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Curtiss Canada
The Curtiss Canada was the first twin-engine aircraft built and flown in Canada. At the start of the First World War, the Royal Navy was impressed with the Curtiss H-4 “Small America” flying boat, and requested a landplane version. As the Curtiss Company in New York was too busy designing new aircraft and building war orders, the responsibility for modifying the flying boat to landplane, to be known as the “Columbia,” was given to the new subsidiary in Toronto.
Work on the “Canada,” as the aircraft was renamed when the work was transferred, began in Toronto in May 1915 with the first flight in late-July that year. The aircraft was accepted by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in September and was shipped to the United Kingdom, with test flights being made in November. Unusual for an aircraft of the time, the “Canada” was fitted with a Sperry-designed autopilot/auto-stabilizer. An order for a further 11 was placed and delivered, ten for the Royal Flying Corps and one for the RNAS, incorporating changes made in the UK. A further 25 were ordered and then cancelled as the “Canada” had problems.
As the aircraft was designed before the characteristics of aerial warfare were known, the design was neither conducive to surviving battle damage nor to fitting with defensive or offensive armament. The Curtiss engines with which it was fitted were unreliable while the workmanship and detail in the design were not satisfactory. Despite the poor showing, the Curtiss Canada had a significant number of Canadian “firsts:” the first twin-engine aircraft to be built in Canada, the first aircraft of Canadian design to go into production, the first Canadian-designed bomber and the first Canadian design intended for military service.
