Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame has selected four new inductees and there’s a military flavour to this year’s crop. The inductees are Arthur Roy Brown, Jim McBride, O.B. Philp and George Miller.
Brown was best known for the role he played in the downing of the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen in 1918. After the war, he owned an aviation company but died at just 50 in 1944.
McBride was a tech in the RCAF but after his service owned charter operations in Manitoba. He is credited with the turnaround of Transair and then resumed his career in the charter business serving the resource sector.
O.B. Philp was the “father of the Snowbirds” and created the team while base commander at CFB Moose Jaw. 431 Air Demonstration Squadron was formally formed in 1978 and the team remains the RCAF’s primary projector of pride and knowledge about Canada and its most potent recruiting tool.
Miller was team lead of the 1973 Snowbirds and enjoyed a 35-year career in the RCAF and in retirement created the Fraser Blues aerobatic team in B.C.
The Belt of Orion Award this year goes to AeroVelo for winning the Sikorsky Prize for human-powered helicopter flight.