The discovery of oil near Norman Wells in 1920 led to the first commercial flight into the Northwest Territories. Imperial Oil purchased two World War I Junkers monoplanes. In March 1921, piloted by George Gorman and Elmer Fullerton, they took off for Fort Norman. They touched down first in Hay River where the strange birds were riddled with bullets. Then they landed nose first, breaking their wooden propellers. Neither one reached Fort Norman on this ill-starred inaugural flight.
In the 1920s, C.H. (Punch) Dickins, a pilot with Western Canada Airways, convinced his company that a northern airmail route was possible. Flying a Fokker Super Universal, G-CASN, Dickins arranged for an unprecedented schedule of 10 stops between Waterways, Alberta and Fort Simpson, NWT. Dickins left on his historic journey January 23, 1929 stopping at various posts along the way to deliver the first airmail to the Northwest Territories. He extended his trip to Aklavik, making him the first pilot to fly along the Arctic coastline.
Dickins' pioneer flight was so successful that later that same year, the government awarded a contract to rival Commercial Airways to fly airmail service to Aklavik. One of their pilots was W.R. (Wop) May, who became a hero to northern residents, providing regular communication and news from the "outside", as well as air ambulance service, fur shipments, groceries and occasionally, a trip to visit a neighbour.
Prospecting from the Air
The search for the north's mineral resources led W. Leigh Britnell, manager of Western Canadian Airways, to make the first of many prospecting flights into the Northwest Territories. Flying a Fokker seaplane, he set out on August 5, 1929 with two prospectors from Eldorado Gold Mines. The prospectors laid claim to a rich radium ore deposit at Echo Bay on Great Bear Lake, which would eventually become the world's largest source of radium.
Rescues and Manhunts
In the 1930s an aircraft was used for the first time in an Arctic manhunt. Wop May, flying a ski-equipped Bellanca PaceMaker, CF-AKI, joined in the search for Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper of Rat River, who had eluded the RCMP for weeks. May tracked the Mad Trapper's trail from the air and eventually led the police to his location. A gunfight ensued, ending in the death of Johnson as well as an RCMP officer, and a potentially life-threatening injury to another officer. May used his Bellanca to airlift the officer to medical attention in Aklavik, saving his life.
The Bush Pilot
In the early days, there were no detailed maps, no weather reports, no radio navigation beacons and there was no help if a pilot went down. The harsh climate made early flying treacherous - even a compass was, and still is useless over much of the Northwest Territories.
Early pilots required ingenuity as well as skill, and they often risked their lives and machines. After World War II, instruments, radio networks, weather stations and modern, well-equipped aircraft changed the nature of northern flying. To keep the memory of those early aviators alive, we still call pilots of small planes “bush pilots” in the north.