Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

Flashbacks form 1937

As soon as the ice has melted on the far northern lakes, a new service will be inaugurated from Montreal and the northern Quebec mining district by Skylines Express Limited.

Using the Sekani airliners, the latest in luxurious aircraft will be used, the machines are produced at Fairchild Aircraft at Longueuil. (source the Montreal Gazette April 10th 1937)

This aircraft was the prototype and it made its first flight from the St. Lawrence River opposite Montreal, Quebec, on August 24, 1937. This aircraft had a number of deficiencies; with one engine off, it proved impossible to control directionally, it was overweight and the ailerons caused severe drag tending to turn the aircraft in the opposite direction.

The name Sekani, an Indian tribe living around the headwaters of the Peace and Liard Rivers in northwest British Columbia. Literally, Sekain means "dwellers on the rocks".

(The failure of this project nearly put Fairchild Aircraft on the rocks! - eds)