From Market Alley to Toronto Island
By Larry Wong
In 1936 Vancouver, two teen age brothers, Robert, 17 and Tommy Wong, 14 purchased a set of plans from a magazine. What were the plans? How to build an airplane called the Pietenpol.
Robert was attending Vancouver Technical High School and Tommy, Lord Strathcona Elementary School.
The brothers were always enthralled with airplanes. They built model airplanes using balsa wood and tissue paper from kits costing five cents.
Like many boys of their age, flying was a new thrill and they dreamed of flying one day. Now with the Pietenpol, a monoplane with a wing span of 28 feet and a length of 17 feet, it was all possible.
They lived with their family of 12 in a small apartment in Chinatown at 124 Market Alley, which was the rear of a Hastings Street hotel facing the back of the Mon Cheung Chinese language school on Pender Street.
The two brothers built the airplane in small sections, using lumber, metal and fabric. All they needed next was an engine which was obtained from an auto wrecker.
Once the parts of the plane were finished, they laid the wings, rudder and all large pieces in the hallway as there were no room to spare in their apartment.
Eventually, they moved out of Market Alley to another hotel on Pender Street.
Except for the instrument on a home-made and panel and the rubber tires, the plane took a year to build entirely by hand.
They called their plane the Sky Scout and made arrangements with a friend to truck the parts for assembly at the Boeing plant located on West Georgia Street near Stanley Park.
There were, of course, last minute touch ups. Their mother and her friends helped to stitch the canvas fabric that covered the fuselage and wings.
There, a Flight-Lieutenant Johnson from the RCAF inspected the home made airplane and deemed it structurally perfect. He gave the plane the designation of CF-BAA.
The Sky Scout was trucked to the airport the following week and flew with a used Ford Model-T engine. The flight was a success.
The two boys eventually graduated from school and moved to Toronto to live with their sister. There, they joined the air force in 1940. Robert became an instructor with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan at Windsor and Tommy served as a Warrant Officer.
After the war, the two brothers purchased used aircrafts to start a flying school called Central Airways on Toronto Island.
Central Airways was approved by Transport Canada as a Class 'A' flight training school and it was the largest of its kind in Canada. Most of their students became pilots for the then Trans-Canada Airline.
The brothers were related to Jean Lumb, the owner of the landmark restaurant on Elizabeth Street, the Kwong Chow.
Robert was considered a pioneer of aviation and he was recognized with a life membership with the Air Transport Association of Canada.
Robert passed away in 1987 followed by Tommy in 2006.
Flying continued to be a tradition in the Wong family with Robert's grandson who became active with the Civil Air Patrol in the United States.
----thanks to Roberta Lau and Winnie Chou