Airborne electromagnetic systems - 50 years of development

Abstract

The initial successful test flights of the Stanmac-McPhar fixed-wing airborne EM (AEM) system in Canada during the summer of 1948 can nominally be called the birth of this branch of exploration geophysics. The discovery of the Heath Steele deposit in New Brunswick, Canada in 1954, as a result of an AEM survey, proved to be the catalyst for the development of additional AEM systems and the eventual application of AEM surveys worldwide.