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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.

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).

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.

For further information on the company Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada), please see the authority record for Hawker Siddeley 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.

See Authority Record for Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited for information on A.V. Roe Canada Limited.

For further information on Orenda Engines Limited, please see the authority record for Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited.

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.