You should mention the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner. This was the world’s second jet passenger aircraft and took to the skies within a month of Britain’s DH Comet in August 1949. It was the world’s first regional jet. It was entirely successful except that for political reasons it was not allowed to go into production and be sold to a list of willing buyers. A Google search will turn up numerous web sites with info on this great aircraft.
The Avro Arrow, which has already been referred to, was also not allowed to be produced for political reasons. To complete the hat-trick, Canada was originally part of the Tornado consortium but was forced to withdraw and buy CF-18s from the USA!
Despite the dirty tricks mentioned above Canadian aircraft manufacturing has recovered. Canada has the world’s second largest nationally owned aircraft manufacturer in Bombardier, second only to Boeing. Bombardier owns Canadair, De Havilland Canada, Learjet in the USA and Shorts in the UK. Yes, Airbus is bigger but it is not nationally owned. The Europeans had to put together a multi-nation consortium, heavily subsidised, in order to make an impression on world aircraft manufacturing. While their subsidies enable them to compete in the big iron market they are non-achievers in the regional, business and general aviation/airwork aircraft markets.
To put Bombardier in perspective, in late 2003 a well known aviation magazine mentioned the ending of production of the UK’s most successful airliner, the BAe 146 range, with something over 300 sold. The same issue mentioned Bombardier’s delivery of the 1,000th Canadair CRJ, with a very healthy order book. It also mentioned that more than 600 Canadair Challenger business jets had been delivered, again with a good order book in place. The UK’s only business jet, the DH125 and derivatives, was sold to the American Raytheon company some years ago! You will no doubt also be familiar with how many DHC-8, DHC-7 and DHC-6 aircraft are out there in the world earning for their owners.
I am sure you are also aware of the fine engines developed and produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Apart from aircraft, Canada has been involved in other contributions to aviation. One example is that Canada was involved in pioneering the commercial use of retroreflective markers for runway lighting. As many Canadians will know, these have been in use in Canada and numerous other countries for many years. It was therefore a surprise to find last year that some South Africans are now falsely claiming this as a recent South African invention! Canadians who were involved in developing the use of retroreflective markers or who have used them might like to take a look at the thread “Reflective runway markers issues” on the African Aviation forum of PPRuNe and perhaps add an appropriate comment.
Canada is by far the second largest country in the world in aviation. I do not mean just geographically but in terms of numbers of aircraft, pilots and level of traffic. I do not have time to do some proper research but the number of pages per country in the 2001/02 edition of JP Airline-fleets that I have a copy of will give approximate indications of who is really who in world aviation:
Total pages of world aircraft 708 100%
USA 245 34.6%
Canada 60 8.5%
Russia / Russian Federation 46 6.5%
Australia 25 3.5%
Germany 22 3.1%
UK 22 3.1%
France 17 2.4%
China/Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau 15 2.1%
Brazil 12 1.7%
Japan 11 1.6%
South Africa 6 0.8%
India 2 0.3%
You will see that based on the above Canada is a good second, more than 30% larger than third placed Russia and nearly two and a half times bigger than fourth placed Australia! It is interesting to see that Canadian aviation is about three times as large as that of Germany, the UK or France, all relative minnows by comparison.
JP purports to include airlines, airtaxi, relief specialty and large non-commercial and corporate operators. I have flown numerous commercially registered aircraft in Canada that are not included in JP. It has obviously missed out large numbers of smaller aircraft. This means that the figures mentioned above can be increased for those countries that have significant numbers of smaller aircraft in commercial use or privately owned. I suggest that the figures for the USA, Canada and Australia should thus be increased. Here I am taking a guess but the USA should be increased to about 40% and Canada to about 10% of the world’s aircraft.
Note that although Canada’s population is about 10% that of the USA its aircraft numbers are about 25%. This is partly because of the large distances and partly because so many places in Canada have only air access, unless you count the odd canoe in summer or snowmobile in winter. You can drive to just about everywhere in the lower 48 states but in large parts of the north of the provinces and in the territories your access for practical purposes is limited to air. That means all building materials, fuel and food go in by air and even the garbage comes out in a plane.
I do not have facts for Canada but late last year a magazine article mentioned that the USA has more air traffic than the whole of the expanded EU and handles it with half the number of controllers and ATC centres as the EU. In other words the USA’s ATC and controllers are four times more productive than their EU counterparts. Canada’s ATC is very similar to that of the USA so the same productivity figures probably apply. Indeed, with the increased percentage of air traffic per population in Canada it is probably even more productive. Note that a considerable part of Canadian air traffic is in uncontrolled airspace. This is something that is almost unknown to the over-regulated Europeans. It works fine in Canada and the USA so the Euros should implement it if they want to grow and serve their air transport industry, including airwork and general aviation.
Following from the above, Canada is apparently prepared to help other nations modernise their air laws and regulations by adopting the CARS. I flew commercially in Jamaica four years ago and they had adopted the CARS some time before. They had a couple of Canucks working in their CAA in Kingston. Flying in Jamaica was no different from in Canada, or the USA which is very similar to Canada. Perhaps you should suggest that the Euros follow Jamaica and adopt the CARS to get their aviation environment away from the current over-regulation and obstructive attitudes and instead on to a practical and customer service oriented basis! It would also bring them into line with the big two, who form about 50% of all world air traffic, and would help to standardise air laws and regulations on a world wide basis.
Probably partly due to Canada’s large aviation industry, both ICAO and IATA have their HQs in Canada.
You mentioned that you will be addressing some glider pilots. Gliding is alive and well in Canada. York Soaring Association, Canada’s largest glider operation (just one of many), does more than 6,000 flights per annum. All involve aerotows so the number of movements is triple that figure. Then add in all the tow plane flights for check flights, transfer flights to and from the maintenance base about 20 minutes flight away, and members arriving and departing in their own aircraft or those belonging to clubs such as Brampton and you can see that YSA’s Arthur East airfield becomes a very busy place. You can get further gen from the YSA web site.
Skydiving is also thriving in Canada and it would be worth your while to take a look at the web site of the Parachute School of Toronto.
Canadian gliding and skydiving people feature in many prominent events, competitions and records and both are known to party well, particularly the skydivers! Tow and Jump flying are excellent ways for newer pilots to build time and real experience.
Hope your presentation goes well!