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Aviation History
1930
UNTITLED0 - 0004.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 3, 1930 ONE YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A CANADIAN COMPANY The Continental Aero Corporation of Montreal Ry A. H. S. John M. Alexander, President. J. H. St. Martin, Chief Pilot. WHETHER the Continental Aero Corporation, Ltd.,of 825, Confederation Building, Montreal, and theSt. Hubert Airport, has actually broken any records in its brief year of existence is beyond my power to say.Its officers do not boast of having done so. Indeed, they are refreshingly modest in their assertions. They are contentto base their claim to recognition on the establishment of a successful and efficient flying school ; on the distribution ofone of the machines of recognised merit produced in the United States ; and on securing a volume of business in the spaceof twelve months which has justified the expansion of their original capitalization tenfold—from 850,000 to $500,000. The little matter of the history of their first Travel airmachine, " TD " with which they set up business on August 10, 1928, they refuse to regard as being " extraordinary."This " crate," after having spent 897 hours in the air ; having made 13,000 take-offs and landings ; and having been flownby 172 different persons, was sold a few weeks ago with its original undercarriage, wheels, tyres and OX.5 engine intact.They are willing to admit that this is " interesting." It seemed that way to me !That they should have disposed of $211,000 (^43,000) worth of aircraft in the first seven months of 1929 gratifies, butdoes not surprise them. They are enthusiastic about the brand of machine they handle, and they point to the demandthroughout the Dominion for aircraft of both the types they have to offer, the open-cockpit biplane and the larger, morepowerful, cabin monoplane, as the surest criterion of more business to follow. John M. Alexander, president of the company, caught theflying fever when Bleriot crossed the Channel in 1909, and never really got over it. He was a youngster in the smalltown of Shawville, P.Q., when Bleriot made his famous flight, and his particular chum of the moment happened tobe the son of the owner of the local pattern-making shop. The two boys set to work and built a Wright-type glider,which was later followed by a heavier machine in which they installed a 12-h.p. marine engine. The glider actuallyfunctioned, but the power-driven craft was somewhat of a disappointment and never left the ground, though it taxiedabout in clouds of dust and glory. All through Mr. Alexander's association with the electricaland motion picture industries in Montreal, he retained his belief in the potentialities of aircraft. It was not, however,until the country was engulfed in that great wave of airminded- ness that followed Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, that hefelt himself justified in engaging in the industry as a legitimate business venture. And the skeletons littering the aviationdesert between 1918 and 1927 suggest that his judgment may have been good. It was not until the summer of 1928, infact, that he spent some time travelling around the States, investigating conditions, to return eventully with onemachine, the aforementioned " TD," and the agency for Travel Air machines. When Continental Aero went to thepost in August, 1928, it had a staff of three—Mr. Alexander ; Capt. J. H. St. Martin, his pilot ; and Miss Winifred Richard-son, secretary and book-keeper. Its capital, on paper, was $50,000, but its assets were mainly the single machine, theagency, and indomitable courage. St. Martin was about all the asset any one man could be, with his years of flying, datingfrom service with the Royal Air Force through a varied experience of gypsy flying, sometimes known as " barn-storming," passenger-hopping, aerial photography, parachute jumping and every other known activity of the post-war pilot,including some of the earliest service to a prospector on record. On October 1, a second machine of the same type was putinto service, and with the steady accretion of pupils, who at one time reached the handsome total of 69 simultaneouslyenrolled, the business began to hum. The present fleet consists of seven machines : four OX.5 engined model" 2,000 " Travel Air biplanes used for school work ; one model " 4,000 " open-cockpit biplane with a Wright J.6 engine ;one Travel Air cabin monoplane with a J 6 ; and one with a Pratt and Whitney " Wasp." The branch flying school atQuebec, where instruction is in the hands of H. Simoneau, uses three of these machines. Simoneau came to ContinentalAero from the Montreal Flying Club (not the Montreal Light Aeroplane Club), of which he had been the instructor. The fleet of Travel Air monoplanes and biplanes lined up in front of the Government hangar at St. Hubert Airport.
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