PBY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-16 published
His vision for Canada went sky-high
Aircraft engineer worked at Canadian Vickers during the Second
World War and helped in development of Canadair
By James McCREADY
Special to The Globe and Mail Wednesday, April
16, 2003 - Page R9
Perhaps more than anyone else, Peter
GOOCH gave Canada its wings.
An aeronautical engineer, he helped to build the company that
went on to become Canadair, the aerospace division of Bombardier
and the foundation for Canada's success as an aircraft manufacturer.
Like many young men of his generation, the Second World War had
thrust him into the job of his dreams: chief engineer of a vast
aircraft plant building flying boats for submarine patrols and
converting military transports into commercial aircraft.
Mr. GOOCH, who died in February at the age of 88, joined Canadian
Vickers at the outbreak of the war. The company was building
ships in the east end of Montreal but expanded to build sea planes,
including those that landed on floats and skis as well as amphibians,
so-called flying boats, which could take off from water or land.
Canadian Vickers moved its aeronautical arm to Cartierville airport,
then a three-kilometre streetcar ride from the edge of Montreal.
In May 1942, the federal government got involved by helping to
build a 150,000-square-metre plant. Within three months, Mr.
GOOCH and his team turned out the first
PBY, or Canso, an advanced
flying boat which saw extensive service in the war. The technology
behind the Canso's ability to take off and land using the fuselage
as a hull is still used in Canadair's water bombers.
The assembly line produced 340 Cansos. Then a young man who was
not yet 30, Mr.
GOOCH supervised a complex engineering project
with dozens of engineers and thousands of workers under him.
As the war came to an end, the factory expanded to convert military
C47s into civilian DC3s.
At one point, Mr.
GOOCH was also sent to England to work on the
development of the legendary de Havilland Mosquito, an all-wood
fighter-bomber that was later made in Canada and used by the
Royal Canadian Air Force.
Mr. GOOCH was not only a clever engineer but a man of quiet charm
and an accomplished linguist. Both these traits smoothed the
path for his winning the contract for Vickers to build Montreal's
first subway cars. Because he was fluent in French, he was able
to deal with the mayor of Montreal, Jean
DRAPEAU, something few
English-only speaking businessmen of his day could manage.
By 1964, Mr.
GOOCH was vice-president of engineering at Canadian
Vickers. He convinced the mayor that his firm, located in a working
class, French-Canadian district, could do the job of building
the subway cars. Shortly after winning the contract, Mr.
GOOCH
was promoted to president of Canadian Vickers.
Peter William
GOOCH was born on February 18, 1915, in Toronto.
His father was a successful businessman who owned and ran a window-manufacturing
company.
He attended Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto,
graduating with a degree in civil engineering in 1936. A year
later, he earned a masters degree in aeronautical engineering.
His first job in aviation was with de Havilland and he transferred
to the company's home base in England. He worked at its plants
until the outbreak of the war when he started at Canadair, which
was then owned by Canadian Vickers. After the war, the government
wanted to encourage the development of an aviation industry using
Canadair as a base. After one postwar re-organization, Canadair
was bought by an American firm with the odd name of The Electric
Boat Company. It formed the basis of General Dynamics, the defence
giant.
Mr. GOOCH opted to stay with Canadian Vickers and moved to its
operation on the St. Lawrence River. He left the firm in 1967
and moved to Toronto as president and part owner of the firm
that became FluiDynamic Devices Inc., a company that turned exotic
inventions developed at the National Research Council in Ottawa
into commercial products.
A man of immense curiosity, he would get caught up in many projects,
including a windtunnel. Called Airflow, it helped measure industrial
emissions as part of an environmental initiative put together
long before most people had heard of the word. The firm sold
its first wind tunnel to Volvo, in Sweden, to test the aerodynamics
of its cars.
In his spare time, Mr.
GOOCH read in many languages and in addition
to French, he spoke Russian, Spanish, German and Italian. When
visiting businessmen arrived from Europe, he was always called
upon to entertain them. At the age of 60, he decided to learn
Japanese since his firm, FluiDynamics, had picked up a Japanese
client.
A devoted family man, he spent his free time at the cottage he
built at Lac Oureau, north of Montreal. A patient fisherman,
his son remembers him catching just one trout on the fished-out
lake in the southern Laurentians. The family would head further
north on fishing trips every summer.
His hobbies included carpentry and a whole range of sports from
skiing to golf. He was fit even in his later years and last summer
was the first time he used a cart instead of walking the course.
Mr. GOOCH died in Toronto on February 27. He leaves his wife
Evelyn and his four children.
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PBY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-06 published
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER,
Edward
Cavell
Group Captain, Royal Canadian Air Force (retired), Distinguished
Flying Cross, Canadian Forces Decoration, died peacefully on
November 29, 2003 in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. He was 87.
Ed SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER was born in Preston (now Cambridge,) Ontario on March
9th, 1916, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on November
5, 1940, as an Airman 2nd Class and had risen to the rank of
Group Captain by the time he retired in 1968, after 28 years
of service. He served in two tours of operations and was Executive
Assistant to two Air Vice Marshals, at Eastern Air Command and
Air Force Headquarters in Ottawa. He saw active duty as a Navigation
Officer in 5 and
11 Squadrons during the Second World War, on
successful anti-submarine patrols in Canso
PBYs over the North
Atlantic; he later served in 412 Squadron. He married Bernice
May COULTER of Pugwash, Nova Scotia on October 30, 1941 and had
three children, Gregory, Peter and Virginia. After teaching Military
History at Royal Military College during the early 50s he attended
the Officer's Staff College at Bracknell, England in 1955, returning
to Canada as Commanding Officer of Mont Apica Radar Station in
Quebec. In 1960 he was posted to Madison, Wisconsin as Canadian
Liaison Officer with North American Aerospace Defense Command.
After a final tour of duty at Air Force Headquarters in Ottawa
he retired, first to Florida, then to Kelowna, British Columbia.
He became a stockbroker, then managed a specialty steel company
and finally became a realtor before retiring in 1982 in Tsawwassen,
where he had lived since 1971. He was an avid birder, traveler
and sailor and had circumnavigated Vancouver Island in his Bayfield
29 with his brother Elmer. He is survived by Bea, his loving
wife of 62 years, and his three children in Vancouver, Toronto
and Penticton, their spouses and his five grandchildren, Morgan,
Lauren, Miles, Chelsea and Weston. By his request, there will
be no funeral. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Per Ardua Ad Astra
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