Photo courtesy
Watching the airship, Sherbrooke Exposition 1907

By Shawn MacWha

Local Journalism Initiative

Most people familiar with the Eastern Townships know that Bombardier, one of the largest civilian aircraft manufacturers in the world, was founded in the town of Valcourt in 1942. What is perhaps less well known is the fact that residents of the Eastern Townships were often among the first people in Canada to witness several aviation firsts in this country. Indeed, starting in the middle of the 19th century local citizens followed the exploits, and accidents, of early “aeronauts” with the same attention that the first astronauts were watched more than 100 years later.

In August, 1856 Eugène Godard, a famous French aeronaut, arrived in Montreal following a tour of the United States. He placed advertisements for seamstresses in local newspapers and, using their labour, oversaw the fabrication of the first balloon made in Canada at that city’s Bonsecours Market. Aptly named “Canada” the craft was 42 feet (12.8 metres) in diameter and had a capacity of 36,860 cubic feet (1044 cubic metres). Using this balloon Godard made three flights from Montreal during the month of September, including the first flight to carry any passengers in Canada when, on Sept. 8, Godard went aloft with three men and floated eastwards from Montreal to the little parish of Saint Mathias near the town of Chambly. While Godard and his balloon never made it closer to the Eastern Townships than the Richelieu River residents of the region were nonetheless deeply interested in his exploits of the air and followed them long after he departed Quebec. In March, 1859, for example, the Sherbrooke Times carried a fascinating story about a Godard expedition in Belgium wherein the unfortunate pioneer found himself being assaulted by a dissatisfied customer 5,000 feet over the countryside.

Crewed flight finally came to the Eastern Townships in early September, 1888 when Professor William Hogan of Jackson, Michigan was contracted by the organizers of the Sherbrooke Exposition to make two balloon ascents during the fair. In addition to performing a trapeze act from a bar hanging beneath his balloon Hogan also made what was almost certainly the first-ever parachute descent in the Province of Quebec (and only the second-even in Canada) from over the fairgrounds on September 4 when he jumped from a height of almost 6,000 feet and floated to the ground.

Following Hogan’s breathtaking performance ballooning became a regular attraction at the Sherbrooke Exposition and by the early 1890s another famous aeronaut, Professor Charles Walcott, was a regular visitor to the region demonstrating both his balloon and his dare-devil parachute jumps from it. At times he also performed “parachute races” from his balloon to the ground with his partner Nellie LeMount. Walcott was a star attraction to the 1894 Sherbrooke Exposition, at which time he also assisted local businessman Seth Nutter, who went on the found the Silver Spring Brewery, by distributing thousands of Nutter’s business cards by throwing them from his balloon as he floated over the townships. Sadly, in October, 1895 Walcott was seriously injured during a parachuting accident in Venezuela where he shattered his ankles and pelvis and broke a femur, several ribs and his spine, thus demonstrating the danger of early excursions into the sky.

The Sherbrooke Exposition was once again the showcase for new flight technology when Lincoln Beachey, an American aviation pioneer, made the first dirigible flight anywhere in Canada on Sept. 4, 1907. Residents and visitors alike were enthralled with Beachey’s machine, with the Montreal Gazette reporting that Beachey took off from the fairgrounds and “sailed over the city for a distance of about a mile and a half and returned again to the grounds. He then circled around the grounds a couple of times, steering his ship first in one direction, then directly in the opposite, demonstrating his perfect control of it.”

On Jan. 26, 1912 it was announced that the planning committee of the Eastern Townships Agricultural Association had secured the attendance of noted French aviator George Mestach and his Borel monoplane at its upcoming fall exhibition. This was at a time when most Canadians had yet to see an airplane and there was much excitement about the prospects of seeing such a craft. While this would be the first plane to fly over the Eastern Townships it was actually not to be the first airplane to visit the area. In mid-July, 1912 an airplane owned by American aviator Harry Atwood was towed through the region behind an automobile (itself a relatively new sight) on its way from Montreal to Newport, Vermont.

In what was clearly the highlight of Sherbrooke’s 1912 exposition, residents and visitors finally got to witness Mestach’s aircraft take flight from East Sherbrooke on Monday, Sept. 2. It was eagerly reported that “His machine sailed high in the air in front of the grandstand, and was absolutely under control of the airman at the helm. He circles round and round, and finally came to ground without the least trouble.” The flight on Sept. 3 was even more spectacular as Mestach flew over the city, allowing thousands of people not at the fairgrounds to witness his craft. Leaving Sherbrooke three days later Mestach proceeded to Montreal where he engaged in a two mile (3.2 kilometre)  race with an automobile and a motorcycle. 

While the pace of aeronautical innovation may appear to have slowed since the early days of the Sherbrooke Exhibition there are still people in this area who reach for the heights just as the first aeronauts did more than 100 years ago. Sherbrooke native Vincent Beaudry, for example, was among the top 32 candidates for the latest round of astronaut selection by the Canadian Space Agency in 2017. Later, in 2022, University of Sherbrooke scientist Myrian Lemelin received funding from the Canadian Space Agency for a project to look for water-ice on the south pole of the moon. In this way people from the Eastern Townships continue to stand at the forefront of modern aviation, even at it carries us away from this earth.