Thomas Edmund Appleton

Born in England in 1941, Thomas Edmund “Tom” Appleton’s first memory of what became his lifelong love for aviation was watching a flight of three Supermarine Spitfires “growling” through Glasgow’s skies in the late 1940s. His family emigrated to Canada a few years later, arriving at Halifax Pier 21 on New Year’s Day; they recalled the winter train trip from Atlantic Canada to Ottawa, rolling through small Quebec communities in -25C weather, as “straight out of Doctor Zhivago.”

But it was planes rather than trains that continued to capture young Tom’s imagination. Encouraged by his father, Tom’s early interest in aviation led him to join the Air Cadets in Ottawa. His imperfect vision may have precluded qualification for an RCAF Flying Training Scholarship, but it did not stop him earning a pilot’s license. He took lessons at the Ottawa Flying Club in a Fleet 80 “Canuck” and soloed in 1958.

But it was planes rather than trains that continued to capture young Tom’s imagination. Encouraged by his father, Tom’s early interest in aviation led him to join the Air Cadets in Ottawa. His imperfect vision may have precluded qualification for an RCAF Flying Training Scholarship, but it did not stop him earning a pilot’s license. He took lessons at the Ottawa Flying Club in a Fleet 80 “Canuck” and soloed in 1958.

By chance, the Club shared a hangar with Spartan Air Services and Tom jumped at the opportunity to join the company for the summer flying season in 1961. Seated firmly in the right-hand seat of a Beech 18 and Anson V, he helped the pilot navigate across northern Ontario conducting magnetometer surveys. Tom earned his commercial license a few months later and in 1962 he was working full-time with Spartan, flying its newly acquired Piper Azteks on survey work across Ontario’s north and then to Yellowknife and north into the barren lands. Tom remembers this flying as “intensive and demanding,” necessitating concentration to ensure the precision and accuracy demanded of the government contract.

He stayed with Spartan for another two years until, attracted by a chance to fly a more diverse fleet of aircraft – an Aero Commander, a DC-3 and, most intriguing, a PBY-5A Canso – Tom joined Survair Ltd. His work soon took him to South America in the Republic of Suriname, and to Africa in Nigeria under Columbo Plan aid projects for newly independent countries and the Ivory Coast, for the French government – the latter contract saw Tom and Allan MacNutt piloting Canso CG-JJG for nearly seventeen hours from Natal, Brazil to Monrovia, Liberia.

After answering a De Havilland advertisement for a test and demonstration pilot in Canadian Aviation, Tom found himself in an interview with David Fairbanks (CAHF, 2019), then Manager of flight operations at DHC. He was hired and excepting a brief stint in Edmonton as Regional Sales Manager, over the next fifteen years his work saw him flying the Twin Otter, Buffalo, Caribou, and Dash 7 across the globe as a demonstration, instructor, and development test pilot.

Tom has fond memories of his early days with De Havilland, which saw him travel widely. Any given month might begin in Nice, include a stint in Abu Dhabi, and end in Toronto, at De Havilland’s facility at Downsview. His first year with the company included several notable trips, including through the Middle East and Asia. While in Kabul in November he flew Mohammed Zahir Shah, the longest serving and last King of Afghanistan. Later that year and into 1967, Tom trained pilots on Caribou aircraft in Albacete, Spain, a trip that doubled as his honeymoon with his wife Heather, whom he met earlier in England when flying at Farnborough.

In 1973, Tom spent an enjoyable month training aircrew of the Royal Nepal Airlines (Nepal Airlines) on the Twin Otter, including at the Syangboche airstrip. At 12,402 feet high and only 1,312 feet long, the strip is the highest in Nepal and the nearest landing point to Mount Everest and the Everest base camp. As Tom later recalled, “The airline asked me to have a look at it, so I flew in with 5 people on board and minimum fuel. One lands to the northeast, towards Mt. Everest, but the overshot is not possible. The takeoff in the opposite direction is fairly easy, as after lifting off one just falls into the Khumbu valley, about 6 or 7 thousand feet deep. Not surprisingly, the airline agreed with my assessment that it was not a viable operation.” As far as he knows that Twin Otter was the only twin engined aircraft to ever land at Syangboche.

On 16 February 1976, Tom flew a record setting climb in a DHC-5D Buffalo with altitudes recorded at 3,000, 6,000, and 9,000 metres respectively. The flight lasted some 13 minutes from takeoff to touchdown and involved considerable help and planning from Toronto ATC. The climb itself was supervised by Executive Director of the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs Association Bill Paris (CAHF, 2019).

That Tom was flying a Buffalo for this record flight was fitting. A year prior, in the lead up to the maiden flight the new Dash 7, De Havilland’s Chief Test Pilot Bob Fowler (CAHF, 1980) made Tom project pilot on the firm’s Buffalo development project. So began a busy five years of engineering test flying, sales demonstrations, and liaising with customers. Tom’s testing work took him to Bolivia, where he conducted “hot and high” performance evaluations. of the Buffalo, as well as extensive testing of the Dash 7, notably steep approach development which led to construction of London’s LCY downtown airport.

Tom decided to shift his career towards general management in the early 1980s, a decision encouraged by the mentorship of De Havilland’s president John Sandford (CAHF, 2013). Following an Executive MBA at McGill Business Institute in 1981, he was appointed VP Customer Support and given responsibility for the early entry into airline service of the Dash 8. With Boeing’s purchase of De Havilland in 1986, Tom was appointed Vice President of Marketing and Sales and lead the team responsible for early Dash 8 sales.

At the outset of 1991, Tom left De Havilland to join Bombardier and its Canadair Regional Jet Program. There, he faced a new challenge: convincing skeptical airlines of the profitability of small jets. After Bombardier purchased De Havilland in 1992, Tom, now Executive Vice-President of the Regional Jet Division, formed a leading market team that achieved important early sales of CRJ’s to Air Canada and Delta and of the Dash 8 to Taiwan’s Great China Airlines and Japan’s Ryukyu Air Commuter, in addition to Horizon Air of Seattle.

Tom remains justifiably proud that his team effectively created a new airline segment; when the CRJ program eventually concluded in 2021, it had delivered more than 2000 jets. From 1996 to 2003, Tom served as President of Bombardier’s Amphibious Aircraft Division. Like his earlier success with the CRJ, Tom remains proud of the work his team accomplished during this period – selling the firm’s unique CL-415 water bombers in Ontario, Italy, France, Greece, and Croatia, among others.

Throughout his career, Tom Appleton has been recognized by his peers, including his election as Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He was a member of the Society of Experiment Test Pilots, Director of the European Regions Airline Association, among others.

Retirement has not stopped Tom’s involvement in aviation, and he has enjoyed opportunities to consult for many Canadian and overseas clients on a variety of aeronautical files. All the same, Tom is now able to find more time for his hobbies, including vintage sports cars, rallying, touring, and, most importantly for he and his wife Heather, staying close to their four grandchildren.