Maritime Central Airways was a predecessor of

Eastern Provincial Airways Eastern Provincial Airways, also known as EPA, was an airline that operated in Atlantic and eastern Canada. At its peak, the carrier operated jet service with Boeing 737-200 aircraft connecting many communities that today only have scheduled p ...

and was founded by

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

native Carl Burke and Josiah Anderson in 1941 out of Moncton,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

and provided standard passenger, cargo, and charter flights throughout the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador - at the time not yet part of Canada. This early fleet consisted of a

Boeing 247 The Boeing Model 247 is an early United States airliner, and one of the first such aircraft to incorporate advances such as all-metal ( anodized aluminum) semimonocoque construction, a fully cantilevered wing, and retractable landing gear.

and a Fairchild 24.

Wartime operations

MCA participated in the Second World War effort with various projects, including a search and rescue mission for the U.S. government in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

in 1942 that caused the loss of one

Barkley-Grow T8P-1 The Barkley-Grow T8P-1 was an airliner developed in the United States shortly before the Second World War. Although it saw limited production, the type was well-received as a bush plane in Canada. Design and development Typical for the era, the B ...

. This charter was typical of the mixed-bag operations that most Canadian carriers, including MCA, survived on: in addition to the scheduled passenger runs we are familiar with today.

Early postwar history

By 1946, the fleet had grown to include a Douglas DC-3,

de Havilland Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its rela ...

Lockheed Model 10 Electra The Lockheed Model 10 Electra is an American twin-engined, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. The type gained considerable fame as one was f ...

Cessna Crane The Cessna AT-17 Bobcat or Cessna Crane is a twin-engine advanced trainer aircraft designed and made in the United States, and used during World War II to bridge the gap between single-engine trainers and larger multi-engine combat aircraft. The ...

, and PBY Canso. In addition to passenger and cargo runs in the Maritimes, MCA tasks in the late 1940s consisted of a twice weekly service to the Magdalen Islands, carrying mail, seal surveys in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the coast of Labrador, ice patrols, and charters from Charlottetown and Yarmouth to bring lobsters to Boston and New York. In 1948 alone, MCA carried almost two million pounds of freight and its fleet had grown to two DC-3s, 1 Canso, 4 Lockheed 10, 1 de Havilland Rapide, 2 Cranes, and 2 Stinsons.

The 1950s and closure

The 1950s were another period of tremendous growth for MCA. By 1953, MCA was the third largest carrier in Canada. MCA launched the first air service to the French island of St-Pierre and won contracts to provide air transportation for seventeen of forty-two Distant Early Warning Line (DEW) Stations being built in the Canadian north. By the time the DEW projects were finished, MCA had added a

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Vi ...

, Bristol Freighter, Avro York,

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1 ...

and

Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with t ...

to its fleet. Post-DEW line work included such far-flung charter jobs as a four-year contract transporting Hungarian refugees and several trips shipping monkeys from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. On August 11, 1957, tragedy struck when

Maritime Central Airways Flight 315 Maritime Central Airways Flight 315 was an international charter flight from London, England to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with refueling stops in Reykjavík, Iceland, and Goose Bay, Labrador. On 11 August 1957, the aircraft operating this fligh ...

, a DC-4 loaded with members of the Imperial Veterans of Toronto who were returning from vacations in the UK, crashed near Issoudun, Quebec. All 79 people aboard were killed. Also in 1957, MCA set-up Nordair as a subsidiary with operations based at Dorval in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. Nordair, soon on its own from MCA, would go on to become a major Canadian regional carrier in its own right before being absorbed by Canadian Pacific Air Lines in the mid-1980s.

References

* http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/Marooned_in_the_Arctic,_1950s,_by_Ross_Binnie

External links

CF-MCF crash data from Aviation Safety
*The Moncton Daily Times Monday 12 August 1957
Brief Youtube footage of HP Herald in MCA livery
{{Authority control Defunct airlines of Canada Airlines established in 1941 Airlines disestablished in 1963 1963 disestablishments in Canada Canadian companies established in 1941

Wartime operations

Early postwar history

The 1950s and closure

See also

References

External links