James Charles Floyd (born 20 October 1914) is a British-Canadian retired aeronautical engineer. He became the Avro Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) chief design engineer and his involvement, ultimately as vice-president (engineering), in the design and development of the Avro Canada C-102 Jetliner,

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck (affectionately known as the "Clunk") is a Canadian twinjet interceptor/ fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Avro Canada. It has the distinction of being the only Canadian-designed fighter to e ...

and

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) pr ...

aircraft, occurred during a period which is viewed by many as the "Golden Age" of the Canadian aviation industry.

Early career

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, Floyd entered the

workplace A workplace is a location where someone works, for their employer or themselves, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of th ...

in January 1930 with an engineering apprenticeship, gained through connections with Roy Dobson, with

A.V. Roe and Company AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broa ...

in England. Floyd's employment with Avro in England and then Canada reached its peak with his position as Senior Vice President and Director of Engineering at A.V. Roe Canada. During his early career, Floyd was a design engineer working on the

Anson Anson may refer to: People * Anson (name), a give name and surname ** Anson family, a British aristocratic family with the surname Place names ;United States * Anson, Indiana * Anson, Kansas * Anson, Maine ** Anson (CDP), Maine * Anson, Missour ...

, Lancaster,

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

and Tudor projects at A. V. Roe. He also spent time at Hawkers, another aircraft company in the Hawker Siddeley group. He worked under two British aircraft designers:

Roy Chadwick Roy Chadwick, CBE, FRSA, FRAeS (30 April 1893 – 23 August 1947) was an aircraft design engineer for the Avro Company. Born at Marsh Hall Farm, Farnworth, Widnes, the son of the mechanical engineer Charles Chadwick, he was the chief designer ...

and Sydney Camm. He was later appointed Chief Project Engineer of a special projects group at the Avro Aircraft location in Yorkshire, where he worked on the application of jet engine technology to transport aircraft.

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 C102 Avro Jetliner,

CF-100 Canuck The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck (affectionately known as the "Clunk") is a Canadian twinjet interceptor/ fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Avro Canada. It has the distinction of being the only Canadian-designed fighter to e ...

jet fighter, and the CF-105 Avro Arrow supersonic interceptor, through which he and Canada were recognised as international leaders in aeronautical engineering. Floyd's work on jet transport in the UK led to the

Avro Canada C102 Jetliner The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner was a Canadian prototype medium-range turbojet-powered jet airliner built by Avro Canada in 1949. It was beaten to the air by only 13 days by the de Havilland Comet, thereby becoming the second jet airliner in the ...

. The Jetliner had been designed for a Trans Canada Airlines (TCA) requirement in 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, Floyd was named as Project Designer for the CF-100 in 1952. Like thousands of other Avro Canada employees, Floyd was laid off in the wake of the

Avro CF-105 Arrow The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) p ...

Orenda Iroquois The Orenda PS.13 Iroquois was an advanced turbojet engine designed for military use. It was developed by the Canadian aircraft engine manufacturer Orenda Engines, a part of the Avro Canada group. Intended for the CF-105 Arrow interceptor, dev ...

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 The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

. Floyd later worked as a consultant from 1965 to 1972. Since his retirement in 1979, Floyd has devoted free time to a number of educational and youth-oriented projects. Floyd and his family returned to Canada in 1981. and, as of 2014, is living in the Greater Toronto area near the site of the now-demolished Avro Canada company buildings in Malton, Ontario.

Honours

In 1950, Floyd was awarded the

Wright Brothers Medal The Wright Brothers Medal was conceived of in 1924 by the Dayton Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the SAE established it in 1927 to recognize individuals who have made notable contributions in the engineering, design, developmen ...

from the

Society of Automotive Engineers SAE International, formerly named the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a United States-based, globally active professional association and standards developing organization for engineering professionals in various industries. SAE Internatio ...

for his paper on the Jetline

the first non-American recipient); in 1993, he was inducted into the

Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, based in The Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, commemorates and honours those whose accomplishments in aviation contributed so much to Canada's development as a nation. Founded in 1973, the Hall of ...

and named a Companion of the Order of Flight by the

City of Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

. Floyd also was awarded the J.A. McCurdy trophy in 1958 for his work on the Avro Arrow. In May 2000, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering Design by the

Royal Military College of Canada '') , established = 1876 , type = Military academy , chancellor = Anita Anand ('' la, ex officio, label=none'' as Defence Minister) , principal = Harry Kowal , head_label ...

On 20 July 2009, Floyd was awarded the first Canadian Air and Space Pioneer Award in a ceremony at the former Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park, Toronto, Canada.Kyonka, Nick
"Before Apollo, there was Arrow."
''The Toronto Star'', 21 July 2009.
''Canadian Air & Space Museum'', 15 July 2009. Retrieved: 4 December 2014. He turned 100 in October 2014.VanderHoek, Kristen
"News & Events: 2014 James C. Floyd Award Recipient for Aerospace Excellence."
''Aerospace Industries Association of Canada'', 19 November 2014. Retrieved: 1 December 2014.

Notes

References

;Bibliography * Floyd, Jim. ''The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner.'' Erin, Ontario, Canada: Boston Mills Press, 1986. .

''Avro Arrow Recovery Canada''. * Gainor, Chris. ''Arrows To The Moon: Avro's Engineers and the Space Race.'' Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Apogee Books, 2001. . * Whitcomb, Randall. ''Avro Aircraft and Cold War Aviation''. St. Catharine's, Ontario, Canada: Vanwell Publishing, 2002. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Floyd, James C. 1914 births Living people Canadian centenarians Engineers from Manchester English aerospace engineers Canadian aerospace engineers Men centenarians British emigrants to Canada