James C. Floyd
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| James C. Floyd | |
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 James C. Floyd stands next to the Avro Arrow replica at the Toronto Aerospace Museum c.2006
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| Born | 20 October, 1914 Manchester, England |
| Occupation | aerospace engineer |
James Charles "Jim" Floyd (born 20 October, 1914) is a Canadian aerospace engineer, born in Manchester, England. Floyd was the Avro Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) chief design engineer. His ensuing involvement, ultimately as vice-president (engineering), in the design and development of the Avro Jetliner, CF-100 and CF-105 Arrow aircraft designs, over a period which is viewed by many as the "Golden Age" of the Canadian aviation industry.
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[edit] Early career
Floyd started in January 1930 as an apprentice with A.V. Roe and Company in the UK (a position which was gained through connections with Roy Dobson) - Jim moved up the chain finally ending as Senior Vice President and Director of Engineering at A.V. Roe Canada.
During his early career, Floyd was employed as a design engineer on the Anson, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Lincoln and Tudor projects at A. V. Roe. He also spent time at Hawker, another aircraft company in the Hawker Siddeley group. This meant that he worked under two well-known British aircraft designers: Roy Chadwick and Sydney Camm. He was later appointed Chief Project Engineer of a special projects group at the Avro office in Yorkshire, where he worked on the application of jet engine technology to transport aircraft.
[edit] Avro Canada
He moved to Canada to join the new A.V. Roe Canada, more commonly known as Avro Canada, in 1946, and, in 1952, he was named Chief Engineer. He worked on such aircraft as the Avro Jetliner, CF-100 Canuck jet fighter, and the CF-105 Avro Arrow, through which he and Canada were recognized as international leaders in aeronautical engineering.
Floyd's work on jet transport in the UK led to the C102 Avro Jetliner. The C102 had been designed for the Trans Canada Airlines (TCA) requirement of 1946. Despite being the first jet-powered airliner in North America, and the second to fly worldwide, the Jetliner was never destined to go into production. When the Canadian government insisted that Avro concentrate on its jet engine and CF-100 designs, Jim Floyd was named as Project Designer for the CF-100 in 1952.
Like many other Avro Canada employees, Floyd was laid off, in the wake of the Avro CF-105 Arrow/ Orenda Iroquois engine cancellation of 20 February 1959, "Black Friday." After securing positions in other companies for many of the engineers in his department, Floyd and his family moved back to England in 1959. He headed up Hawker Siddeley's Advanced Projects Group that developed the HSA.1000 SST design evaluated as part of a joint research study with Bristol whose design ultimately became the Concorde. Floyd later worked as a consultant from 1965 to 1972.[1]
Floyd and his family came back to Canada in 1980[2] wherein he established a design and engineering firm concentrating on consulting for the aerospace industry. After retirement in 1988, he devoted free time to a number of educational and youth-oriented projects. He lives today in the Toronto area in the shadow of the once-great Avro Canada company buildings, now torn down.
[edit] Honours
In 1950, James C. Floyd was awarded the Wright Brothers Medal from the Society of Automotive Engineers for his paper on the ground-breaking work on the Jetliner [2](the first non-American recipient); in 1993, he was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame and named a Companion of the Order of Flight by the City of Edmonton. Floyd also was awarded the J.A. McCurdy trophy in 1958 for his work on the Avro Arrow.
[edit] References
- Floyd, Jim. The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1986.
- Jim Floyd Bio. Avro Arrow Recovery Canada. [3] Access date: 19 February 2007.
- Whitcomb, Randall. Avro Aircraft and Cold War Aviation. St. Catharine's, Ontario: Vanwell, 2002. ISBN 1-55125-082-9.
