Wilfred Leigh Brintnell (August 27, 1895 – January 22, 1971) was a pioneering Canadian

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

. Born at

Belleville, Ontario Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its population ...

, Brintnell joined the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

(RFC) in Canada in 1917. A pilot, Brintnell instructed until his discharge in 1919, for the RFC at

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

; the Royal Air Force at Camp Borden, Ontario; and the RAF in

Upavon Upavon is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the upper portion of the River Avon which runs from north to south through the village. It is on the north edge of Salisbury Plain ...

, England. Thereafter, he served as a commercial pilot with various operations. In 1927, he took employment with

Western Canada Airways Canadian Airways Limited was a Canadian regional passenger and freight air service based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was founded by James Armstrong Richardson Sr. in 1926 as Western Canada Airways (WCA), was fully established in 1930 following ...

, quickly rising to the position of manager. He was involved in several historic events between 1928 and 1931, including piloting the first multi-engined return flight Winnipeg, Manitoba to Vancouver, British Columbia; the first flight around

Great Bear Lake Great Bear Lake ( den, Sahtú; french: Grand lac de l'Ours) is a lake in the boreal forest of Canada. It is the largest lake entirely in Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron are larger but straddle the Canada–US border), the fourth-largest ...

; and the first over-the-mountains flight from

Aklavik, Northwest Territories Aklavik ( Inuvialuktun: ''Akłarvik'') (from the Inuvialuktun meaning '' barrenground grizzly place'') is a hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Until 1961, with a population over 1,500, the community ser ...

to Dawson City, Yukon Territory. He also flew an historic 9,000 mile trip from Winnipeg across the Northwest Territories to Alaska. He left Canadian Airways Limited, the successor company of Western Canada Airways, soon after being appointed assistant general manager in 1931 so that he could form the Mackenzie Air Service Limited in

Edmonton, Alberta 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 ...

. He sold the company to the

Canadian Pacific Railway Company Canadian Pacific Limited was created in 1971 to own properties formerly owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a transportation and mining giant in Canada. In October 2001, CPR completed the corporate spin-offs of each of the remaining business ...

in 1940, but stayed on to help expand that business into

Canadian Pacific Airlines Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, it served domestic Canadian a ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he became a manager at Aircraft Repair Limited, overseeing the effort to maintain Canadian military aircraft, for which service he was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) Civil in 1946. After the war, he first managed Northwest Industries Limited at Edmonton before, in 1952, operating aerial photographic business Arctic Air Lines. He died at Edmonton, Alberta, and was inducted into

Canada's 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 ...

in 1976.

References

* Oswald, Mary, ''They Led the Way'', Wetaskiwin: Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, 1999.

External links

Hall of Fame site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brintnell, Wilfred Leigh Canadian aviators 1895 births 1971 deaths Commercial aviators