Franklin Ernest William Smith

Franklin Ernest William (Frank) Smith, D.F.C., A.F.C., was born in Calgary, Alberta, on April 22, 1913. His family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1922. He entered the University of British Columbia in 1929 to take advantage of the Provisional Pilot Officer course with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) that was offered to selected undergraduates in Applied Science. He trained on the Cirrus Moth in the summer of 1931 at Camp Borden, Ontario. However, the course was discontinued in 1932 and he was not involved with aviation again until World War II.

Smith joined the RCAF in August of 1940 and graduated with a Pilot Officer commission in May of 1941, through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). He became an instructor following training at Patricia Bay on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. In 1942 he was posted to No. 12 Communications Squadron, Rockcliffe, Ontario, as the full time instructor of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) in the RCAF, being himself trained by Z.L. Leigh and Marlow Kennedy. Smith subsequently trained most of the original pilots for No. 164 and No. 165 Transport Squadrons.

In 1943 Smith was named Commander of No. 165 Squadron's detachment in Edmonton, Alberta. This detachment supplied the RCAF units along the North West Staging Route and elsewhere in the north. The Staging Route roughly followed the route of the Alaska Highway, and was used primarily to ferry warplanes to Alaska and Russia in defence of the North in the early 1940's. Smith organized a daily scheduled service from Edmonton to Whitehorse and operated supply charters to the Staging Posts, including Aishihik and Snag in the Yukon, and down the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson and Norman Wells, Northwest Territories.

This unit flew IFR and developed a good reputation for all-weather operations. At that time, there were no route or approach charts for those northern areas. Smith drew up his own, which he had photoprinted for his pilots. As they were the best and most accurate of any in the area, the detachment was soon selling them to other pilots working in the north. This business prospered until the first Canada Air Pilot charts were published by the Ministry of Transport in 1944. He was awarded the Air Force Cross (A.F.C.) and promoted to Squadron Leader for his leadership and organization, and for the hazardous airdrops he made to mountain troops training on the north flank of Mount Edith Cavell near Jasper, Alberta.

Late in 1944, Smith became Flight Commander of No. 436 Operational Transport Squadron in India and Burma. This Squadron was based first at the Kangia strip in the Imphal Valley, India, then at Akyab, and finally Ramree Island - the wettest place on the Arakan Coast, on the Bay of Bengal. He was the only IFR qualified pilot in the squadron and convinced the Commanding Officer that it was much safer to fly using instruments through the monsoon clouds than to fly the valleys visually. This enabled the unit to fly 1,000 hours a month more than any other squadron in the Combat Cargo Task Force, and without the heavy losses the others were experiencing. It was through his inspiration that a weather reporting aircraft, code named 'Watchbird', flown by himself and the Commanding Officer, would guide the squadron's aircraft through the heavy weather and promote confidence in instrument flight. During this tour of duty, Smith was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.).

Smith returned to Canada in September 1945 and resigned from the RCAF. He then joined Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) in 1946 at Winnipeg, Manitoba, and after his initial training, was assigned to Vancouver. He accumulated nearly 19,000 hours in the service of TCA, which was renamed Air Canada (AC) in 1965.

He retired from AC in 1973 at age 60, and flew for Air Jamaica until mid-1976, accumulating another 2,200 hours. While with Air Jamaica he assisted management and published their flight operations periodical.

Throughout his career, Smith was active in the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association (CALPA), holding executive offices continually from 1950 to 1963. For three years he edited and published the Association's quarterly magazine, The Pilot. In 1976 he was awarded CALPA's Ken Wright Trophy for outstanding leadership and professionalism and was made a Life Member of that organization in 1978. He organized and became the founding president of CALPA for Retired Air Line Pilots in 1976.

He was active in a number of other organizations, including the British Columbia Aviation Council, the Quarter Century in Aviation Club, the Vancouver Air Force Officer's Association and the Burma Star Association. In September 1977, he was awarded the Air Canada Award of Merit for his outstanding contributions to aviation and to that airline.

Smith was an accomplished writer. An early work, titled "A Lexicon for Airline Pilots", sought to define and outline a pilot's profession. He wrote "The First Thirty Years - a History of CALPA" published in 1970. He was a regular contributor to Canadian aviation publications. He was also a well-known public speaker, and in 1977 was retained by Air Canada to help publicize their 40th Anniversary, and in that capacity appeared in major cities across Canada.

He died at Delta, British Columbia, on March 26, 1996.

Franklin Ernest William Smith was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996 at a ceremony held in Montreal, Quebec.