Avro Arrow designer honoured

James "Jim" Floyd, the designer of the Avro Arrow and the first passenger jet, was honoured at the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park on Monday. During his illustrious career, Floyd (95) was involved for more than half a century in aircraft designs. In his early days he worked on the  Lancaster bomber, the York transport, the Lincoln and other designs.

Floyd came to Canada in February 1946 to join the newly formed A.V.Roe Canada company (Avro) at Malton Ontario, initially as Chief Design Engineer in charge of the C 102 Jetliner project, then Chief Engineer in charge of all Avro projects, including the CF 100 fighter and the CF 105 Arrow project. He was appointed Vice-president Engineering in 1955.

After the cancellation of the Arrow project he established his own international aviation consulting company and made contributions to many state-of-the-art projects worldwide. He was consultant to the British Ministry of Technology on the Concorde project from 1965 to 1972.

In 1950 he became the first non-American recipient of the Wright Bros. Medal for his work on jet transport technology, specifically the design of the Avro Canada Jetliner, the world’s first regional jet passenger aircraft. In 1957 he received the J.D.McCurdy Award for his work on the CF 100 and CF 105 (Arrow) fighter aircraft. For his work on supersonic transport design he was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society’s George Taylor Gold Medal in 1962.
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