The First Airline

"Wop" returned a hero from W.W.I - with few marketable skills - he was a good mechanic, he could build boats, work on cars, fly an aeroplane and shoot a machine gun. He and his brother "Court" rented a Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" from the City of Edmonton for $25.00 per month, and from the Sproule Farm in Edmonton (3 ½ miles NW from the Post Office on the St. Albert Trail) they operated Canada’s first registered aircraft company "May Airplanes Ltd."
Wop & Court	Tail of "Canuck"
Curtiss "Canuck" JN-4

The company did a lot of flying ‘round Edmonton & Central Alberta, performing stunts at airshows, taking people for their first ride in an aircraft, and in 1919 Mayor "Fighting" Joe Clark flew with "Wop" over Diamond Park on the flats below the MacDonald Hotel (it’s still a baseball field) and dropped the first baseball to open the 1919 season.

"The first pitch" - opening the 1919 baseball season

On the return to the airport "Wop" convinced Joe the only safe way out of the Saskatchewan River valley (almost a mile wide) was to fly under the High Level Bridge. Flying under bridges is not a recommended activity - probably was illegal then as it is now.

In short order more money was required in the venture and Captain George Gorman joined the company which became "May-Gorman Airplanes Ltd." George delivered the Edmonton "Journal" Newspaper by air to Wetaskiwin 45 miles South of Edmonton, dropping the bundle of papers in the town.

Capt. George Gorman

Look carefully at the top wing, you can see "WOP"

"Wop" flew planes for others too - including this Standard J-1 (a Curtiss JN-4 built by the Standard Aircraft Company) owned by Harry Adair of Lake Saskatoon in NW Alberta. On this aircraft he had his name painted on the top wing so people would know who was flying upside down!

In 1924, the flying business was grounded, "Wop" married a noted Edmonton Equestrienne Violet "Vi" Bode in November, and he decided to get a "real" job, signing on with National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio where he went for training, and where (when working on a Lathe) he was hit in the eye by a shard of steel - from then till 1938 he was slowly going blind - but that’s another story.

Wop & Vi on their Wedding day
November 19, 1924