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Early Flight In Alberta (Part 2), William Gibson's
By the time William Gibson came
to Alberta in 1911, he’d already been experimenting with flight
for 30 years.
Gibson’s aviation career began with kites and other flying
machines when Gibson was still a farm boy growing in
Saskatchewan.
Now he’d designed an airplane. And according to aviation
historian Pay Myers, success hinged on finding the right
location to fly it.
He’d worker in Saskatchewan, he’d worker BC but he found in
Calgary, outside of Calgary, on a friend’s ranch, the perfect
conditions… perfect wind, no trees, the dry climate… so he
continued his experiments there with what he like to call his
“mulitplane”
And he called it a multiplane because he used many many many
narrow strips of fir all stacked up which he thought was way to
he’d get more lift.
As Pat Myers documents in her book, Sky Riders, the multiplane
had great lift and stability on the air. After a series of
successful short flights, Gibsons was ready to try a longer
trip.
So on August 11, 1911, His assistant jumped in the pilot’s sea
and flew the multiplane for about one and half kilometers.
Then he cut the engie to glide back to earth for a landing.
As historian Pat Myers explains, that’s when the historic flight
turned sour.
He noticed the field where they were flying was just riddled
with badger holes, so he decided this wouldn’t be good for the
plane, he’d better avoid it, thought he’d be better landing in a
slough, well, he did land in the slough, he came to such an
abrupt stop of course with all the muck on the wheels. The plane
crashed, the engine sort of smashed up some of the wings.
And that was the last time William Gibson tired flying in
Alberta.
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