Bill Lishman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Lishman is a Canadian inventor, artist, and ultralight aircraft enthusiast. Bill started out by flying a revolutionary fixed-wing glider called the Easy Riser, a bi-wing craft designed in California by Larry Mauro. Bill Practiced foot launching from his back yard (a 100 acre wooded lot with a large hill at one end) with varying degrees of success. Steering on the riser was controlled by two drag rudders, mounted between the wingtips. To turn you twisted the bars under your armpits that you hang from. Pitch control was by weight shift, leaning forward made you go down and backward made you tilt upwards. Tired of endlessly hauling the glider back up the hill, Bill took the next step and bolted an 8 horsepower go-kart engine on to the back of the glider, carved himself a propeller and on a fateful day in 1978 made Canadian aviation history by becoming the first in Canada to foot-launch a rigid winged powered aircraft. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lishman openly wondered if waterfowl could be taught new migration patterns by following low-speed ultralight aircraft. In 1993, after several years of logistical and bureaucratic setbacks, Lishman successfully led a flock of Canada Geese on a winter migration from Ontario, Canada to Northern Virginia. Of the sixteen birds that participated in the migration, thirteen returned to Ontario the following year - entirely on their own.

The project was dubbed Operation Migration.

Following the successful experiment with Canada Geese, Lishman turned his efforts towards rare and endangered waterfowl, most notably the whooping crane. As of 2005, Lishman continues to lead waterfowl on annual migratory excursions.

The 1996 movie Fly Away Home was loosely based on Lishman's work, including his book Father Goose, published in 1995.

In the early 1990's Lishman designed and built an energy efficient dome shaped underground home. He lives there with his wife Paula Lishman, an internationally renowned fashion designer and president of the Fur Council of Canada.

Lishman also ran for the New Democratic Party in the Canadian federal election, 1974 in the riding of Ontario and placed third.