EDMONTON, Alta. Aug. 16, (U.P.) A decade ago a young Western Canadian bush pilot had a dream - a dream of an air bridge to Asia.
Today Grant McConachie's dream awaits only the war's end to make it an actuality.
McConachie started building the Canadian end of that bridge in 1934. At the outbreak of war he and his far-sighted associates in the bush-flying business had been running a daily air schedule as far north as Whitehorse, Y. T., for two years.
The war gave immense importance to the half-completed McConachie air bridge. Particularly after the opening of hostilities in the Pacific, the need to rush planes, men and supplies to Northwestern Canada and Alaska made the air route up the inside of the Canadian Rockies one of the world’s busiest.
Military and cargo aircraft now pour into Edmonton by the thousands from the south and east, and head out north in a never-ending stream. Many of the bombers and fighters, both Canadian and American, participated in the work of blasting the Japs out of Attu.
For this fog-free year-round route to Alaska, Allied strategists owe thanks to McConachie and the men who flew that country with him.
The young, six-foot-plus bush pilot headed the nose of his twin-engined Fokker north in 1934 to begin what was to be two years of survey flights through the vast
British Columbian and Northwestern Albertan wilderness, searching for a suitable year-round route to White Horse.
He charted and then abandoned two routes through British Columbia before he built his air bridge east of the Rockies, through Alberta and Northeastern British Columbia.
Coast Route Too Foggy
Routes nearer the coast proved impractical because of fog and other adverse flying conditions. McConachie instead established his line from Edmonton northwest to Grande Prairie, Alta., then on to Dawson Creek, B. C., and thence north and northwest to Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake and Whitehorse.
McConachie’s Yukon Southern Air Transport, Ltd., flew that route until the company was absorbed by Canadian Pacific Airlines last year. Yukon Southern proved the route could be used both winter and summer, and in so doing pointed the way to the building of the Alaska military highway, which roughly follows the air route and services the chain of airfields that the Dominion Department of Transport is building to improve McConachie’s bridge.
Yukon Southern used planes equipped with floats for landing on water during the first few years of its operation, but then, to increase the planes’ payloads, it removed the floats from many of its craft and substituted wheels. These, however, necessitated landing fields. Existing facilities were utilized at Edmonton and Grande Prairie, and the company established its own landing strips in Northern British Columbia.
When the government stepped in to complete the air route north as a war measure, McConachie was using land planes up to Fort Nelson and seaplanes for the remaining two hops - to Watson Lake and Whitehorse.
With faith in the practicability of air transport in the North, McConachie fought an uphill battle against great climatic odds, shoe-string finances and competition from independent bush pilots. The fledgling company carried men, equipment and supplies in; brought out men, furs and precious metals.
The present chain of large modern airfields through Alberta and British Columbia to Alaska, forming a vital link in the chain of Pacific defenses, is a climax to the work of McConachie and his men.
The main route - from Edmonton to Fairbanks, Alaska - has an airport every 250 miles, and now under construction are emergency landing fields at 100-mile intervals between the airports. Planes travel by radio beam, a far cry from the seat-of-pants flying of the men who pioneered the route.
