Bruce Alexander Aikenhead, OC (September 22, 1923 – August 5, 2019) was a Canadian aerospace engineer and physicist. Aikenhead was widely regarded as a major pioneer in the Canadian aerospace industry, who was the deputy program director for the program that developed the Canadarm, was the first Director-General of the Canadian Astronaut Program, and helped create flight simulators for the

Avro Arrow The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a Delta wing, delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach number, Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding and was intended to serve as the Royal ...

project.

Biography

Aikenhead was born in

Didsbury, Alberta Didsbury is a town in central Alberta, Canada at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is located next to Alberta Highway 2A, near the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. Didsbury is within the Calgary-Edmonton corridor. Didsbury is approximately t ...

, in 1923, but was raised in London, Ontario after moving there with his family as a young child. During WWII, he helped service radar equipment in the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

. After the war, he enrolled at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

and earned a degree in radio physics. He got married in 1947, at age 24. In 1955, he began working at Canadian Aviation Electronics where he helped create aircraft simulators, and in 1958, he relocated to Malton, Ontario where he helped develop

flight simulators for

Avro Canada Avro Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1945 as an aircraft plant and within 13 years became the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 50 ...

. Although he only held that job for 6 months due to the cancellation of the program, he quickly began working for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. There, he helped with the training of astronauts on the Mercury mission and also helped develop simulators for the spacecraft used in the mission. When the NASA human space flight program moved to Houston, he left NASA and rejoined Canadian Aviation Electronics, but he quickly returned to the space sector, in 1966, when he began working with Gerald Bull, a scientist at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

. After he left in 1967 when the funding for the program he was working on was withdrawn, he began at RCA Canada where he helped engineer the ISIS 2 spacecraft and other satellites and spacecraft. In 1981, he became the deputy program director for what became the Canadarm project at the National Research Council of Canada. He was instrumental in the process that chose the first Canadian astronaut, Marc Garneau. He later became the first Director-General of the Canadian Astronaut Program. He retired in 1993, and in 1997, he was awarded the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. His wife died in 2005. He was instrumental in the founding of the Okanagan Science Centre in Vernon, British Columbia. On August 5, 2019, he died due to natural causes at the age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aikenhead, Bruce 1923 births 2019 deaths Canadian aerospace engineers Officers of the Order of Canada University of Western Ontario alumni Canadian engineering researchers 20th-century Canadian physicists