, so I won't be using Empire honourifics in this post. I always check to see if they had been awarded at the particular point in history I write about. I should make a chart for myself, because it's always the same people!

A previous post looked at the formation of Trans-Canada Air Lines - whose stock was originally held by Canadian National Railways. There was more to that story ...

Kingstonian James A Richardson of Hanley Spur and Smoke on the Waterfront fame, transplanted his operations centre to Winnipeg. Among other holdings, he owned Western Canada Airways (established 1926). In 1930, he initiated feelers between Presidents Henry Thornton (CNR) and Edward Beatty (CPR) regarding possible railway company involvement in developing the airline business. Eventually the three made a deal to create a new company named Canadian Airways. After Richardson's heart attack in 1939, his widow held the controlling interest in this company. Beatty bought her interest in December 1941.

However, back in the 1930s, Prime Minister RB Bennett was cutting the necessarily lucrative air mail routes (essential for many routes to survive) to save money ... so grand coast-to-coast schemes were shelved until after a change of government.

Meanwhile, as this booklet shows, Canadian Pacific had been quietly collecting Canadian 'wilderness' air carriers. In the future it would be prevented from competing against TCA on any trans-Canadian or international routes. Nonetheless, people were eventually concerned that Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CPAL) had secured a monopoly on north-south air traffic in Canada.

Regarding CPR's potential involvement with TCA ... to make a tortured, protracted saga short ... as the exploratory talks later progressed with Minister of Transport CD Howe, Beatty always got the feeling that the TCA legislation would be a rigged game against the CPR's best interests - with the government having more control than it deserved for the money it expected CPR to invest.

In the end, World War 2 shook the chessboard and everything changed. Commercial aircraft were requisitioned, pilots and support crew went into the military or its aeronautical activities, and new programs were quickly developed to support the war effort.

Due to wartime censorship, one notable aspect of CPAL's involvement is not discussed or illustrated in the reprinted Canadian Geographic article below. CPAL set up the system of air-ferrying aircraft across the North Atlantic. This involved organizing crews of civilians, support and refueling services at airports in the middle of the North Atlantic, as much navigation support as possible - recognizing that celestial navigation would be necessary, and the receipt and delivery of the aircraft themselves. 

... Aircraft generally went over in loose formations, with the crews returning together on one plane. One of my father's favourite movies was the Canadian-based 1942 US wartime movie Captains of the Clouds. It is entertainment/propaganda which shows the bushpilot to ferry pilot 'career path'. Here are a couple of screen grabs from the iTunes version. After we have developed the daring bushpilots' movie characters in the Canadian movie wilderness, they decide to just fly in and sign up!

The Canadian bushpilots create chaos when they drop in on a Canadian training base to volunteer. (I think this was Uplands?) This includes Alan Hale, Jimmy Cagney, a buttoned-down guy with a British accent and the requisite zany French Canadian pilot. 

Billy Bishop performs an inspection of airmen from all over the Commonwealth 

(and the US) who have responded to the call.

The idea of flying new aircraft over the ocean released industrial resources and commodities in Britain for other uses, increased cargo space on North Atlantic convoys, saved entire shipments of precious completed aircraft from the risks of being sunk by U-boats while in a convoy of ships, and speeded up delivery of aircraft to Europe. 

Apparently because of the preferences of President Roosevelt - the US was building most of the aircraft being ferried - this program was subsequently put under military control. CPAL ferried the first 300 planes across between November 1940 and July 1941. Then a British Transport Command system was set up. 

You'll find none of this documented in the October 1943 account ... 

However, it is mentioned in an advertisement on the last page! Axis spies may subscribe to the Canadian Geographic to discover Canada's secrets, but, by Jove, we'll keep this booklet out of their fascist fingers!!

Trans-Canada Air Lines 1946

Canadian National Railways had controlling ownership of Trans-Canada Air Lines when it was first established. Here is the government's account - from the Canada Handbook of 1946 - of how Canada's 'flag carrier' began.

Canadians had desired an 'All Red' route for their first transcontinental railway. Before that, crossing the continent expeditiously might have involved using existing American railroads for part of the trip. 

A similar situation had evolved with North American aviation. As a technology of war, great progress had been made in the development of aircraft during the Great War. However, travelling over large expanses of wilderness, or mountains, during a Canadian winter ... required technology beyond that of the Sopwith Camels, SPADs and Fokker triplanes - or even that of a Vickers Vimy, the first aircraft to make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.

Canada's vast, largely empty, wilderness was an impediment to setting up airways and aviation infrastructure. And economic activity to support a Canadian transcontinental commercial operation was lacking on most route segments.

However, float planes were just the thing for flying in supplies and people to remote northern mining locations. The Great War aerial photography techniques used to document enemy trenches and artillery could be adapted to finally map Canada's undocumented interior. 

After the worst years of the Great Depression, the establishment of a Canadian transcontinental airline became justifiable to the Government of Canada. To what extent Transportation Minister CD Howe was anticipating another European war is not stated. Certainly, TCA became essential to the Canadian war effort.

It should be noted that the Canadian Pacific Railway and its subsidiary, Canadian Pacific Air Lines, became involved in setting up the wartime trans-Atlantic aircraft ferrying system. This began by transporting American-built aircraft to Britain via Gander, Newfoundland. Ferrying avoided the inefficiency of aircraft disassembly for shipping and subsequent reassembly in England - freeing valuable British industrial labour for other duties. As well, ferried aircraft were safe from German U-boat operations - the latter were destroying a lot of convoy shipping early in the war. In 1941, with the Battle of Britain over, and the threat of German invasion of Britain less of a danger, Ferry Command was taken over by the Royal Air Force. 

On page 122 of the second article (below) CPA's activities are described.

The first article gives a lot of detail about the early years of Canada's national airline - TCA.

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Also from the 1946 Canada Handbook, an overview of Canadian air transportation:

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My father obtained and preserved a Trans-Canada wartime schedule.

Notice below that passengers were prohibited from using cameras.
This language persisted in the schedules printed after the war as well.