20-21 August 2007
Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada
"We breathed an atmosphere of aviation from morning till night, and almost from night to morning."
Alexander Graham Bell
It's a long way to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia-almost as far east as you can go on the North American continent. But if you can get most of the way there, like participants of this year's Dieppe, Canada, International Kite Festival, then the four-hour drive to Baddeck is well worth it. Through the efforts of organizer Gary Mark, the Bell museum's staff and organizers of the Dieppe festival, those interested were able to attend a two day gathering honoring the centennial of the flight of Bell's Cygnet kite.Situated in the heart of the cape, Baddeck still offers the same breathtaking scenery and open space that appealed to Bell when he chose to establish a year-round home there in 1895. Interested in manned-flight, Bell chose the tetrahedral-shaped cell as a model for its stability and safety. In 1907, Bell formed the Aerial Experimental Association and employed Baddeck townspeople to help in the construction of the silk and spruce cells needed to create his large kites.
The first flight of the 3,339 celled Cygnet, designed for the purpose of lifting man in controlled flight was sadly unsuccessful, as the kite was sadly destroyed after a rough water landing. However, this kite, still the largest cellular kite ever constructed, was a zenith in Bell's kite experiments and eventually led the Aerial Experimental Association's flight of the Silver Dart airplane in Baddeck two years later.
Kite fliers gathered at the museum for remarks by great-grandson Hugh Bell Miller, a formal presentation by museum curator Sharon Morrow, and some kite-specific remarks by DF founder Scott Skinner. Time was spent touring the museum and a wonderful reception followed. The following day, kite fliers got the rare opportunity to walk the grounds of the Bell family estate, Beinn Bhreagh and fly kites on the same lawns Bell tested and flew his tetrahedral kites.
It is hoped that this event becomes a semi-annual undertaking for attendees of the Dieppe International Kite Festival, since kite fliers recognize that the long trip is a small price to pay for a visit to one of the world's kite shrines.