The Canadian Aviation Moments were submitted by Dennis Casper from the Roland Groome (Regina) Chapter of the CAHS. Spoiler alert - if you read any further than each question, you will find the answer to the questions directly below. Good luck and have fun!
The Canadian Aviation Moments questions and answers for October are:
Question: How many operations was Canada’s first warplane (the Burgess-Dunn) on during WW 1 and where was it’s final resting place?
Answer: “The Burgess-Dunne was severely damaged during transit and never repaired. In February, 1915, the Canadian Division moved from England’s Salisbury Plain, but without the CAC’s only warplane, which was inadvertently – or perhaps deliberately – left behind. Three months later, Canadian soldiers were ordered to locate the airplane, but no one was told what type of machine they were actually looking for. In June, the search was called off. A few rusty parts and two inner tubes were all that was found. Somehow, the inner tubes had wound up in a friendly pub.”
Source: Dancing in the Sky – Page 22
Question: What role did Ernest Lloyd Janney, a motor mechanic from Galt On, who had no experience in flying, nor in building airplanes, but he was a gifted hucksters who in all probability could have sold baby seal meat to Brigitte Bardot and Paul M, play in the Canadian Air Corps in 1914?
Answer: “How the virtually unknown Janney gained access to Hughes is not known, but on 16 September 1914, the minister of militia made Janney the provisional head of the new Canadian Air Corps (CAC). Hughes also appointed Janney a captain in the Canadian Militia, and had him outfitted with a new uniform, Sam Browne belt, and shiny new service revolver. All this was done without consulting any governmental authority or advising Major-General Alderson, commander of the Canadian Expeditiomaru Force (CEF). Moreover, Janney was never properly gazetted as a captain, although he drew pay from the militia as of the date of his probationary appointment.”
Source: Dancing in the Sky – Page 19
Question: Why did the RAF switch from target specific bombing, during WWII, to night area bombing from 1941 to late 1944?
Answer: “From 1941 until late 1944 the majority of Bomber Command’s sorties consisted of area-bombing by night: and the chief reason for this turn of events was that “the only target on which the night force could inflict effective damage was a whole German town.” The Raf’s Pffocoa; Jostory Branch Marrative identifies this linkage directly with Sir Charles Portal and the more pessimistic, yet pragmatic attitude which he would bring to future Air Staff deliberations on bombing policy. Ultimately, due allowance was made for the inaccuracy of bombing, by ensuring that targets selected were not isolated, but if possible in large centres of population and industry. This was the reason for the initiation of area bombing and the selection of “industrial centres” instead of factories.”
Source: NO PROUDER PLACE – Page 33