DORVAL AIRPORT

BY D.M.Mc VICAR

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Dorval's Mayor Peter Yeomans might have had it right when he called me "The Last of the Mohicans" when we talked about publishing a book describing Dorval Airport.

In 1939 I saw the raw land in the village of Dorval that would become the airport, and in 1941 I was there as a pilot with the RAF Ferry Command, for whom the airport with its long runways and big hangars was built.

From the end of the war in 1945, for twenty years, my company flew a wide variety of aircraft from its main base at Dorval, and built a hangar which still exists to service them.

Perhaps the back jacket of my book "Through Cuba to Oblivion" summarized my company's activities best. It said, "From the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer, then across the North Atlantic to more than a dozen European Countries, this is the engrossing story of Canada's World-Wide Airways Inc."

After losing my company in 1965 I settled in Freeport, Bahamas, and Miami Springs Florida, for some time before returning to my old stamping grounds of YUL in 1975 as an aviation consultant and aircraft salesman under the name of "McVicar Aviation."

In 1987 I began a new career as an aviation writer, and this book is the last of 13, all of which are still in print.

 Review  Helpers of Dorval


CHAPTER - CONTENTS

ONE
IN THE BEGINNING

TWO
CONSTRUCTION COMMENCES

THREE
MAX EFFORT

FOUR
THE DREAM AIRPORT

FIVE
DORVAL'S AIRPORT INN

SIX
THE TESTNG GROUND

SEVEN
THE GLORY YEARS 1941-45

EIGHT
YEARS OF CHANGE 1945-1959

NINE
TCA FACES THE JET AGE

TEN
DOT'S NEW TERMINAL - 1960

ELEVEN
JET NOISE CREATES PROBLEMS

TWELVE
EXPO '67

THIRTEEN
YEARS OF DECISION

FOURTEEN
MIRABEL - 1975

FIFTEEN
SURVIVAL

SIXTEEN
50TH ANNIVERSARY 1991

SEVENTEEN
NEW MANAGEMENT - AEROPORT DE MONTREAL 1992

EIGHTEEN
DORVAL WELCOMES BOMBARDIER

NINETEEN
THE FUTURE

Author's Note--For more information about Chapter Seven, read FERRY COMMAND PILOT, SOUTH ATLANTIC SAFARI, THE RAFFC & THE CRIMSON ROUTE, NORTH ATLANTIC CAT, and A CHANGE OF WINGS.


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