Billy Bishop’s Muskoka dream flies again
War ace’s cottage service revived a century later from namesake airport
The inauguration of a new air taxi service between Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport and Muskoka airport in Gravenhurst promises to make the cottage country commute faster than ever.
But this is hardly the first time such an endeavour has been attempted.
Almost 100 years ago, Canada’s first commercial air passenger service ran from Toronto to Muskoka.
And in an interesting coincidence, one of the men behind this pioneering airline was Billy Bishop himself.
The maiden flight of Bishop-Barker Aeroplanes Ltd., in the summer of 1920, represented a new chapter in Muskoka’s tourist industry and in Canadian airline history.
The First World War had seen a quantum leap forward in aviation.
Before the war, airplanes were still in their infancy — slow, underpowered, ungainly and expensive.
During the war, airplane design evolved rapidly so that by the end of the fighting in 1918 the technology had matured and people began to see commercial applications.
Billy Bishop and fellow ace pilot Billy Barker were two such individuals. When the war ended, both highly-decorated men returned to Canada uncertain what to do with their future. Eventually, they hit on the idea of establishing a company that would fly between Toronto and Muskoka, offering wealthy patrons a faster alternative to trains or slower-still automobiles.
Certain that their business would be a success, Barker and Bishop purchased a surplus United States Navy HS-2L float plane.
Bishop was related by marriage to Timothy Eaton, the founder of the Eaton’s department store chain, who summered on Lake Rosseau, opening the door to the rich-and-- famous clientele he and Barker hoped to serve.
When it made its inaugural flight in 1920, Bishop-Barker Aeroplanes Ltd. became the first commercial air service anywhere in Canada. Though passengers would have to sit in an open cockpit, the flight was a (then) lightning-fast two hours.
Among the first passengers to take advantage of this novel service — perhaps the first — was Florence Eaton, the wife of Timothy Eaton’s son, Sir John.
By early September, Barker-Bishop had made as many as a dozen flights between Toronto and Muskoka, each one without incident. That changed on Sept. 10, with Russell McRae, a former Royal Australian Air Corps pilot, at the controls.
The aircraft was an hour into the flight when the engine began to wheeze like an old man, and then stalled.
McRae fought the controls of an airplane that was now bucking wildly.
The air engineer climbed behind McRae and began to feverishly work on the engine in an effort to coax it back to life.
In a desperate effort to keep the aircraft aloft, McRae ordered the ashen-faced passengers out onto the wings to help keep the hydroplane in balance.
Finally, when all hope at restarting the engines had passed, McRae ordered everyone back into the plane and to brace for a crash landing.
Branches broke and wings snapped as the plane crashed into dense forest. Miraculously, everyone survived.
Bishop and Barker were disappointed, but not deterred.
Both men were still convinced commercial aviation was exciting and profitable, so they went about purchasing a replacement aircraft.
They transferred operations to Florida and lasted three more years before financial problems and a second crash forced the pilots to give up on their dreams.
Today, travellers have the opportunity to bypass highway traffic by flying to the Muskoka airport from Toronto. The Bishop-Barker idea was merely a century premature.