Jerauld George Wright

Jerauld George (Jerry) Wright, D.F.C., C.D., was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, on August 31, 1917, where he received his education. He was employed at Liverpool as a certified pharmaceutical clerk until 1940, when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). After graduating as a navigator, he served on operations out of England and India with No. 240 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF) and was employed on coastal operations until 1944.

During two tours of duty comprising more than 1,200 operational hours on flying boats, Wright was involved in some of the earliest Arctic flying and some of the war's longest patrol flights. He participated in flights to Spitzbergen, off the coast of Norway, Russia, and across the Indian Ocean. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in early 1942 and for one 23-hour continuous flight to Spitzbergen during the winter of that year, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.). These Arctic operations required the devising of special techniques and adaptations of equipment. This brought about the first of a long line of inventions to solve special problems having to do with the allocation, development and use of navigational equipment in a wide variety of environments.

Special duties in the Mediterranean, India and Burma followed, during which he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. The flights he made required the development of special techniques in celestial navigation for landing with precise timing at night in small bays along the Burmese coast. For this work he was Mentioned in Despatches.

In 1945 Wright was sent to the Empire Navigation School at Shawbury, England, where he was engaged in test and development work related to aerial navigation. While there he completed the advanced specialist navigational course and in 1946 was posted to the Central Experimental and Proving Establishment (CEPE) of the RCAF at Rockcliffe Air Base, Ontario, to work on compass problems. He was then named Head of the Test and Development Section of the Air Navigation School at Summerside, Prince Edward Island, to develop new techniques and equipment for Arctic flying. It was there that he developed the prototype of the Synchronous Astro Compass which greatly improved heading accuracy at all latitudes, and which is used in all Canadian Forces long range aircraft.

Wright remained at Summerside until 1949, when he was promoted to Squadron Leader and posted to RCAF Headquarters in Ottawa to take charge of the Navigational Instrument Development Branch of the Air Member for Technical Services Division. It was there that his flair for inventions was seriously noted, when he designed what was to become a family of distance/bearing type computers of which the best known were the R Theta and the Position and Homing Indicator Mark 3. The R Theta was designed to fit into an aircraft instrument panel and was capable of two major roles. At the flip of a switch, it could tell the pilot how many miles he was from home base and what compass heading to fly to get back to base. It could also show the pilot how many miles to fly to reach a destination and what direction to fly. For this invention, the first major breakthrough in aerial navigation in decades, Wright was awarded the Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy for 1953. He invented and patented some 30 navigational devices, many of which were accepted for use. by military agencies of other nations.

The R-Theta Computer is an ingenious automatic navigation instrument designed for use in long-range, high-speed aircraft. The system performs automatically and continuously most of the numerical and plotting operations usually carried out by the navigator. It does not rely on radio transmissions from ground stations and is immune to ‘jamming’ or radio interference. The pilot no longer has to fly in a series of straight lines in order for the navigator to carry on with conventional navigation.

Wright was promoted to Wing Commander in 1954. As an indication of the confidence engendered by his inventive potential, he was assigned to complete a guided missile course in 1954, attend the RCAF Staff College at Toronto, Ontario, in 1957-58, and the senior anti-submarine detection course at the Joint Services Staff College in the United Kingdom in 1961.

During this extended period at RCAF Headquarters, Wright was responsible for studies and analyses, and development and/or selection of such equipment as flight instruments, navigation systems, anti-submarine warfare technical systems and flight simulators.

At the Naval Research Establishment, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, he was responsible for studies and analyses concerning underwater radar detection devices, hydrofoil operational feasibility and sonar research programs. His final assignment at Canadian Forces Headquarters was responsibility for the selection and/or development of avionics flight equipment and anti-submarine warfare tactical systems for all Canadian Forces aircraft.

In the 1955-65 period, Wright invented the Air Navigation and Tactical Control (ANTAC) system for the RCAF Argus, components of which were also used by France, Australia and Japan.

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Wright is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and a Fellow of Honour of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute. He holds the coveted Inventor's Award from the Canadian Government's Patent and Development Corporation.

On retirement from the service in 1966, after receiving numerous honours and awards from professional societies and groups, and a number of governmental presentations for his pioneering work, he formed his own consulting firm in Ottawa, JGW Systems. He also authored more than 50 technical and scientific papers on a wide range of aviation subjects.

Jerauld George (Jerry) Wright was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.

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