ROGER LOVEWELL SMITH was the son of STEWART CURTIS SMITH and MARY "MOLLY" WELLMAN LOVELL. From website: http://www.tomifobia.com/mahoney/captain_rogersmith.shtml Posted 12.01.03 Fool's Hollow, Quebec JOHN MAHONEY Pioneer aviator inducted posthumously into Quebec Air and Space Museum Hall of Fame Roger Smith was born to fly. His life-long love affair with airplanes began in 1928 when he was 15 and ended only last August when he died at age 90 -- just three months before he was inducted into the Quebec Air and Space Museum Hall of Fame. Sadly, he died of pneumonia on August 3 before learning officially that he, along with eleven other flying pioneers, would be inducted into the Hall of Fame on November 26. Roger Lovewell Smith was born a fifth-generation Canadian in Coaticook, Quebec, in 1912 and he and aviation grew up together. His career began as a teenaged mechanic for Continental Aero Corporation at St. Hubert Airport, outside of Montreal. He soloed in an open-cockpit bi-plane when he was just sixteen. After that, he did it all: Barnstorming at county fairs, bush pilot in northern Canada, operating his own flying company, commercial airlines captain. In WWII he flew the hazardous trans-Atlantic route for the Canadian Government's non-commercial air service. Barnstorming days Here are some of the other highlights in the distinguished flying career of this Canadian aviation pioneer: Buys first aircraft -- a Travel Air E-4000 bi-plane -- at age 18 on May 10, 1931. Barnstorming days At age 19, on July 18, 1932, he becomes the youngest licensed commercial pilot in Canada. Establishes the 'Roger L. Smith Air Service.' Motto: 'Passenger flights anywhere.' Parachute jumpers, anglers, country fair flights at $2 per head. He does it all, mostly in Quebec and Ontario. 1934: Awarded his Air Engineer's Certificate. He and brother Wellman begin rebuild of four-passenger Curtiss Robin mono-plane. 1935: Pioneering bush-piloting in northern Quebec. 1936: Buys Waco Cabin bi-plane. Flys the bush through 1938. 1939: Recruited by Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) from his piloting job with Montreal's Dominion Skyways. 1940: First Officer, then Captain for TCA. Begins training RCAF and USAAF pilots as part of war effort. 1941: Pilot-in-command of Lockheed Electra 14 on the historic flight between Moncton and Halifax that linked Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic, thus establishing a truly national trans-continental air service. War Years: Flies the Canada-UK route for the non-commercial Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service. 1947: Flies North Stars, Super Constellations, and DC-8s for TCA on regular commercial domestic and international flights. 1961: Sets world trans-Atlantlic speed record between Winnipeg and Prestwick, Scotland in a DC-8 jet. Six hours, 54 minutes -- he shaved an hour off the existing record. 1971: Retires from Air Canada after 33 years of service which saw more than 1000 Atlantic crossings and 24,000 hours in the air -- mostly as a pilot-in-command. But Captain Roger Smith was not one to let it stop there. After retiring with Catherine, his wife of 57 years, he owned and restored several aircraft: A Cesna 140, a Piper Cub, and a SeeBee Amphibious. In 1999, at age 87, he piloted a Stearman PT17 in the company of one of his three sons. Roger Smith first saw a photograph of an airplane in 1925, when he was 13. The story was about Charles Lindbergh. And he fell in love with the idea of flying. At the end of his life he had put in more than seven decades in the pilot's seat and accrued more than 27,000 flight hours in aircraft ranging from open cockpit bi-planes, bush planes in the frozen North, to huge ocean and continent-hopping commercial jets. His was a love affair that didn't end with his death -- it lives on in the history of Canadian aviation. =============== Website: http://aerovision.org/aerovision.org%5Fnon%5Fssl/pantheon/inductees.htm The Québec Air and Space Hall of Fame Roger L. Smith (1912-2003) Native of Coaticook in the Eastern Townships, Roger Smith was only 15 years old when he began as an apprentice mechanic at Saint-Hubert for Continental Aero Corporation, under Hervé St-Martin. It was in 1928, the same year of the inauguration of the airport. In exchange for his work, Smith was able to learn to fly, getting some experience next to more experienced airmen such St-Martin, Roméo Vachon, Lee Mackay, Stuart Graham, Hervé Simoneau and Walter Leavens. At the age of 19, Roger Smith became presumably the youngest Canadian airman to obtain a commercial pilot license, already operating his own air service: Roger L. Smith Air Service. At the helm of a small Travel Air 4000 biplane, the young man criss-crossed the country selling coupons which offered aircraft flights for $2. Parachute jumps during air meets and the transport of fishermen to the North also counted among the first activities of the young airman. Having piloted in the 30’s for McKay Exploration Co, St-Martin Air Transport in Saint-Félicien and Dominion Skyways in Rouyn, Smith was hired in 1939 by TCA (Trans-Canada Air Lines, now Air Canada), becoming captain after only 9 months. On April 16th, 1941, he piloted the final segment (Moncton-Halifax) during the inauguration in a Lockheed 14 Electra of the Trans-Canada service of TCA connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic. During the war, Smith was also affected to the transatlantic transport service, piloting along with George Lothian, four-engined Lancastrian aircraft (Lancaster bombers modified for the transport of passengers towards Europe). Inaugurating several new lines during his long career, Roger Smith piloted more than 50 types of aircraft, from the canvas biplane to the DC8 jet, by way of the Super Constellation. He retired from Air Canada in 1971, adding up credibly more than 1,000 crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. He continued to pilot up to an advanced age, reaching the tremendous total of 27 000 hours of flight, which is the equivalent of more than 3 years in the air ! Inducted November 26, 2003. ======================