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The camera nose was then lowered, ready for operations. The Vedette, which | were c 
went into service in the mid-1920's, was still in use as a flying boat conversion | it It 
trainer almost until the outbreak of World War II. proble 
'The pilots of these early aircraft did not have the benefits of modern aids | gallons 
to air navigation, yet it is interesting to know that their operations extended | gallons 
even up into the Arctic. Some of the Arctic coast line and parts of Victoria prime 
and Banks Islands were photographed from Vedettes by crews who, without D 
assistance from meteorological forecasts, radio aids to navigation and other | extent 
facilities, had to rely solely on their own competence backed by a spirit of adven- | O.S.C. 
ture. When flying these machines over the large expanse of Canada, familiarity | design 
with the appearance of peculiar pine trees over the route was a requisite for | use. ' 
good airmanship, and a railway line, however remote, was known as the “iron | tion, a 
compass". | give ri 
In 1933 the open cockpit flying boat was replaced by high wing monoplane | introd 
cabin aircraft, which for most photographic operations, were mounted on floats | A 
to permit convenient landing. These machines had increased range and per- search 
formance, and played a large part in the general exploration of remote Canadian contra 
territory. The earliest was the Fairchild FC2W. It carried freight as well as 
passengers and, in the days before stringent regulations for the protection of 
paying passengers, a Fairchild in flight with a 16 ft. (5 m) canoe roped to | A 
the outside of the fusilage was not an uncommon sight. obliqu 
Photographic technique changed with the advent of the cabin aircraft. | to ste 
Initially the camera was mounted under the fusilage, pointing aft for oblique | metho 
photography, but as hand guiding for wing pictures was no longer possible, | gridde 
this arrangement was soon superseded by a combination of three fixed cameras | that i 
mounted on a wood beam inside the cabin. As experience was gained the design | fitted 
.of this camera mount improved, while light alloy was early employed in its | Contre 
construction (Ref. 21). By the use of the mount, not only could the three | were 
oblique views be exposed simultaneously, but the cameras were set in the labora- | a pet 
tory at pre-determined depression and dihedral angles, thus greatly speeding up Natio 
plotting and permitting the ready calculation of tilt in the case when one of the | C 
photographs did not register the horizon. | for br 
About the end of World War II, when the pressing need for air charts of / Fennec 
Canada became evident, a somewhat similar mount of improved construction E 
was designed by the National Research Council for tri-metrogon photography | areas 
(Ref. 22). The tri-metrogon photographs were at first taken from Mitchel | in wa 
B25]/F10 aircraft. When still further range was required for the photography | extens 
of more remote areas, the Lancaster bomber, MR10P, completely denuded of were 
armament, was adopted (Fig. E). This machine made it possible for the | groun 
R.C.A.F., for the first time, to conduct planned and systematic tri-camera or avera, 
vertical photography over any part of Canada, including the Arctic islands. | areas 
It continues to be our principal survey aircraft. / residu 
Other machines, prominent in World War II, are used for vertical photog- | L 
raphy within limited ranges. The Dakota is well known. While it is a large | mapp 
aircraft to carry a single verticle camera, in remote districts, where operations | pilatic