A light dinner will be served at 6:30pm. Our speaker will begin at 7pm.
Ken Swartz, an accomplished aerospace marketing and communication strategist and aviation historian, will be presenting a riveting presentation on the growth (and demise) of airports in the greater Toronto area. Many airports have come and
gone. Maybe you will recognize some of them: Canadian Air Express Airport (1928); Toronto Flying Club (1931); Baker Field (1927); Leaside Airfield (1917); Armour Heights (1917); De Haviland Airport (1929); Malton (1938); to name a few.
Ken will be presenting the history of the growth and closing of many of these airports and aerodromes. Packed with images from the period, Ken will transport you back to the golden age of flight, when what is now known as Transport Canada was just a fleeting thought in a bureaucrat’s mind, when pilots flew from unimproved grass strips, hand propping aircraft and wiping oil from their goggles with silk scarfs.
The impact of conflicts like the First and Second World War and the Cold War bolstered Greater Toronto Area aviation manufacturing, flight training and airport development.
About Ken Swartz
Ken Swartz is a senior aerospace marketing and communications and media relations strategist, running Aeromedia Consultants in Toronto.
Since early 2017, he has been deeply engaged with the emerging Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Electric VTOL (eVTOL) aircraft industry as a Board Member, Senior Editor and consultant with the Vertical Flight Society, editing Vertiflite magazine, the www.evtol.news e-newsletter and co-producing the annual VFS Electric Aircraft Symposium at Oshkosh. VFS was founded in 1943 as the American Helicopter Society and has 6, 500 individual, 160 corporate and 30 university members.
During his 40-year aviation career Ken has worked in marketing and communications for a variety of regional airlines and helicopter operators as well as for leading technology companies such as Pratt & Whitney Canada, CAE, Airbus Helicopters Canada, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, NAV CANADA and De Havilland Canada.
In parallel with his aviation career, Ken has written for Canadian, UK and US and aviation magazines, co-authored two books, and published thousands of articles on the Canadian commercial aviation scene and the global helicopter and VTOL industry.
Ken’s also a Contributing Editor of Skies and Vertical magazines and in 2010 received the Helicopter Association International’s prestigious “Excellence in Communications” award.
Ken joined the Canadian Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) in his teens and has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Museum of Flight in BC (1984-1987) and the Toronto Aerospace Museum at Downsview Airport (2001-2015) He’s a director of the CAHS Toronto chapter.
Location:
This is a hybrid meeting, on Zoom and in person. If you cannot attend in person, check your BFC-News email for the Zoom link!
The in-person session will be held at the SMS Training Facility at 75 Tiverton Court. This is just off Allstate Parkway just short of the old Nav Can tower on the southwest side of the field. Google Maps link.
Come North up from Hwy 7 on Allstate Parkway just past the sign that says No Exit after the 2nd or 3rd stop sign, and Tiverton is on the left. Follow it west to the end (only 100 meters or so) and go to the Toshiba Building, #75. Go left into the parking area (you may recognize a number of Ambulances parked there). The door for the Training Center is at the basement area on the South side of the building. The door is normally closed but we will have someone letting people in. Call Dave Sprague if you need assistance -- his cell phone number is posted in the BFC-News announcement of this meeting. Or, ask in the WhatsApp group.
