Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame
Profile of Members
Paul Yettvart Davoud
Birthdate: November 25, 1911
Birth Place: Provo, Utah, USA
Year Inducted: 1985
Death Date: March 24, 1987
Awards: DSO, DFC, OBE
"The application of his exceptional skills as a pilot in peace and war and as an outstanding leader in military and civil aviation have been of superior benefit to Canadian aviation."
Paul Davoud's aviation career began during the 1930's as he flew for Canadian Airways and then joined the Hudson Bay Company as a bush pilot. He was a highly decorated pilot in WWII who excelled in night fighting. During his career with the RCAF he operated Beaufighter and Mosquito aircraft and was later given command of 143 RCAF Fighter Bomb Wing, comprised of three squadrons of Typhoon aircraft. After the war, C.D Howe chose him for a senior position with Trans-Canada Air Lines. Finally, in the 1970's he served as the Director of Aviation Services for the Ministry of Transportation and Communication in the Ontario government.
Birthdate: July 20, 1923
Stanley Matthew Deluce
Birth Place: Chapleau, Ontario
Year Inducted: 2007“His development of a small commuter airline in Northern Ontario, which led to one of the largest regional airlines in Canada serving both nationally and internationally, has been of great benefit to aviation in Canada.”
He has made a significant contribution to the development of the regional airline concept in Canada. From meagre beginnings when he and his family started White River Air Services in the 1950’s with a Stinson aircraft, he supplied safe and secure transportation links to the remote communities of Northern Ontario and Quebec in some of the most hostile flying environments which surround Hudson’s Bay. He expanded his bush flying operations into scheduled ‘all-weather’ air service, as well as air ambulance, aerial fire suppression, and domestic and international air charter. He built his commercial aviation business into a transportation system which culminated in airlines such as Austin Airways, Air Creebec, Air Ontario and Air Alliance, operations which rank with the best in the world. All members of his family, including his wife and their nine children, are or have been involved in his company, as pilots or in administration.
2007 Induction Video - Biography of Stanley Matthew Deluce
Clennell Haggerston Dickins
Nickname: "Punch"
Birthdate: January 12, 1899
Birth Place: Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
Year Inducted: 1974
Death Date: August 3, 1995
Awards: OC, OBE, DFC
"Despite adversity, he dramatized to the world the value of the bush plane, and his total contribution to the brilliance of Canada's air age can be measured not only by the regard in which he is held by his peers, but by the nation as a whole."
The aviation career of Clennell Dickins began in the military just like many others during the early part of the 1900's. After WWI, Dickins joined Western Canada Airways and achieved several aviation firsts which helped unlock the secrets of Canada's Arctic. He flew the first flight across the unmapped Barren Lands of the Northwest Territories, and he piloted the first aircraft on the prairie airmail circuit of Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. Dickins then became the first pilot to fly the full length of the Mackenzie River, some 2000 miles in two days, and flew the first prospectors into Great Bear Lake where uranium was found. In 1936, he flew an historic 10,000 mile air survey flight of Northern Canada. During his aviation career he flew more than 1,000,000 miles across the uncharted north in weather often unforgiving of human error. He was named by the government as one of the most outstanding Canadians in this nation's first century, and was christened "The Snow Eagle" and "Canada's Sky Explorer".
Birthdate: January 31, 1915
Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
Year Inducted: 2000
Death Date: February 18, 2007
"His constant search for perfection in all of his aeronautical endeavours and his pioneering leadership in the field of aero-engineering development have been of lasting benefit to Canadian aviation."
Dilworth graduated from the University of Toronto in 1939 with a mechanical engineering degree and gained employment at the engine laboratories of the National Research Council. Along with his colleagues, he studied jet engine technologies in the UK and went on to set up the cold-weather ground test facility at Winnipeg, Manitoba conducting the first ever test on a jet engine in Canada in 1943. Later, as Manager and Chief Engineer of Orenda Engines Ltd. at Malton, Ontario, Dilworth was involved with the highly successful engines designed for the Avro CF100 and the Canadair CF86 Sabre. After 1952, Dilworth has worked in private industry in the field of engineering consulting.
Birthdate: September 13, 1935
Birth Place: St. John's, Newfoundland
Year Inducted: 2007
Death Date: October 7, 2006
Awards: OC, D.Sc.(h.c.), LL.D (Hon.)“His outstanding leadership and development of CHC Helicopters Corporation into the world’s largest helicopter company, providing service to more than 30 countries around the world has been of major importance to Canadian aviation on the global stage.”
He showed outstanding leadership in the development of CHC Helicopter Corporation into the world’s largest helicopter company, providing service to more than 30 countries worldwide. His entrepreneurial style, inspired vision and drive propelled him to seek out opportunities to build his business. Beginning in 1977 with one aircraft, he created Newfoundland and Labrador’s first offshore helicopter services company, expanding rapidly in the offshore market and across Canada. In 1987 he acquired Okanagan Helicopters, and in 1994, British International Helicopters, turning CHC into a truly international helicopter services company. In 1999 the entire North Sea helicopter service, Helicopter Services Group, came under his leadership. In 2004, Dobbin restructured his operations to allow CHC to expand into new markets for logistics support, repair and overhaul, while providing a consistent standard of safety and service to customers worldwide.
2007 Induction Video - Biography of Craig Laurence Dobbin
Birthdate: November 19, 1921
Birth Place: Stratford, Ontario
Year Inducted: 1994
Death Date: October 30, 1986
"His sincerity, dedication, and persistence to the cause of improving the medical licensing problems in the airline industry has been of major benefit to Canadian aviation."
Robert Dodds is best known for his fight against the regulations regarding excessive medical standards pilots had to meet. In the 1960s the regulations were quite strict on what medical grounds constituted grounding a pilot. By the early 1980s much of his work began to show results as regulations were loosened. The major beneficiaries of Robert Dodds service were the pilot group, whose careers were threatened by minor medical disability, and the airlines which were spared the expense of terminating senior pilots unnecessarily.
Birthdate: July 16, 1918
Birth Place: Braughing, Hertfordshire, England
Year Inducted: 2000"Her extraordinary enthusiasm for and life long dedication to aviation, in wartime and peace, particularly her dedication to flight instruction have been of great benefit to Canada."
Vera qualified for her pilot’s licence in England in 1937. She worked extensively in the area of test flying until she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary as a Ferry Pilot. After WWII, she was a flight instructor with the RAF. Immigrating to Canada in 1952, she was the first female flight instructor in Alberta and upon retirement in 1987 her logbook totalled over 30,000 hours.
Birthdate: January 1, 1908
Birth Place: Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
Year Inducted: 2002
Death Date: October 19, 2003
Awards: CBE, CD**"His distinguished career as a military aviator in war and in peace time, demonstrating extraordinary skill and leadership in a lifetime of achievement, have earned the respect of his peers and brought great credit to his nation."
