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Picture this crowd. Alexander Graham Bell and 100 or so of his neighbours, all eagle eyes, looking out at the frozen waters of Cape Breton, NS's Bras d’Or Lakes. What are they watching? Aviation history in the making: the first powered flight in the then-British Empire.

The date was Feb. 23, 1909. What the crowd saw was a bunch of volunteers on skates pushing the Silver Dart into position on the ice of Baddeck Bay. The craft, with a wingspan of 15 m (49 ft) and a total weight—including pilot and principal designer J. A. Douglas McCurdy—of 390 kg (860 lbs), then powered up and soared to a breathtaking nine m (29.5 ft) for an almost kilometre-and-a-half journey (0.93 mi) at a rate of 65 km/h (40 mph).

This year, Baddeck, the long-time vacation residence of the Bell family (and McCurdy’s hometown), is hosting a year-long cavalcade of Silver Dart events: a replica flight, kite festival, regatta (after all, Bras d’Or can boast some of Canada’s finest sailing), centennial air show and gala ball.

Bell, most famous as the inventor of the telephone, had a lifelong fascination with the possibility of flight. He and four fellow engineers formed the Aerial Experiment Association in 1907. The Silver Dart was the most sophisticated in a series of airplanes—or “aerodromes” as he called them—the group produced. In keeping with Bell’s creative spirit, the Silver Dart centenary events also include a knowledge conference and three innovation symposiums.

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