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Canadians in Flight
Get ready for take-off with this pane of 5 Permanent™ domestic stamps celebrating Canada’s rich aviation history.
Brave Canadians took to the skies when airplane flight was still in its early stages. As a result, Canada has enjoyed many “firsts” in aviation and aeronautics, with several Canadians making significant and far-reaching contributions to the field. This second edition of the Canadians in Flight series honours the people, planes and technology that have allowed Canada’s reputation for innovation to soar.
One of Canada’s first female bush pilots, Toronto-born Vi Milstead, instructed at Toronto’s Barker Field before signing up with Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. Over 28 months, Milstead logged over 600 hours in 47 aircraft types, including massive, multi-engine bombers.
Born in Weston, Ontario, Dr. Wilbur Rounding Franks (1901-86) joined Dr. Frederick Banting’s aviation medicine research team in 1939 to study the life-threatening risks of high-speed aerial manoeuvres due to strong gravitational (G) forces. Franks developed – and personally tested – a rubber flying suit lined with water-filled pockets that created enough hydrostatic pressure to counter the G-forces. During the Second World War, it became the world’s first anti-gravity suit used in combat.
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, pioneering aeronautical engineer W. Rupert Turnbull (1870-1954) built Canada’s first wind tunnel in 1902 and spent the next decade researching potential aircraft innovations. His most notable achievement, the variable pitch propeller, allowed pilots to adjust the pitch, or angle, of the propeller blades in flight, improving the efficiency of the propeller and the aircraft. His influence can still be seen on modern propeller-driven aircraft.
Pilots around the world can thank Canadian flight simulator technology for their highly specialized training. Former Royal Canadian Air Force officer Kenneth Patrick (1915-2002) brought the technology to Canada through CAE Inc. (then Canadian Aviation Electronics Ltd.) – the company he founded in 1947. By the early 1980s, CAE had developed a flight simulator that was so realistic it eliminated the need for all flight training to be completed on an actual aircraft.
Named one of Canada’s top ten engineering achievements of the 20th century by the Engineering Centennial Board, the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver made its first flight on August 16, 1947. With its short take-off and landing capability, adaptability and ability to carry up to nine passengers or bulk cargo, the Beaver is considered the best bush plane ever built.
Building on the designs from the first
Canadians in Flight issue, each stamp features layered greyscale imagery
and red accents to depict and highlight its subject’s impact on
Canadian aviation. The designs were developed with the support of
Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and
the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society.
Specifications: