The Avro Family

Johan A. Wassenarr - Born: August 21st, 1931 at Pilgrims Rest, South Africa - Aerodynamic test engineer (jet engine development testing) with Orenda Engines Limed (Nobel, Ontario) 1954-1956 and Aerodynamicist/thermodynamicist (Aircraft wind tunnel testing, aircraft environment control systems development with Avro Aircraft Ldt. (Malton, Ontario) 1956-1957

The following is information is from Johan:

My first job when I arrived in Canada from South Africa, where I had graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Witwatresrand, was with Orenda Engines at its test facility in Nobel, Ontario. After an initiating spate of calibrating aerodynamic probes used in compressor component testing, my test rig was contracted out to Desmond Earl and John Frost of A.V. Roe Canada Ltd. for the development testing of thrust nozzles for a secret USAF project. After a summer of intense testing I received permission to transfer to Malton where I was located in the "Schaeffer Building", across the street from A.V. Roe and adjacent to Orenda Engines. From that base I conducted all the wind tunnel testing on Project 1794. We built our own ejector pump wind tunnel, which could only be used after the day shift because of the compressed air that it used. Once we had enough data to believe that we knew what was going on, a large half plane model was built and we went down to Wright Patterson AFB to test our Flying Saucer in the 20 foot subsonic tunnel and then later to the Naval Supersonic Lab at MIT for additional testing.
I subsequently transferred to A.V. Roe proper to work under Frank Brame on the environmental control system of the CF105 Arrow. My immediate boss was George Shaw, a lovely person. We struggled with stability problems in the system to be cleared for first flight with Jan Zurakovsky at the helm. Once we had a tic toc black box that kept the system stable, courtesy AiResearch, we were all immersed in the preflight testing of Arrow #1.
I left Avro before the Arrow had its maiden flight to manage the Montreal office of the Garrett Corporation where my world revolved around Canadair. I later transferred to the company's HQ in Los Angeles.