John Fraser Woodman

Jack Fraser Woodman, C.D., was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on May 14, 1925. In 1943, after graduating from high school, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at age 18. He was selected as an Air Gunner and sent overseas upon completion of gunnery school.

He arrived in England in June 1944, and was assigned to No. 433 Squadron, Bomber Command (RCAF Group 6). The crew completed 23 operational missions flying Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster bombers before the war in Europe ended. He volunteered for duty in the Pacific and was en route when V-J Day was declared.

He was discharged in 1945 as a Flight Sergeant and returned to Saskatoon where he enrolled in the University of Saskatchewan's School of Engineering. He rejoined the RCAF in 1948 and was sent to No. 1 Flying School in Centralia, Ontario, for pilot training. He received his pilot's wings in 1949 and was sent to No. 111 Communications and Rescue Flight, Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he flew Douglas Dakotas, Beech Expediters and Noorduyn Norseman aircraft, gaining experience on wheels, floats and skis.

Two missions were of particular note during this period. During Operation Denhoime, in June of 1951, Woodman was captain of the plane that made the sighting and completed the rescue of a lost Saskatchewan Airways aircraft. Also, in June, in Operation Bishop, he flew a jet-assisted-take-off (JATO) equipped Dakota on a mercy flight to bring out an ailing Department of Transport (DOT) radio operator at Mould Bay, Prince Patrick Island, approximately 76 degrees north latitude, in the Arctic Ocean. At that time, this mission covered the longest distance ever undertaken by the RCAF at 4,600 miles (7,400 km).

In late 1951, Woodman was appointed as Canada's representative to the Empire Test Pilots' School, Farnborough, England, a 10-month finishing school for test pilots, to which Commonwealth air forces were invited to send their single most outstanding flier. After graduating from Farnborough, he was assigned to the Central Experimental and Proving Establishment at Rockcliffe Air Base, Ontario, and then posted to the A.V. Roe aircraft company (Avro) in Toronto, Ontario, as an RCAF acceptance pilot, flying 17-ton Avro CF-100 all-weather jet interceptors. At the same time, he was the acceptance pilot for the de Havilland Aircraft Company, flying Lancasters, Vampires, Otters and Chipmunks.

In June of 1955 Woodman demonstrated the CF-100 at the Paris Air Show for Avro Canada, flying magnificent aerobatics, including the only spin of the whole show.

To prepare for the Avro CF-105 Arrow program, and to gain experience in supersonic flying, particularly in delta-winged aircraft, Woodman spent a year at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida as part of the United States Air Force (USAF) team evaluating the F-102A "Delta Daggar". He also attended the USAF Fighter-Interceptor School at Tyndall AFB, Florida.

In early 1957, Woodman was again assigned to Avro Canada, this time as RCAF Project Pilot for the CF-105 Arrow program. Chief Experimental Test Pilot Jan Zurakowski made the first flight of the Arrow on March 25, 1958. Woodman flew the eighth flight of the Arrow on April 22, 1958 and made five more flights on subsequent models of the Arrow. When the program was cancelled in 1959, he was the only military pilot to have flown the aircraft.

With the cancellation of the Arrow program, he participated in the evaluation of several other aircraft for the RCAF. The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was selected to fill the fighter-bomber role for No. 1 Air Division in Europe, and in January of 1960 he was transferred to Palmdale, California, as Project Pilot to work with Lockheed in the development of this new model. When the CF-104 went into squadron service in Canada, he was offered a position with the Lockheed Company in California. He was discharged from the RCAF in August 1962, as a Squadron Leader.

It is interesting that, unknown to him, Woodman was at the top of an unofficial list of three or four RCAF pilots who were possible candidates for the U.S. space program as astronauts. However, the Canadian government of the day did not commit the funding necessary to be a partner in the program.

Woodman was Project Pilot at Lockheed for the NF-104A Aerospace Trainer, an F-104 with rocket assist, intended to train future test pilots on the intricacies of high altitude flying, weightlessness, full pressure suits, rocket engine handling, and flying with reaction controls. On one flight, he set an unofficial world altitude record for jets of 118,400 feet (36,088m). But a control malfunction caused the aircraft to pitch up, enter a spin, and only after an 85,000 ft. (25,908 m) fall was he able to level the airplane off and land safely.

The NF-104A, with a rocket booster of 6,000 lb thrust supplementing its turbojet, was a highly supersonic aircraft. Jack Woodman made several flights at more than twice the speed of sound, and on August 21, 1963, he achieved Mach 2.6.

Lockheed began development of the L-1011 TriStar passenger transport in the mid-1960's. Woodman did most of the simulator development of the flying qualities for this aircraft.

In December 1968, he was appointed Chief Engineering Test Pilot and was responsible for all flying activity associated with Engineering Flight Tests in both military and commercial programs including F-104, S3, P3 Orion, a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and the L-1011.

In late 1973, Woodman was appointed Division Manager in charge of Commercial Operations which included Engineering Flight Test, Production Flight Test and Customer Training for the L-1011 TriStar. He flew the L-1011 around the world twice, demonstrating it to almost every major airline in the world. Due to its reliability, the wide-bodied L-1011 became a favourite with pilots.

In 1976 he was promoted to Director of Flying, Commercial Programs and Customer Requirements for Lockheed. He retired in 1982.

Woodman flew over 60 types of aircraft, had over 10,000 hours of flight time and 37 continuous years of flying. He was a Member of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute and a Fellow and President-Elect in 1985 of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He died at Palmdale, California on May 16, 1987.

Jack Fraser Woodman was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1995 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.