News - Building the Silver Dart
Kite-flyers visit the Silver Dart replica and donate $160 cash to AEA 2005 Inc. group
October, 2008 – Late in November, 18 very special visitors toured the Russell Aviation Group hangar to visit Doug Jermyn and the Silver Dart replica. They were kite-flying enthusiasts, brought together by Port Colborne’s Bob White, and they came from south-central Ontario and New 
York state, to spend a couple of hours taking a close look at the replica … they also brought with them coffee and donuts to share with the AEA 2005 Inc. members on hand who spoke with them about our work. Towards the end of the three-hour visit, Bob handed AEA 2005 Inc. president Doug Jermyn a $160 cash donation - collected in advance from his entourage. “A pleasant and welcome surprise,” noted Doug. (Photo © AEA 2005 Inc.)
Canada’s National History Society in Winnipeg, MB, interested in replica
Nelle Oosterom, editor of The Beaver, Canada’s National Historical Society magazine, interviewed Doug Jermyn in November, and she was kind enough to give us some background information:
The Beaver, Canada’s History Magazine, will be featuring a story about the building of AEA 2005 Inc.’s Silver Dart replica in the February / March (2009) issue of the magazine. The story is part of a special edition of The Beaver that features a number of articles on Canada’s aviation history, including a feature by best-selling Canadian author Charlotte Gray on Alexander Graham Bell, the famous inventor behind Canada’s first successful manned flight.
The CNHS web site is at http://www.historysociety.ca/index.asp
The Beaver is an intriguing publication in its own right … as its own web site - http://www.historysociety.ca/bea.asp - says … the Beaver gives “ its readers the Canadian history they were seldom taught.
Invitations coming in from far and wide forthe ½-scale and full-scale powered replicas
As February 2009 draws nearer, excitement about our project is spreading … word is rapidly getting out about what we are doing, what we are accomplishing. It seems that many want to see one - if not both - of the Silver Dart replicas – either the full-scale, flyable version or the ½-scale model that Jack Minor of Port Colborne has been using in his educational program to bring news of the coming centennial anniversary of powered flight in Canada to hundreds of students … their teachers … and other interested community groups throughout the Niagara Peninsula and other parts of Ontario.
For example, as of the last week of November, 2008, invitations had been received for all-expenses paid presentations – either by Jack himself, or by volunteer members of the AEA 2005 Inc. group whom he has trained – to put in an appearance at a major military conference to be hosted in Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier on
• February 26th and 27th, and then the very next day, on
• February 28th, bring the ½-scale model to a massive bush-pilot fly-in near Aylmer, QC, about 32 km west of Ottawa
Requests for the full-scale flyable replica have also been made by
• 14 Wing Canadian Forces base in Greenwood, NS …
The CBAA web site - http://www.cbaa.ca/portal/centennial-of-flight - has caught the spirit of the coming centennial of powered flight in Canada and links directly to the Flight of the Silver Dart Centennial Celebration in Baddeck, NS, and its web site http://www.flightofthesilverdart.ca/ … where our group and planned commemorative flight show up on the EVENTS link of this web site …
Silver Dart replica makes TV appearance throughout Niagara Peninsula on Cogeco Cable TV
October, 2008 - Late in October, 2008, a Cogeco Cable reporting team from Niagara Falls visited the Russell Aviation Group hangar and filmed and interviewed some of our members working on the replica. Cogeco, cable television service provider for more than 100,000 homes in the Niagara region, aired the resulting 5-minute, 4-second television feature on its own cable television channel early in November. At right, Cogeco producer / camera operator Mark Bennett sets up his camera gear for the interviews, which were conducted by reporter Richard Sasse (not shown). This marks the second mini-feature Cogeco has run on the group and our project. (Photo © AEA 2005 Inc.)
Silver Dart replica undergoes wind tunnel tests 
October, 2008 - Canadian Space Agency / NASA astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason sets up a scale model of the Silver Dart replica to conduct wind tunnel tests at the University of Western Ontario in London, ON. Construction on the full scale replica continues at Niagara Falls South airport in hangar space donated by the Russell Aviation Group. (Photo courtesy Bjarni Tryggvason)
CBC – Radio Canada television documentary crew begins filming
October, 2008 – A five-member CBC – Radio Canada-TV documentary film unit from Toronto spent a day at the RAG hangar and airfield and began filming a one-hour national television special commemorating a century of powered flight in Canada. Director Leora Eisen, left, looks on while to her right, sound technician Mary Wong and director of photography Michael Sweeney set up a shot from the starboard (right) wing of the Silver Dart replica in the RAG hangar. The hour-long episode is part of a series of four one-hour documentary specials, scheduled to be aired early in 2009, in English and in French, on the CBC – Radio Canada national networks, commemorating 100 years of powered flight in Canada. Immediately behind the replica is one of the RAG’s classic WW II war birds, a Messerschmitt bf109.
Canadian Silver Dart replica gets its own website
Wed., Oct. 1, 2009 - Welland, ON – Canada: A brand-new airplane has been built here, in the heart of the world-famous Niagara (Falls) Peninsula, by an association of first-class amateurs and aviation enthusiasts.
It is the Centennial Silver Dart replica, and it can now be seen on its own web site, www.silverdartreplica.com, which went online late in September, 2008. Second year students in Welland’s New Media Web Design at Niagara College created the web site.
This newest replica – the seventh of its kind in the world - is now 90% complete and is in final assembly. It will soon be ready for flight testing by retired Canadian Space Agency / NASA astronaut, Bjarni Tryggvason, of London, Ontario, Canada.
He is also expected to be its pilot for a special commemorative flight scheduled to take place on Feb. 23rd, 2009 in Baddeck, celebrating Canada’s 100 years of powered flight.
It will not fly far nor will it fly fast. But fly it should on that day, in front of an anticipated large crowd of aviation enthusiasts and special guest Gerald Haddon of Oakville, ON, the grandson of the original Silver Dart pilot, J.A.D. McCurdy.
The new web site briefly tells the story of the AEA 2005 Inc., a non-profit corporation in the Niagara region whose volunteer members not only built the aircraft, but solicited government, corporate, and personal funding for the project since the project got underway in mid 2004.
The AEA 2005 Inc. is named after the original Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) team spearheaded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1909 to design, build and fly the original Silver Dart.
Doug Jermyn and CSA / NASA astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason
Former Canadian Space Agency / NASA astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason, London, ON, Canada and AEA 2005 Inc. president Doug Jermyn, Welland, ON, in front of the Silver Dart replica early fuselage assembly stage during the June 2008 Russell Aviation Group warbirds air show at Niagara Falls South airport.
(photo ©AEA 2005 Inc.)
Haddon with Minor and Petruck
At centre above is Gerald Haddon, Oakville, ON, Canada, grandson of J. A. D. McCurdy, the pilot of the 1909 Silver Dart. Mr. Haddon recently visited the assembly crew at the Russell Aviation Group hangar. At left is Jack Minor, Port Colborne, ON, who spearheads a massive education program on Canada’s aviation pioneers and heroes, and at right, Jaro Petruck, Welland, one of the more than 100 volunteers within the AEA 2005 Inc. group.
(photo ©AEA 2005 Inc.)
Update: September, 2008
The fuselage structure is now about 95% complete with but a few tension cables to install. Coming jobs include replacing the museum plank style pilot’s seat with a more comfortable and safer flight-test seat. In addition we will be installing the temporary rudder pedals platform.
The small Lycoming 0-145 flight engine was installed earlier this month and we are awaiting the delivery of the 1.98 m (78-in) propeller from Florida. Next up is to install the throttle quadrant, the small instrument panel and carburetor intake box.
The canard elevator has been finished for some time now but will probably be one of the last things actually installed on the aircraft.
The rudder and all of its bamboo support rods are complete.
The ailerons are currently being covered at Wayne Cole’s shop in Vienna, ON. We are expecting to be able to pick them up in the next week or so.
The biggest job we are working on now is sewing all the nylon fabric wing panels. This job has proven to be rather complex as the fabric has a slight tendency to shrink just after it comes of the roll and then stretch more than expected when it is put in the wing jig to have the wood ribs installed.
All the wing structural bits (spars, vertical struts, steel and wood ribs, strut jackets and turnbuckles) are complete and both wings have been partially assembled to get some of the tensioning cables installed The remaining cables will be installed as the fabric panels are put in place and the wings get plugged into the fuselage.
On the for the museum only front, in April, 2008, we unveiled the replica Curtiss V-8 engine, and it has since been shown at a number of public events or displays. The replica fuel tank is finished and the replica copper tube radiator should be delivered in mid-September. The replica museum propeller blank has been fabricated and will be machined on a computer-numeric-controlled (CNC) unit as soon as the computer programming is complete and proven with test cuts.
Our Nasa Connection!
Bjarni Tryggvason, London, ON, one of Canada’s original NASA astronauts, has agreed to help us with the test flying. He is also helping by carrying out some wind tunnel work at the University of Western Ontario on a small model of our canard elevator.