Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)

"For over sixty years the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology has offered courses applicable to the work of the air engineer and has contributed both provincially and nationally to the progress of aviation in Canada."

As early as 1922, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), formerly called the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (PITA), was offering courses which were applicable to the work of the air engineer. This included electrical engineering, motor mechanics, battery and ignition, armature winding and engineering mechanics. Welding and radio were added in 1927.

The Institute's entry into a specific aviation field was casual, incidental, almost accidental when it took on the responsibility of offering ground school courses for the student pilots of the Calgary Air Club. By 1931 the Ground Courses in Aviation, as they were designated, were offered as both day and evening classes. In 1935, there were 45 enrollees in the day classes. The Institute continued to teach aeronautics up to the beginning of world War II.

With the outbreak of World War II, the Institute ceased to teach courses for future pilots and turned its attention to those whose duty it was to keep the aircraft in the air. The annual Report of the Alberta Department of Education indicates the registrations in various air engineering categories as follows:

Intake                                                                No. 1        No. 2        No. 3     Total
Fitters                                                                  32             21              20           73
Riggers                                                                  0              14              18           32
Electricians                                                         0              13                0            13
Wireless Operators/Mechanics             0              23             40            63
-----          -----           -----        -----
TOTAL                                                           32            71              78         181

These three intakes followed one another at seventeen week intervals.

The training courses continued throughout the war, with most of the graduates entering the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to become air engine mechanics, air frame mechanics or wireless operators. That their initial intake training was wholly adequate is indicated by the fact that two of the Institute's graduates led their intakes group in air engine mechanics at the RCAF No. 1 Wireless School in Montreal, Quebec.

During the war the Institute operated under the most trying of circumstances, in the grandstand at the exhibition grounds, as the RCAF had pre-empted their building for No. 4 Wireless School. At the end of the war they were able to move back to their own home. That year the federal Department of Transport authorized the Institute to make repairs to any aircraft, including the engines, carrying commercial or private certification.

In 1947 PITA began to teach the final year of a three-year course leading to the examination of Associated Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Association. The 1989 course catalogue gave the following information regarding the programs:

Aeronautical Engineering Technology: Most courses focus on theoretical work. After completing the second year, students are eligible to receive a diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology (Aeronautics). The third year qualifies graduates for the diploma in AET. Graduates have successfully taken their places in engineering teams within the areas of aircraft design, manufacturing and operations.

Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Technology: An Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Technologist is trained to maintain aircraft and components, whether structural, mechanical, or electrical. Graduates find work in all areas of the aviation industry, including fixed wing aircraft, rotary wing aircraft, general aviation, corporate aviation, engine and component overhaul facilities and heavy maintenance. Grade XII standing is required for admission into either program.

Aeronautical Engineering graduates of SAIT are active in the aviation industry not only in Alberta, but across Canada and beyond. In the field of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Technology, SAIT's two-year program is unexcelled in Canada and unsurpassed anywhere.

The Belt of Orion Award for Excellence was bestowed upon the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1990 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.

Aircraft Engineers are as essential to the aviation industry as pilots, yet because the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer’s work, in comparison to the pilot’s is unglamorous, it importance if often overlooked, even in the world of aviation itself. Pilots admit freely their total reliance on their air engineers for the airworthiness of their machines.