James Charles Floyd (20 October 1914 – 5 April 2017) was a British-Canadian aeronautical engineer. He became the Avro Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) chief design engineer and was involved in the design and development of the

Avro Canada C-102 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 purpose-built jet a ...

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 ...

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 (R ...

aircraft.

Early career

James Charles Floyd was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England on 20 October 1914. He began his career in the

aviation industry An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

in January 1930 at the age of 15 as an apprentice with A.V. Roe Company in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Growing up next to the A.V. Roe

manufacturing plant A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an Industry (manufacturing), industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with Outline of industrial machinery, machinery, where workers manufacturing, manufac ...

, he was chosen by Sir Roy Dobson to train young boys in the aviation field. Floyd attended

technical school A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocationa ...

and later graduated from

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for Research univer ...

in 1934, where he earned a diploma in

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

in 1945. As a part of his

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, he also worked in a variety of different positions at the A.V. Roe plant in between attending classes. He spent the last 6 months of this training at the A.V. Roe airfield at Woodford, where he learned to fly in a

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

. After graduating, Floyd joined Roy Chadwick's group of

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

s and worked with Chadwick on the

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), R ...

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

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

and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

designs. He was part of a small team that turned the

twinjet A twinjet or twin-engine jet is a jet aircraft powered by two jet engine, engines. A twinjet is able to fly well enough to land with a single working engine, making it safer than a single-engine aircraft in the event of failure of an engine. F ...

Manchester into the

four-engined jet aircraft A four-engined jet, sometimes called a quadjet, is a jet aircraft powered by four Jet engine, engines. The presence of four engines offers increased power and redundancy, allowing such aircraft to be used as airliners, cargo aircraft, freighters, ...

Lancaster bomber. He was later appointed

Chief Project Engineer The chief project engineer (CPE) is a member of the design organisation of an aeronautical company, required by the European Aviation Safety Agency. The CPE is responsible, on behalf of the head of design organisation (HDO), for the technical aspec ...

at the

Avro Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...

design office in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, working on the application of jet technology to transport aircraft. During his early career he worked under the guidance of Sir Sydney Camm of

Hawker Aircraft Hawker Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer that was responsible for some of the most famous products in British aviation history. History Hawker had its roots in the aftermath of the First World War, which resulted in the ban ...

, designer of the Hurricane Fighter and the Harrier 'Jump Jet'.

Avro Canada

Floyd moved to Canada to join the new A.V. Roe Canada, known as

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 ...

, in 1946. In 1952, he was named Chief Engineer. He worked on aircraft such 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 en ...

jet fighter, and CF-105 Avro Arrow supersonic interceptor. Floyd's work on jet transport in the United Kingdom 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 purpose-built jet ...

. The Jetliner was designed for requirements specified by

Trans Canada Airlines Trans-Canada Air Lines (also known as TCA in English, and Trans-Canada in French) was a Canadian airline that operated as the country's flag carrier, with corporate headquarters in Montreal, Quebec. Its first president was Gordon Roy McGregor. ...

(TCA) in 1946. Despite being the first jet-powered airliner in North America, and the second to fly worldwide, the Jetliner never went into production. When the Canadian government insisted that Avro concentrate on its jet engine and

CF-100 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 ent ...

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 (RC ...

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, ...

engine cancellation of 20 February 1959. 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 led the

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in list of aircraft manufacturers, aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers ...

's Advanced Projects Group that developed the HSA.1000 SST design. It was evaluated as part of a joint research study with Bristol whose design ultimately became the

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

. Later, Floyd worked as a consultant from 1965 to 1972.

Later life and death

Floyd and his family returned to Canada in 1981. In 2014, his wife, Irene, passed away after 74 years of marriage. He celebrated his

100th birthday 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

on 20 October. James Floyd died in Ontario, Canada on 5 April 2017, at the age of 102. His death was not announced until June 2025.

Honors

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, developme ...

from the

Society of Automotive Engineers SAE International is a global professional association and standards organization based in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, United States. Formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, the organization adopted its current name in 2006 to reflect bot ...

for his paper on the Jetliner (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. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region, and is in Treaty 6 terri ...

. Floyd 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 The Royal Military College of Canada (), abbreviated in English as RMC and in French as CMR, is a Military academy#Canada, military academy and, since 1959, a List of universities in Canada#Ontario, degree-granting university of the Canadian ...

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 The Canadian Air and Space Conservancy (formerly the Toronto Aerospace Museum and the Canadian Air and Space Museum) was an aviation museum that was located in Toronto, Ontario, featuring artifacts, exhibits and stories illustrating a century of ...

at Downsview Park, Toronto, Canada.Kyonka, Nick
"Before Apollo, there was Arrow."
''The Toronto Star'', 21 July 2009. The James C. Floyd Award is presented annually by the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada to an individual or team that has made an exceptional contribution to Canada's aerospace industry. It has been presented annually since 2010. It was named after James C. Floyd due to his status as "one of the great figures in Canada's aviation history," and his role in developing the C-102 Jetliner, the CF-100 fighter, and 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 ...

Notes

References

;Bibliography * Floyd, Jim. ''The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner.'' Erin, Ontario, Canada: Boston Mills Press, 1986. .
"Jim Floyd Bio".
''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 2017 deaths Canadian men centenarians Engineers from Manchester English aerospace engineers Canadian aerospace engineers British emigrants to Canada