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World’s Most Scenic Airport Approaches - Landing at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport - ATC Audio

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Toronto Billy Bishop Airport - NO Jets Allowed!

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Plane sways in high winds during landing at Toronto island airport

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It has been more than 80 years since the first commercial passenger flight landed at Toronto's City Airport on September 8, 1939, when a charter flight carrying famed trumpet player and Conductor Tommy Dorsey and his swing-band arrived in Toronto for a two-day engagement at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE).

Since then, Billy Bishop Airport, owned and operated by PortsToronto, has established itself as a world-class airport providing 2.8 million passengers each year with convenient access into and out of Canada's largest city, Toronto.

Throughout its history, the airport has served as an important commercial aviation centre, a training ground for both the Royal Canadian and Royal Norwegian Air Forces during World War II, a hub for General Aviation and Medevac services, and as a key driver of Toronto's economy.

Fly with us down memory lane through to see why we believe Billy Bishop Airport is one of Toronto's great success stories and most valuable assets.

Discussions began in the late 1920s between City of Toronto officials and the federal Department of Transport to decide on a suitable location for a major city airport.

The aviation industry grew rapidly in the 1930s as airplanes became a regular method of passenger and commercial transportation, and Toronto Island seemed a logical place for a municipal airport in Toronto-the island's proximity to Lake Ontario meant it could accommodate floatplanes, connecting passengers and goods quicker to Toronto.

As part of Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's "Canadian New Deal" in 1935, a public works project was initiated to build a two-thousand-foot tunnel to run from the foot of Bathurst Street under the Western Gap to the Island. Once vehicular access to the Island was secured, construction of an airport could soon follow.

On August 8, 1935, City Council approved both the tunnel and the airport projects.

In 1937, the first ferry to offer service across the Western Gap channel was commissioned to transport workers and supplies as construction began on what would become Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

FEBRUARY 4, 1939: FIRST PLANE LANDS AT NEW ISLAND AIRPORT
H.F. McLean of Montreal in a Stinson SR-9F Reliant piloted the first flight to land at the new Island Airport, on February 4, 1939. Harry Falconer McLean (18 February 1881 - April 1961) was a Canadian railway contractor and eccentric philanthropist. He played a leading role in the construction of much of the trans-Canadian railways, eventually becoming the president of the Dominion Atlantic Railway company. H.F. McLean carried out many large construction projects in eastern Canada and Manitoba in the 1920 - 1940 period and a well-known to railway historians. At eight of the projects McLean erected a cairn to which was attached cast bronze plates on which were the words of the poem "The Sons of Martha" by Rudyard Kipling. This is a eulogy for the workers and McLean erected these cairns as a tribute to his workers and, in particular, those who died on these projects.

On September 19, 1953, Air Traffic Control by visual means was established by the Department of Transport. By December 5, the final installation of equipment was completed and "Island Tower" was officially opened by Allan A. Lamport, then Mayor of Toronto. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport in the 1956 was increasing in popularity as the way to travel with takeoffs and landings at the island reaching a record 130,000 passengers per year.

Below: Dec 5, 1953 at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Official opening at the tower control. Controller Geral Thornton and Margaret Dunseith.

From 1958 to 1962, the airport underwent an improvement and expansion project. Fill from Western Channel dredging operations was deposited on the east and west sides of the airport to permit a runway extension of 4,000 feet. Airport improvements, including a new hangar, the new runway, and night-time landing lights were also completed.

An official meteorological observation station was established at the airport by the Department of Transport, providing pilots with on-the-spot briefing facilities and airport staff with an early-warning system to assist in the protection of aircraft from bad weather and high winds.

The airport cable ferry was taken out of service in the early 1960s and replaced by the Tug Thomas Langton. In the depths of winter, if the ferry slip filled with ice, the Tug Langton would be hooked up to a vehicle and pulled to a sidewall to let passengers on and off.

The Maple City ferry took over ferry operations in 1965, carrying up to 40 passengers and six cars to and from the airport. While no longer in service today, it remains on standby as a reserve unit.

On February 2, 1972, Margaret Dunseith began working in the control tower of Toronto Island Airport. She began her career in aviation during the Second World War as an air traffic control assistant. By 1952, she was one of the first women in Canada to fully quality as an air traffic controller and was a fixture at the Island airport until her retirement in 1980.

In 1973, an instrument flight landing system for Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft was successfully tested at the Island Airport.

In 1975, the Island Airport was used as the base for Olga, a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter used to dismantle the crane of the new CN Tower.

Once the pouring of the concrete was completed in 1974, the final stages of building the world's tallest Tower were about to begin (Tallest freestanding structure in the world 1975-2007. Tallest freestanding structure in the western hemisphere). The last thing to be added to the Tower was the 335-foot steel broadcasting antenna, consisting of 44 pieces-the heaviest weighing 8-tonnes.

Before the antenna could be lifted, however, the giant crane used for four years of round-the-clock service to build the Tower had to be dismantled and brought down.

To do all this moving, "Olga"-a 10-tonne Sikorsky helicopter used primarily for industrial lifting - was flown to Toronto. And on her first trip, tragedy almost struck.

As Olga was removing the first piece of the boom, the crane lurched, twisting and seizing the supporting bolts. Now hovering at about 1,500 feet, Olga was basically attached to the Tower, with 50 minutes of fuel (the job was supposed to take only 12 minutes). The crane couldn't just be released, either. The operator was still inside. Steel workers scrambled up and burned off the bolts, finally releasing the crane from the Tower. Olga landed with about 14 minutes of fuel left. After this brush with danger Olga performed the rest of the work flawlessly. As each piece of antenna was raised, workers would stand at the top and help maneuver the new piece and bolt into place. And all this where the Tower is only 5-feet in diameter and with gusting winds and freezing temperatures. It took more than three weeks before the final piece of antenna was secured by high rigger Paul Mitchell on April 2, 1975. He even danced a little jig to celebrate-1815-feet above the earth.

Toronto Island Airport celebrates 50 years. In this same year, the new control tower at the Island Airport is officially dedicated as the Margaret R. Dunseith Building, in memory of Canada's first female air traffic controller.

In 1990, the Island Airport was renamed the Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA).

In 1999, the operation of the airport was turned over to the recently created Toronto Port Authority (TPA), which took over the responsibilities of the Toronto Harbour Commission, including the airport and port functions.

In 2006, the David Hornell Ferry was put into commission, replacing the aging Maple City Ferry which had been in service since 1951. The David Hornell carries 150 passengers on its upper deck and 20 vehicles on its lower deck. To this day, the David Hornell ferry continues to serve as a back-up ferry for Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

In 2006, Porter Airlines started operating out of Billy Bishop Airport, as well as Air Canada. Today, serving more that 20+ destinations in Canada and the United States.

The Marilyn Bell I ferry went into service in January 2010. Through an online contest, passengers and Toronto residents voted to name the ferry after Canadian sports legend Marilyn Bell. In 1954, Bell became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario at the age of 16. Later, she would also become the youngest person to swim the English Channel and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The Toronto Port Authority constructed a noise barrier at Billy Bishop Airport in 2012. The 93-metre long, 6-metre wide noise barrier mitigates aircraft noise in the surrounding community.

Billy Bishop Airport launched WebTrak, an important advancement in the airport's noise management strategy. WebTrak is an online service that allows individuals to locate and track aircraft on their computer and receive information such as the aircraft type, its destination and point of departure.

In 2016, Billy Bishop Airport broke ground on a significant three-year Airfield Rehabilitation Program to replace aging infrastructure, including the lighting and paving for runways, taxiways and apron areas of the airport.

This year also saw the completion and official opening of the Ground Run-Up Enclosure, a structure that reduces the acoustic impact from required engine run-ups, only the second of its kind in Canada.

In 2016, PortsToronto approved plans submitted by Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners, owner and operator of the airport's passenger terminal, to upgrade and enhance the airport's terminal building. These upgrades include increasing the terminal's footprint to accommodate the airport's growth since 2010, to enhance its world-class passenger lounge experience with new shops and restaurants, and to build an 11th gate to increase the terminal's operational efficiency.

Aviation Airlines who called Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport home.

Bishop-Barker Airways

Central Airways

Cameron Air (Muskoka cottage country)

Toronto Airways Ltd. (Flight School)

Island Air Flight school and charter

Air Atonobee (Otonabee Airways)1975

City Express

Air Ontario (1980s-90s)

Capreol and Austin Airways

Pascan Aviation

Trans Capital Air

Air Canada

Porter Airlines

Fly GTA

Toronto Helitours

And many more.

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It has been more than 80 years since the first commercial passenger flight landed at Toronto's City Airport on September 8, 1939, when a charter flight carrying famed trumpet player and Conductor Tommy Dorsey and his swing-band arrived in Toronto for a two-day engagement at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE).

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kite, oldest known heavier-than-air craft designed to gain lift from the wind while being flown from the end of a flying line, or tether.

Over the millennia, kites have been used to ward off evil, deliver messages, represent the gods, raise banners, discover natural phenomena, propel craft, drop propaganda leaflets, catch fish, spy on enemies, send radio signals, measure the weather, photograph the Earth, and lift passengers skyward. Modern kites are flown mostly for pleasure and sport, in addition to being a folk form of artistic expression. The kite was the ancestral aircraft that launched manned flight.

History

Asia

Nearly 3,000 years ago the kite was first popularized, if not invented, in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available: silk fabric for sail material, fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line, and resilient bamboo for a strong, lightweight framework. The earliest known Chinese kites were flat (not bowed) and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline. Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures; some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying.

After its appearance in China, the kite migrated to Korea, Japan, Myanmar (Burma), India, Arabia, and North Africa, then farther south into the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and the islands of Oceania as far east as Easter Island. Since kites made of leaves have been flown in Malaya and the South Seas from time immemorial, the kite could also have been invented independently in that region.

One ancient design, the fighter kite, became popular throughout Asia. Most variations, including the of India and Japan, are small, flat, roughly diamond-shaped kites made of paper, with a tapered bamboo spine and a balanced bow. Flown without tails that would hinder their agility, these highly maneuverable flat kites have a length of cutting line coated with an abrasive attached to the bridle ( see below Aerodynamics), which is then tied to a light cotton flying line. Although the rules of kite fighting varied from country to country, the basic combat was to maneuver the swift kite in such a way as to cut the opponent's flying line.

Europe and the West

Kite flying began much later in Europe than in Asia. While unambiguous drawings of kites first appeared in print in Holland and England in the 17th century, pennon-type kites that evolved from military banners dating back to Roman times and earlier were flown during the Middle Ages.

During the 18th century tailless bowed kites were still unknown in Europe. Flying flat arch- or pear-shaped kites with tails had become a popular pastime, mostly among children. The first recorded scientific application of a kite took place in 1749 when Alexander Wilson of Scotland used a kite train (two or more kites flown from a common line) as a meteorologic device for measuring temperature variations at different altitudes.

Three years later, in June 1752, in what is the most famous of kite experiments, the American inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin, with the aid of his son, lofted a flat kite fitted with a pointed wire and silk sail during a thunderstorm. Somehow both father and son avoided electrocution as a metal key attached to the flying line became electrified. Franklin proved that lightning was the natural phenomenon called electricity, not the wrath of the gods. One immediate and practical outcome of the experiment was Franklin's invention of the lightning rod.

The first manned flights

Although kites had been used as man lifters since ancient times, the kite's greatest technological contribution was in the development of the airplane. In the 19th century the British scientist Sir George Cayley, known as the father of aeronautics, used modified arch-type kites to make "flying machines," which in 1853 led to the first recorded manned flight in a glider. Cayley's comprehension of both thrust and lift was the leap in understanding that would ultimately quell the ancient and faulty obsession with flapping wings as a means for manned flight. Other visionaries built man-lifting kites, many of which were rudimentary biplane gliders. Otto Lilienthal of Germany experimented with "aeroplane" kites in the 1890s and became the first man to soar in one of his kites in true hang-gliding fashion.

Around 1900 Orville and Wilbur Wright, self-taught aeronautical engineers who ran a bicycle shop in Ohio, began testing their biplane designs as kites. It was the Wright brothers who first focused on control-the missing ingredient for manned flight that had baffled other aviation pioneers. The brothers constructed a special box kite and braced the wings with wires in such a way that they could be twisted in opposite directions to make the kite bank and turn. They called the principle " wing warping," and it was the breakthrough that had eluded the great inventors who had worked on flight-from Leonardo da Vinci to Alexander Graham Bell.

With the invention of the airplane, the kite fell from favour among adults. Except for occasional meteorologic survey work, which continues to the present, the kite's status changed from a serious scientific instrument to a child's toy once again.

Kite structure

The form and size of kites are remarkably varied. Some kites can fly in the lightest breeze, while other designs require steady winds. Kites can be made of two sticks covered with a sail material or be constructed in a configuration requiring a complex framework. Until recently, the materials for constructing kites-bamboo or wood, fabric or paper, and string-had remained essentially unchanged for more than 2,000 years. Today, kites are often built with synthetic materials.

There are eight generic kite types. The flat, bowed, box, sled, and delta require a rigid framework fitted with a sail material, as does the compound, which is formed by integrating two or more of the above types to form one kite. A radical departure in design, the parafoil, a soft airplane-wing shape with no rigid members, used by the skydiver as a parachute, assumes its efficient flying profile entirely from the wind's inflating the air channels along the leading edge. Another deviation in form is the rotor, a kinetic kite that manifests lift and the Magnus effect through a horizontal spinning vane sandwiched between two cylinders-a rigid frame and sail in one.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Although tailless kites had been common in Asia for centuries, it was not until 1893 that William A. Eddy, an American journalist with an interest in meteorology and kite aerial photography, made a significant contribution to kite development in the West by introducing his now-familiar tailless, elongated diamond-shaped design. The Eddy kite, an adaptation of the ancient Javanese bowed kite known as the Malay in the West, was a reliable and popular flier that ignited a renewed interest in kite flying and was briefly used by the United States Weather Bureau. In Australia that same year, British-born explorer and inventor Lawrence Hargrave contrived the box kite, or cellular kite, as a by-product of his research to develop a stable three-dimensional lifting surface for powered manned flight. Exceptionally steady in high winds, Hargrave box kites flown in train, using flying line of piano wire, soon replaced the Eddy kite and were used for meteorologic work well into the 1920s.

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kite, oldest known heavier-than-air craft designed to gain lift from the wind while being flown from the end of a flying line, or tether. Over the millennia, kites have been used to ward off evil, deliver messages, represent the gods, raise banners, discover natural phenomena, propel craft, drop

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