Royal Flying Corps Canada

Lecture on rigging at the University of Toronto's School of Aviation, RFC Canada

RFC Canada Curtiss JN-4 (Can) in 1917

American writer William Faulkner in Toronto while a cadet at the School of Military Aeronautics at the University of Toronto. In July 1918, Faulkner enlisted with the Royal Air Force in Canada.[1]

As the war progressed, Great Britain found that it needed more trained aircrew and more training facilities. Training was provided both by the Curtiss Aviation School at Long Branch near Toronto (land plane training) and Hanlan's Point on Toronto Island (for flying boat training), and in the United States.

The British realized that thousands of Canadians and Americans had joined British flying operations and more wanted to join, so it made sense to open British air training stations in Canada. Canada also had space for such facilities. After much negotiation with the Canadian government, the RFC, commanded in Canada by Lieutenant-Colonel (later Brigadier-General) Cuthbert Hoare, began operating several training stations in southern Ontario. Stations were opened at Camp Borden (main training site), Beamsville, Hamilton (armament school), North Toronto (Armour Heights, Leaside and Long Branch), and Deseronto (Mohawk and Rathburn). The JN-4 (Canadian) (Canuck) was used for training; 500 Avro 504Ks had been ordered but only one had been completed in Canada before the war ended in November 1918 and it was not used.

Hoare made several agreements[2] with U.S. Brigadier-General George O. Squier (US Army Signal Corps) and the US Aircraft Production Board. Squier had overall responsibility for the US Army’s air service, which was short of flight instructors. The RFC released five experienced American pilots to the US Army, where they became squadron commanders. The US Air Board acquiesced in the British opening a recruiting office in New York City, ostensibly to recruit British citizens, but it also solicited US citizens, of whom about 300 were successfully signed up. The RFC would also train many US Army flight personnel: 400 pilots; 2,000 ground-crew members; and 20 equipment officers. These Americans would then collect aircraft and equipment from the UK, before coming under RFC control in France. Ten American squadrons would train in Canada during the summer of 1917, while RFC squadrons were allowed to train during the winter in Fort Worth, Texas.

When the Royal Flying Corps was changed to the Royal Air Force in April 1918, the unit became known as Royal Air Force Canada.[3]

During the last two years of the war 3,135 pilots and 137 observers trained in Canada and Texas for both the RFC and the new Royal Air Force (RAF). Of these trainees, 2,624 went to Europe for operational duty.[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal Flying Corps Canada.

• Hunt, C. W. (2009). Dancing in the Sky: The Royal Flying Corps in Canada. Toronto, Ontario; Tonawanda, New York: Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781550028645.
• Morton, Desmond; Granatstein, J. L. (1989). Marching to Armageddon - Canadians and the Great War 1914–1919. Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd. ISBN 0-88619-209-9.
• Roberts, Leslie (1959). There Shall Be Wings. Toronto: Clark, Irwin and Co. Ltd.
• Nicks, Don (2015). "A History of the Air Services in Canada". Canadian Military Aircraft.
• "Training in Toronto". Alberta's Aviation Heritage. 2004. Archived from the original on 8 December 2010.

• Halliday, Hugh A.; Brandon, Laura (1999). "Into the Blue, Pilot Training in Canada, 1917–1918" (PDF). Canadian Military History. 8 (1): 59–64.
• Sullivan, Alan (1919). Aviation in Canada, 1917-1918: Being a brief account of the work of the Royal Air Force, Canada, the Aviation Department of the Imperial Munitions Board, and the Canadian Aeroplanes Limited. Toronto.