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Bush Plane, northern Alberta, 1928
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The first Canadian mercy flight in aviation history was made in an open cockpit Avro Avian in 1930 flying out of Edmonton, Alberta. Reference was supplied by the Glenbow Foundation, Calgary, Alberta. By 1929 the bush plane was already serving some parts of North America and proving its worth in the more rugged and isolated areas. I could have chosen any number of early planes as a subject. I ultimately decided on the Avro Avian, a fabric covered little biplane with a top speed of one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour. An Avro Avian was being flown by a British Columbia bush pilot by the name of Pooley between 1925 and 1930 and I have shown his numbers. These men must have had great courage to fly into some of the situations they confronted. The first mercy flight in Canadian aviation history was made in a similar Avro Avian in 1929, Pilot Wop May and Vic Horner took off from Edmonton and flew in a snowstorm to a tiny outpost about nine hundred and fifty kilometers north with six hundred thousand units of antitoxin wrapped in a tartan blanket. This mission generated considerable attention in the news media at the time. | 
