Biography Frederick Walker Baldwin

aerial experiment association. casey (second right), bell (centre), mccurdy, curtis, , selfridge

baldwin used engineering skills build silver dart plus several other experimental aircraft. on march 12, 1908 @ lake keuka, new york became first canadian, , either third or fourth north american, pilot airplane. william whitney christmas claimed have first flown aircraft on various dates september 1907 march 1908 near fairfax, virginia. first 2 successful pilots were, of course, famous wright brothers, seems unlikely ever firmly established whether christmas or baldwin so-called third man.

baldwin helped design , build white wing airplane , red wing, piloting latter in public demonstration of powered aircraft flight @ hammondsport, new york in 1908.

in summer of 1908 casey baldwin , alexander graham bell began discussing powered watercraft , began building , testing various types before turning construction of aircraft take off water 2 called hydrodrome. while project temporarily shelved, in 1919 baldwin built hd-4 hydrofoil set world water speed record of 70.86 mph on bras d or lake. however, watercraft not commercial success , hd-4 project ended in 1921.

following death of alexander graham bell (august 2, 1922), casey baldwin continued boat building , experimenting in hydrofoils in cape breton director of graham bell laboratories. bell s last words in 1922 stand casey, encouragement family continue baldwin s work. local celebrity, in 1933 baldwin elected provincial legislature member victoria county.

casey baldwin died in beinn bhreagh, nova scotia in 1948. following creation, in 1974 inducted posthumously canada s aviation hall of fame. in honour, casey baldwin award granted annually canadian aeronautics , space institute authors of best paper published in canadian aeronautics , space journal.