Erroll Boyd: The First Canadian To Fly From Canada To England

Boyd's flight had a considerable amount of air mail onboard.

While flights between Canada and England are an everyday occurrence nowadays, the history of flying between the two had to start somewhere. 92 years ago today, on October 10th, 1930, James Erroll Dunsford Boyd became the first Canadian pilot to make an eastbound transatlantic crossing between the two countries.

Read more: A Look At Lukla Airport"s Accident-Ridden History

Boyd's biography

Boyd was just under 39 years old at the time, having been born on November 22nd, 1891, in the Canadian city of Toronto, Ontario. He first flew in 1912 and quickly gained more experience in the cockpit as a result of the First World War.

According to Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, he initially served in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada before moving to England to learn to fly with the Royal Naval Air Service at the Eastchurch naval station. Despite having been taken prisoner during the course of the conflict, he ended the war with the rank of Captain.

Following the conclusion of the First World War, Boyd returned to Toronto. First working in the motor trade, his professional life later took him to New York for a hotel management role, followed by Detroit. However, he yearned to return to the skies and joined Pan American World Airways in 1928 to fly in Mexico. In 1929, he briefly flew for New York's Coastal Airways, but the carrier soon collapsed.

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Transatlantic attempt

However, Boyd had ambitions to fly further afield. In May 1930, he began working with Charles Levine, who owned a Wright-Bellanca WB-2 named Columbia. The following month, he was part of the team involved in a 17-hour flight that took the aircraft from New York to Bermuda and back. The plane was then renamed Maple Leaf as Boyd secured funding for a transatlantic attempt.

This began at a grass airstrip in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, on October 9th, 1930. As well as being a record-breaking attempt on Boyd's part, it also served as an experimental airmail flight, with 300 letters onboard. The Maple Leaf carried 460 gallons (2,091 liters) of fuel but lacked a radio as a way of saving weight.

The fuel load initially proved problematic for Boyd and his navigator, Harry Connor. Indeed, HistoryNet notes that its weight caused the aircraft's tail to sink into the runway surface, rendering it unable to move. Eventually, onlookers were able to push the aircraft free, and it was able to set off on its record-breaking journey.

Just about successful

The slow start wasn't the only challenge that befell Boyd and Connor en route to England. Indeed, later in the flight, the pair found that a clogged fuel line had rendered the aircraft's reserve fuel tank, which held 100 gallons (455 liters), to be unusable. This limited its range and thus prompted them to aim to land on the Isles of Scilly. Initially, they had planned to touch down on the mainland in Land's End.

Having dumped the fuel to reduce the risk of fire in the event of a crash landing, Boyd eventually succeeded in bringing the Maple Leaf down on a narrow beach on the island of Tresco on October 10th, 1930, after almost 20 hours of flight.

This made Boyd the first Canadian pilot to successfully fly from Canada to England, causing him to become known as the 'Lindbergh of Canada.' He was eventually inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 2017, 57 years after his death.