Wilbert George Melvin Knox

Wilbert George Melvin (Mel) Knox was born in Howich, Ontario, on March 12, 1911. As a child he moved with his family to Tuxford, Saskatchewan, where he was educated. In 1929 he gained his Private Pilot's Licence at the nearby Moose Jaw Flying Club, and eventually joined Prairie Airways as a commercial pilot, barnstorming throughout Saskatchewan and Manitoba. During this period he also qualified for his Air Engineer's Licence and Instructor's Rating. He graduated from a specialized course given by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for civilians after the outbreak of World War II, and he returned to work at the Moose Jaw Flying Club training student pilots for the RCAF .

In 1941 he began instructing at No. 3 Air Observer School. The following year he re-joined Prairie Airways flying the Regina, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and North Battleford routes in Saskatchewan until Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPA) absorbed Prairie Airways in 1942. When he was transferred to Edmonton, Alberta, he gained his first northern flying experience flying into northern British Columbia and the Yukon. The next year he was moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and flew the Yukon to Alaska route until he was transferred to Regina as Flight Superintendent in 1947.

When CPA designed its Asian routes in 1949, Knox was one of nine captains to proceed on the first overseas survey flight to Shanghai, China, by way of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The initial flight took 14 days, in an unpressurized Canadair North Star aircraft. For the first time, Canada and the Orient were linked by commercial transport, as envisioned by CPA's president, Grant McConachie. Knox operated two additional charter flights to Hong Kong via Tokyo, Japan, before regular service began in 1949.

He became captain on the South Pacific Ocean routes to Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. In 1958 he was named Check Pilot for all overseas routes, testing the competency of the flight crews. In this role he flew to Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Holland.

Knox was named Chief Pilot Overseas in 1968, attesting to his outstanding abilities, and when the technology was created for the Inertial Navigation System (INS), he was chosen as one of its flying e valuators. This equipment, manufactured by the same company which was responsible for the navigation equipment that accurately guided the astronauts to the moon and back, displayed the aircraft's present position (latitude and longitude), the distance to the destination, the course to fly to reach that destination, and other data. Upon Knox's recommendation, the Carousel IV INS was adopted by CPA, and he became responsible for operational and training procedures, pilot qualification flights and the composition of flight manuals. On March 21, 1971, he captained the first flight without a navigator, using the INS, from Vancouver to Hawaii.

As an airline captain he flew all of CPA's routes to five continents. As Pilot-In-Command during 43 years of flight, he logged 26,000 hours in 28 aircraft types for a distance of 7,000,000 miles (11,265,000 km), equal to circling the globe 280 times at the equator, without injury to passenger or crew. Included in this mileage are 204 flights across the Pacific Ocean, 84 flights across the Atlantic Ocean and 56 flights across the Arctic Ocean between Vancouver and Amsterdam, Holland.

On retirement from CPA in 1971, Knox joined the Ministry of Transport at Vancouver, as an air carrier inspector for the Douglas DC-8 and DC-9 aircraft. Knox died in Vancouver, British Columbia, on November 13, 1996.

When Mel Knox began flying in 1929, he flew a one-passenger Gipsy Moth with a gross weight of 1,800 lbs (816 kg) and top speed of 80 miles-per-hour (128 km/h). His sole navigation equipment was a compass. Forty-two years later, on his final flight, he commanded a 240-passenger DC-8 jet with gross weight of 35,000 lbs (161,000 kg), and cruising speed of 580 mph (930 km/h). Its control panels included the sophisticated Inertial Navigation System equipment.

Wilbert George Melvin (Mel) Knox was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.