York Centre, on

Downsview has a long history of milestones in Canada’s aviation history. Beginning in the 1920s it was the site for de Havilland Canada, the subsidiary of the British aviation manufacturer. It would remain small until the late 1930s when the company began making aircraft for the Department of National Defence. Canada’s first spacecraft, the Alouette 1, was designed and built by de Havilland engineers and scientists at Downsview in the early 1960s. Its launch in 1962 made Canada the third country to reach space.