The Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment (AETE) was formed on May 4, 1967, bringing together the Central Experimental and Proving Establishment (CEPE) and various other Canadian Forces testing and proving establishments and units. Its components included the Air Armament Evaluation Detachment (AAED) which became 448 Test Squadron, Experimental Squadron 10 at CFB Shearwater and 129 Test and Ferry Flight at CFB Trenton. AETE was consolidated at Cold Lake in 1971. According to the AETE Handbook, its role was "to provide aerospace flight test services, flight test expertise, and general engineering services for the Canadian Forces" (Library and Archives Canada).
John Arnold was born in Cookstown, Ontario in 1934. He studied at the Royal Conservatory, graduating with a diploma in piano. He then went to the Ontario College of Art and Design. After graduation, he worked for Design Craft Limited, a Toronto firm that specialized in the arrangement of commercial displays in publicly sited showcases and at exhibitions. He was a senior member of the design team for the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. At around the same time, he was also hired to head the design team of the National Museum of Science and Technology (now the Canada Science and Technology Museum). In this capacity, he designed the Crazy Kitchen with Glenda Krusberg. After this period, he worked as an independent architectural design consultant for 30 years. Among many public projects, he worked on the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta, and the RCAF Memorial Hall of Tribute at the National Aviation Museum (now Canada Aviation and Space Museum).
For the RCAF Memorial Hall of Tribute project, he played two roles: first design consultant and then artistic advisor. In his first role he was at first responsible for preparing a report for the RCAF Memorial Fund setting out guidelines for the architect for the memorial. In order to do so, he liaised with the Fund, the National Aeronautical Collection Staff, and the Architecture and Planning Division of the National Museum of Canada. In his second contract, he was to act as a liaison between the Fund, the Jury selected to judge prospective art works, the artists ultimately selected, the National Museum Corporation, the Department of Public Works, as well as the principal architect for the project.
Arnold also focused on residential architecture. He served on the Board of Directors of Heritage Ottawa and designed the logo for that organization based on the local landmark building the Aberdeen Pavilion. He was editor of the Ottawa Guide of Heritage Structures and was a member of the City of Ottawa’s Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee.
Arnold died in 2017 at the age of 83, survived by his partner of 48 years, Stephen Boissonneault.
See Authority Record for Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited for information on A.V. Roe Canada Limited.
For further information on the Aircraft Division of A.V. Roe Canada Limited, please see the authority record for Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited.
For further information on the history of the Gas Turbine Division, please see the authority record for Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited.
For further information on the company Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada), please see the authority record for Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited.
Commander Charles Taschereau Beard was born in Ottawa on 30 July 1890. He began his career with the Royal Navy on the merchant training ship Conway. Returning to Canada, he worked first in the fisheries protection service and then joined the Royal Naval Reserve in 1909 before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1910 as a midshipman. During the First World War, he served in the region of Pas de Calais. By 1921, he was working with Alexander Graham Bell at Baddek when Bell was testing hydrofoils. In 1922 he was promoted to Senior Naval Officer, Esquimalt, and was Captain of Naden. “He later held various posts at Headquarters including Director of Naval Reserves and also Director of Naval Operations” (CFB Esquimalt Navy and Military Museum). When his mandate as Director of Naval Reserves was finishing, the Minster of the Interior invited the Royal Canadian Navy to assign an officer to an expedition to explore the eastern arctic. Beard was assigned to this expedition on the Hudson Bay Company ship Nascopie in July 1935. Prior to his voyage, a Senior Air Officer had requested Beard to write a report on the region and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) loaned him a camera with ten rolls of film. He was also given a list of potential sites where fuel might be stored which he was to evaluate. The report and negatives were submitted to the RCAF after the voyage. In 1936, he was once again at Naden as Commanding Officer as well as Commander of the Dockyard. Beard retired from the Navy but was called back into service in the Second World War where he had command of the HMS Prince Rupert. Retiring again from service due to ill health, he went on to serve as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Esquimalt after the war, from 1945-1948. Beard died on 21 November 1950.
Born in 1944, Roger Beebe was a cadet with the First North Saskatchewan Infantry during his teen years. In 1963, he joined the Royal Canadian Airforce (RCAF) as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician. He spent four of his six years of service stationed in NATO bases in Europe with 1 Wing in Marville, France, and Lahr, Germany. During his RCAF career he worked on the CF-104, NATO aircraft, CF-5 and T-33. His last posting with the RCAF was with 434 Squadron at Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake.
After leaving the RCAF, Beebe was an Avionics Technician and Mechanic at Wardair from 1969 to 1972. He then moved to become an Avionics Technician for Air Canada from 1972 to 1974. Later in 1974, he joined the Ontario Ministry of Transport and Communications as Senior Vehicle Safety Systems Research Technician. The following year he became Avionics Inspector with Transport Canada. He occupied successive posts at Transport Canada, including: Avionics Inspector from 1975 to 1978; Superintendent Manufacturing, Repair and Overhaul from 1978 to 1980; Superintendent, Avionics from 1980 to 1982; Chief, Maintenance and Manufacturing, 1982 to 1992; Regional Director, Airworthiness, for the Western Region from 1992 to 1995; Acting Regional Director, Aviation, for the Western Region in 1995; Regional Director, Civil Aviation, for the Prairie and Northern Region, from 1996 to 2005; and, Senior Advisor to the Regional Director-General, for the Prairie and Northern Region, from 2005 to 2007.
Upon his retirement, Beebe set up a consulting company called Plane Talk Consulting specializing in advisory services on civil aviation regulatory issues. He also pursued an active volunteer career at the Royal Canadian Legion and in his local community. He has held executive positions with the Canadian Aviation Historical Society.
Born in 1903, Brian Gethryn Carr-Harris attended the Royal Military College (RMC) from 1920 to 1924. His brother Redford M. Carr-Harris attended RMC during a similar period. They were two of eight brothers in total who attended RMC. While at the college, Brian and Redford participating in many sports, such as hockey, rugby, football and boxing. Both brothers enlisted in the RCAF and trained at Camp Borden after graduating from RMC. Redford Carr-Harris died 19 August 1926 in an airplane accident near mile 185 of the Hudson Bay Railway while engaged in forestry patrol work. He had been in command of the air station at Norway House, Manitoba. Brian Carr-Harris was still posted to Camp Borden at this time. The following year, when he was 24, he was assigned to the Hudson Strait Expedition as Flying Officer for Base C. He left Halifax with the Expedition in July 1927 and returned in October 1928 on the CNSS Canadian Voyager. He flew the Expedition’s Moth and three out of six of the Fokker Universals (registrations G-CAHE, G-CAHH and G-CAHI). After the Expedition, he was officer in charge of the No. 5 Photo Detachment. He flew Vickers Vedette aircraft and was transferred to Winnipeg Air Station in 1929. From 1933 to 1934, Brian Carr-Harris took a preparatory course for Royal Air Force Staff College. Having passed the qualifying examination, he took the course later in 1934. In 1937, he was the Officer commanding No. 1 Fighter Squadron with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. In late 1938 he was appointed Personnel Staff Officer at Air Training Command in Toronto. Brian Carr-Harris held the rank of Wing Commander when he died in a Second World War training accident on 5 July 1942 at Lac-Saint-Louis, Québec, at the age of 39.
Jeffrey Hale Supple was born 4 June 1903 in Pembroke, Ontario, the first of two sons of Joseph Alfred Supple (1873-1949) and Ellen Eliza Hale Supple (1878-1965). His younger brother was Alan Hale Supple.
Jeffrey Hale Supple was a student at Pembroke Public School (1910-1916) and at Pembroke High School (1916-1919) prior to attending Toronto’s St. Andrew’s College (1919-1922). Following a work period with Arnold & Bell Lumber Company at Massey Bay, Ontario, he studied applied science at McGill University (1926-1928) where he was known for his involvement in tennis, shooting and boxing, a sport in which he won some recognition. During his final year of studies, he was commissioned (June 4,1928) as a Provisional Pilot Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and attended the officers training course at Camp Borden, Ontario. Ultimately, however, he was not accepted into the RCAF because he had not completed, nor did he intend to complete, his university degree.
In December 1929, Jeffrey Hale Supple travelled to England with the intention of joining the Royal Air Force (RAF). He successfully passed the RAF’s Central Medical Examination Board later that same month. In January 1930 he was accepted as a Pilot Officer on Probation with the General Duties Branch of the RAF on a five-year Short Service Commission. Following a 20-day induction course at the RAF Depot in Uxbridge, West London, he attended the five month long Flying Training Course as a pilot at No. 1 Flying Training School at Netheravon, Wiltshire, where he qualified “with distinction” as a pilot in August 1930 flying the Avro 504N and de Havilland Moth. He was immediately assigned to No. 10, RAF Squadron, located at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire which was a heavy bomber unit using aircraft such as the twin-engine Handley-Page Hyderabad (HP24) and Hinaidi (HP36). While serving with No. 10 Squadron, he advanced from Pilot Officer to Flying Officer and served as an Air Pilotage Instructor, demonstrating “above average ability” in both day and night navigation.
Following instruction on single-engined bombers, most likely the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas, Jeffrey Hale Supple was transferred in early October 1932 to No. 84, RAF Squadron, in Shaibah, Iraq. At the time, No. 84 Squadron was flying the Westland Wapiti with responsibilities for the aerial photography of southern Iraq for map-making purposes.
Jeffrey Hale Supple died after a brief bout of malaria on May 28, 1934 in Basra, Iraq while serving with No. 84 Squadron. He was not married. His body was interred at the Basra Military and Air Force Cemetery. An article he wrote, entitled “The Navigator’s Cabin and its Position”, was published posthumously in The Aeroplane (Vol. XLII, No. 1222) on October 24, 1934.
Jeffrey Hale Supple was born 4 June 1903 in Pembroke, Ontario, the first of two sons of Joseph Alfred Supple (1873 - 1949) and Ellen Eliza Hale Supple (1878 - 1965). His younger brother was Alan Hale Supple.
Jeffrey Hale Supple was a student at Pembroke Public School (1910 - 1916) and at Pembroke High School (1916 - 1919) prior to attending Toronto’s St. Andrew’s College (1919 - 1922). Following a work period with Arnold & Bell Lumber Company at Massey Bay, Ontario, he studied applied science at McGill University (1926 - 1928) where he was known for his involvement in tennis, shooting and boxing, a sport in which he won some recognition. During his final year of studies, he was commissioned (June 4,1928) as a Provisional Pilot Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and attended the officers training course at Camp Borden, Ontario. Ultimately, however, he was not accepted into the RCAF because he had not completed, nor did he intend to complete, his university degree.
In December 1929, Jeffrey Hale Supple travelled to England with the intention of joining the Royal Air Force (RAF). He successfully passed the RAF’s Central Medical Examination Board later that same month. In January 1930 he was accepted as a Pilot Officer on Probation with the General Duties Branch of the RAF on a five-year Short Service Commission. Following a 20-day induction course at the RAF Depot in Uxbridge, West London, he attended the five month long Flying Training Course as a pilot at No. 1 Flying Training School at Netheravon, Wiltshire, where he qualified “with distinction” as a pilot in August 1930 flying the Avro 504N and de Havilland Moth. He was immediately assigned to No. 10, RAF Squadron, located at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire which was a heavy bomber unit using aircraft such as the twin-engine Handley-Page Hyderabad (HP24) and Hinaidi (HP36). While serving with No. 10 Squadron, he advanced from Pilot Officer to Flying Officer and served as an Air Pilotage Instructor, demonstrating “above average ability” in both day and night navigation.
Following instruction on single-engined bombers, most likely the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas, Jeffrey Hale Supple was transferred in early October 1932 to No. 84, RAF Squadron, in Shaibah, Iraq. At the time, No. 84 Squadron was flying the Westland Wapiti with responsibilities for the aerial photography of southern Iraq for map-making purposes.
Jeffrey Hale Supple died after a brief bout of malaria on May 28, 1934 in Basra, Iraq while serving with No. 84 Squadron. He was not married. His body was interred at the Basra Military and Air Force Cemetery. An article he wrote, entitled “The Navigator’s Cabin and its Position”, was published posthumously in The Aeroplane (Vol. XLII, No. 1222) on October 24, 1934.
Louis-Laurent Hardy, mostly known as Laurent Hardy, was born in 1918. He was an archivist at Radio-Canada. Around 1977, he started a project that was dear to him – a study of Domina C. Jalbert (1904-1991), a Quebecois inventor and expert on parachutes. Jalbert’s principle inventions were: a Kytoon (1943); a Multi-Cell parachute (1952); a Multi-Cell Glide Canopy (1962); the Jalbert Airfoil or Parafoil (1963); and the Jalbert Spinnaker (197-?). Beyond conducting research, Hardy also began to write to Jalbert in 1977. The two men exchanged correspondence up until 1991 when Jalbert died. Hardy made it his mission to spread information on Jalbert’s achievements through the publication of articles and by writing to Canadian and American associations and to eminent personalities. After Jalbert’s death, Hardy also sought to preserve his memory by seeking a repository for his archives and research. Hardy died in 2005.
Leslie Philip Harris, known as Les Harris, born 4 January 1947 in England, began his career as a local reporter for BBC Radio Sheffield in 1967 while still attending Sheffield University. He was accepted as a trainee to BBC TV's Film Editing course in London in 1968. He became an Assistant Film Editor and then a Film Editor at BBCTV before leaving the Corporation in 1972. That year he established Leshar Films for his film editing and directing projects, and also Leshar Film Sales Limited, a film distribution (to television) corporation. At this time he also began work on the documentary Chabot Solo part 1: 1914-1918 on early aviator Charles Chabot. Chabot Solo part 1 and its two sequel documentaries, Chabot Solo part 2: 1918-1939 and Chabot Solo part 3: 1939-1975 were released to television world-wide over a short period between 1974 to 1975 with BBCTV being the lead broadcaster. Part 3 was shot mainly in Newfoundland, and all post-production work was done in Canada. Soon thereafter, Harris founded Canamedia Productions Limited to facilitate his future independent work in Canada. When he immigrated to Toronto in 1976 he had a year’s contract to direct and produce the ‘Country Canada’ programme for the CBC’s Agriculture and Resources Department. CTV’s W5 then hired Harris through Canamedia as a Senior Field Producer where he covered stories on a wide-range of subjects and produced hosts Henry Champ, Jim Reed and Helen Hutchinson. During this time, he produced a segment for W5 on the newly certified Canadian amphibious aircraft, the Trident TriGull. Harris left CTV to produce his documentary Escape from Iran: The Inside Story and then the TV movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper. Broadcast as a simulcast in Canada and the USA in 1981, Caper was the first ever prime-time Canadian movie production to be commissioned by an American network (CBS TV). Harris fought to get recognition for Pat Taylor, wife of Ambassador Ken Taylor, and Zena Sheardown, wife of Chief Immigration Officer John Sheardown, for their roles in safely hiding the "houseguests" in Tehran – both were finally awarded the Order of Canada. With a few limited exceptions, Harris has worked exclusively on Canamedia projects, winning such awards as the George Foster Peabody Award for his documentary Threads Of Hope, the Banff TV Festival Rocky award; Gold and Silver medals from the International Film and TV Festival of New York; three Geminis; the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association’s Best Production of the Year; and, was nominated for an International Emmy. For example, Harris produced, directed, edited, narrated and wrote the 1989 documentary, By the Seat of their Pants, on Canadian bush pilots, which also won a Gemini among other awards. In order to help finance the film productions, a distribution division of Canamedia Productions was established to license Canadian TV programs to worldwide TV. The production company led by Harris was also one of the three co-founders of the cable children’s television network, YTV. When regulations changed in 1998, the production and distribution activities of Canamedia were divided in order to form two new companies: Canamedia Film Productions Inc. and Canamedia Inc. During this period, Harris produced and directed the documentary Alien Obsession for Canamedia Film Productions Inc. and produced Faces of a Vanishing World for the US Ovation Network. Both the production and distribution company were sold in 2010 to Access Media, now called Distribution Access, but prior to the sale, Harris re-acquired the copyright of all the films he produced through Canamedia over his career. Although officially retired, Harris continues to work as a filmmaker and is currently just finishing filming a documentary in Costa Rica called The Ultimate Challenge: Survival of the Great Green about saving a parrot species called the Great Green Macaw.
A.V. Roe Canada Limited was incorporated on September 1, 1945, and took over the plant and operations of Victory Aircraft Limited. Based in Malton, Ontario, Victory was a Crown corporation producing Avro Lancaster bombers until the end of the Second World War. A.V. Roe Canada Limited worked with the Canadian government to convert Victory’s wartime infrastructure and expertise into post-war commercial civilian and military aircraft manufacturing. In 1946, A.V. Roe Canada acquired Turbo Research Limited, another Crown corporation, which designed aircraft jet engines. A.V. Roe Canada in 1946 then had two divisions: the Aircraft Division based in Malton, Ontario, and the Gas Turbine Division, based in Malton and Nobel, Ontario. By 1955, the two divisions became separate operational companies, Avro Aircraft Limited and Orenda Engines Limited, of the holding company A.V. Roe Canada. A.V. Roe Canada continued to acquire subsidiary companies throughout the 1950s.
A.V. Roe Canada was itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.K.-based Hawker Siddeley Group. While its geographic distance and its size (in 1956/57 45% of the entire Hawker Siddeley Group worldwide business was taking place in Canada) gave it some independence, A.V. Roe Canada was always ultimately responsible to its U.K. parent. It did not report to Avro (UK), but directly to the Hawker Siddeley Group. By the time A.V. Roe Canada acquired Dominion Steel and Coal in 1956, there were forty-four companies operating under the holding company. From 300 employees in 1945, A.V. Roe Canada had grown to over 20,000 employees in 1957.
A.V. Roe Canada Limited is most well-known for the design and development of three aircraft types. The Avro Canada CF-100 all-weather fighter saw extensive service in Canada and Europe, serving with both the RCAF and the Belgian Air Force. The CF-100 is the only Canadian designed fighter aircraft to enter series production. On August 19, 1949, the Avro Canada C-102 Jetliner was the second (by 13 days) passenger jet aircraft to fly - the first in North America. The Jetliner was ahead of its time in many ways but it never entered production as more and more Avro Canada resources were put toward the CF-100. The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was the third major design and a highly ambitious project, intended to combine a new supersonic (Mach 2+) airframe with newly designed Orenda Iroquois engines, new (Douglas Sparrow) air-to-air missiles and a new (RCA Astra) integrated electronic system into a state of the art air defence weapon platform. On February 20, 1959, the Government of Canada terminated the Arrow project for a combination of technical, fiscal, political and military reasons that remain controversial today. Over 14,000 Avro Canada employees lost their jobs. A.V. Roe Canada took steps to reduce its increasingly precarious dependence on aircraft manufacturing and defence procurement, from then on only continuing with the development of the Avrocar testbeds built for the US Army until this project was cancelled in 1961. Orenda Engines created the subsidiary Orenda Industrial Limited that sold and repaired diesel engines and industrial turbines. Hawker Siddeley Group bought de Havilland at the end of 1959, including de Havilland Canada (DHC). A.V. Roe Canada’s non-aviation elements were renamed Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited on May 1, 1962. Its aviation interests were transferred to DHC on July 27, 1962.
Hawker Siddeley Canada sold 40% of Orenda Engines in 1966 to United Aircraft Corporation, parent company of United Aircraft of Canada Limited, today’s Pratt & Whitney Canada. Orenda manufactured parts for Pratt & Whitney’s jet engines. However, in 1973, Hawker Siddeley Canada bought out United Aircraft’s Orenda holdings. Besides Orenda Engines, Hawker Siddeley Canada’s had numerous divisions and/or subsidiaries over time, including: Halifax Shipyards, Canadian Steel Foundries, Canadian Car and Foundry, Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, Canadian General Transit (railway cars), A-R Technologies Inc. (aero engine repair and overhaul), Kockums Cancar (sawmill equipment), Canadian Steel Wheel and several other industrial and engineering businesses. The British Government nationalized the weapon, aircraft and space equipment activities of the Hawker Siddeley Group parent company in 1977. Hawker Siddeley Canada sold its remaining business assets in a series of transactions in the early 1990s and effectively ceased most business operations by 1996, when its remaining aviation assets, including Orenda Engines, were sold to Magellan Aerospace Corporation. Hawker Siddeley Canada continued to exist as a shell corporation until its discontinuation as a federal corporation on December 22, 2004.
Gordon Francis Hoffos was born near Assiniboia, Saskatchewan on 15 April 1920. His parents, Otto Hoffos and Anna Olive Sivertson, were farmers and had ten children. Gordon Hoffos graduated high school in 1938 and played junior hockey for the Moosejaw Canucks. He also worked as a thresher and a film projectionist until he enlisted in the Special Reserve of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as Aircraftman 2nd Class in 1942. Hoffos attended the No. 7 Initial Training School in Saskatoon before moving on to No. 6 Elementary Flying Training School in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he learned to fly on de Havilland Tiger Moths. He moved on to No. 10 Service Flying Training School in Dauphin, Manitoba, where he learned to fly Cessna Cranes. He graduated in December 1942 and was training to be a flight instructor in April 1943. He worked at No. 12 Service Flying Training School in Brandon, Manitoba, until November 1944 when he was transferred to the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. He joined 803 Squadron and trained on Mark 3 Spitfires in England, Scotland, and Ireland, before being discharged in 1945. Returning to Saskatoon, he started pre-med studies at university before deciding to fly as a bush pilot for a company owned by his future wife’s brother, Tom Lamb, in Le Pas, Manitoba. He married Carol Lamb, a nurse, in 1947. Hoffos reenlisted in the RCAF in 1951 as a Flight Officer first serving as an Instructor at No. 1 Officers’ School in London, Ontario. In 1953, he was posted to No.3 Operational Training Unit in North Bay, Ontario, as an Instructor and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. In 1955, he was posted to Operational Training Unit in Cold Lake, Alberta. The following year he was named Operations Officer for the Weapons Proving Unit. In 1957, he was posted to the Canadian Joint Staff as an Exchange/Liaison Officer at 4750th Air Defence Squadron, United States Air Force, in Yuma, Arizona. He was posted to Air Force Headquarters as Staff Officer, Strike Operations, in July 1959. When working at Headquarters, he flew practice flights at RCAF Station Uplands on Lockheed T-33s and Avro CF-100s. In May 1963, he was named Acting Squadron Leader and then Squadron Leader as Commanding Officer of Dew Line DYE Sector from Iceland to Foxe Basin, Nunavut. He returned to Ottawa in 1964, posted to Air Force Headquarters as Staff Officer, Nuclear Safety - a role that had him inspect nuclear weapon facilities for NATO. He was honourably released in September 1967. During his time in Ottawa, he took night courses at Carleton University, earning his Bachelor of Arts in 1968. After his retirement with the RCAF, he spent another ten years as an employee at Canada Post. For his service gin the RCAF, Hoffos was awarded the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, the War Medal 1939-45, and the Canadian Forces’ Decoration. Hoffos died on 26 January 2009.
Bille Houseman was born Lillian Irene Christine Houseman in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on November 15, 1920. Her parents, Erick and Elizabeth Houseman, were farmers and she grew up in Central Butte, Saskatchewan.
In 1939, she moved to Toronto to pursue nursing training at the Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing. She finished her training in 1942. Houseman continued to work at the Hospital, and was a member of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, for approximately a year. On April 22, 1944, she was hired by Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) and moved to Winnipeg to begin her training to be a TCA stewardess. The training was four weeks long, with a half day on Saturdays, and the trainees learned about: the TCA organization; TCA flight schedules; the heating and oxygen systems of the aircraft; meteorology and radio range; deportment and ethics; handling meals and equipment; as well as ticketing and use of the manifest.
When Houseman began her career she flew on TCA Lockheed Lodestar 1408s and 1808s. Her first flight was on June 3, 1944, from Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal. The Douglas DC-3 was introduced shortly thereafter in 1945. She was first stationed in Toronto and moved frequently in the early years of her career between Toronto, Winnipeg and Montreal. She was made Stewardess-in-Charge of the Toronto base in 1946, but moved later that year to Winnipeg to become Stewardess-in-Charge of TCA’s central region. TCA’s passenger services were organized into four geographical divisions at this time. In 1953, she was made Chief Stewardess, based at headquarters in Montreal. In this position, she was responsible for the supervision of TCA flight attendants and their training. TCA became Air Canada in 1965 and eventually the title of Chief Stewardess disappeared with the restructuring in the late 1960s. After this period, Houseman was made General Supervisor of Flight Service Training. As of 1974, she was in charge of Special Projects at In-Flight headquarters in Montreal. She was transferred to Vancouver on August 1, 1976, and worked as Flight Attendant Supervisor, later Operation Support Supervisor, before becoming Communications Centre Supervisor. She retired February 1, 1983.
Houseman married Albert Wakarchuk in 1971, and after her retirement she and her husband worked together and separately as volunteers. Billie was a volunteer at the Kinsmen Recreation Centre (now KinVillage Community Centre), the Kinsmen Care Home, the Canadian Red Cross Society, and St. David’s Anglican Church in Delta, British Columbia. She and her husband volunteered as York’s Green Coats, goodwill ambassadors at the Vancouver International Airport, assisting visitors. Billie died on April 30, 2012. Three of her nieces also became flight attendants and many of her former trainees paid tribute to her as an inspiration upon her retirement and after her death.
Robert (Bob) A. Johnson was born in Montreal in 1914 and passed away in May 1995, spending his entire working life in aviation. Educated at Montreal Technical School, he joined the RCAF Reserve at St. Hubert, Quebec, 115 (F) Squadron, and then apprenticed at Fairchild Aircraft in Montreal, and also worked at Garage Nicolet in Longueuil and Nicolet. He was also a member of the St. Lawrence Aircraft Association Flying Club in Longueil, Quebec. In 1938, Johnson joined the National Steel Car Company at their plant in Malton, Ontario. He was in charge of the group building the Westland Lysander and the Handley Page Hampden bomber. The Canadian Government bought Malton from National Steel Car Company in 1942 and renamed it Victory Aircraft. He later became group leader for the production planning of the B-26 bomber. During the Second World War, he was in charge of teams building components for the Avro Anson and the Lancaster bomber. When the war ended, he was one of only 300 employees of the 10,000 Victory Aircraft employees to stay at the newly created A. V. Roe Canada Limited.
Johnson played a leading role in the manufacture of all of the Avro aircraft projects and was later chief of field service for the CF-100 Canuck and CF-105 Arrow. After the cancellation of the Arrow project, Johnson survived ‘Black Friday’, continuing with Avro to the point when its parent company, Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited, transferred all of its aviation interests, including the Malton plant, to its other subsidiary, de Havilland Aircraft, in 1962. Now an employee of de Havilland, Johnson was appointed staff assistant to the operations manager on the DC-9 contract and became deputy operations manager in 1964.
Johnson stayed at Malton when Douglas Aircraft of Canada took it over. He held a number of executive positions with the company through the DC-9 and DC-10 contracts, retiring in 1974 after 36 years at the Malton plant. He was an active member of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society in his retirement.
This company came into existence after the end of the First World War when a Quebec based forester, Ellwood Wilson, an employee of the Quebec based Laurentide Pulp & Paper Company foresaw the benefits of aircraft in the forestry industry for aerial fire patrol, aerial survey and photography applications. Wilson arranged the loan of two Curtiss H2-2L flying boats (registered HS2L No. 1876 - later G-CAAC La Vigilance (now on display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the only one of its type in existence) and HS2L No. 1878 - later G-CAAD) from the Government of Canada and the first fire patrol and aerial photography flying began during the summer of 1919.
In 1922 this aerial arm of the Pulp and Paper company separate from its parent and became Laurentide Air Services Incorporated with Thomas Hall as president and Roy Maxwell as vice-president and general manager. The new company was authorized to carry passengers, mail and freight design, repair and manufacturer aircraft; and, even experiment with military applications.
Laurentide’s aircraft proved to be so valuable that the government of Ontario hired the company in 1922 for forestry survey and mapping work. It also acquired a contract from Fairchild Aerial Survey of Canada Limited of which Wilson was president, for personnel transport and fire patrol duties however Laurentide had too much work and had to cancel the contract with Fairchild who found another company to fulfill their needs.
By 1923 Laurentide was awarded exclusive contracts to all of Ontario’s flying requirements involving forestry work utilizing twelve aircraft and employing six pilots and five licensed engineers.
Given Laurentide’s success in demonstrating the benefits of aircraft use in the forestry industry, Ontario decided to create their own “Ontario Provincial Flying Service (OPSC)”. The loss of this contract and company personnel to OPSC had a major impact on Laurentide’s financial viability. Other competitors such as Dominion Aerial Exploration Company had also entered the industry. To survive, Laurentide launched passenger services to remote Quebec goldfields from bases in Angliers and Haileybury, Quebec becoming the first scheduled air service in Canada. By 1924 contracts with the Spanish River Pulp and Paper company as well as with Fairchild Aerial Survey of Canada Limited were obtained sustaining company operations until year end but producing disappointing financial results due insufficient business volume.
Laurentide planned to extend business through the winter into 1924 but in January of that year the company having experienced the loss of a new aircraft in an accident on top of operating losses from the previous year was forced to close their business. Having pioneered bush flying, aerial forestry management and scheduled passenger services, the company was eclipsed by newcomers who benefited from their pioneering aviation work.