Maxwell William Ward

Maxwell William Ward , OC , AOE (born November 22, 1921 in Edmonton , Alberta ) is a Canadian aviation pioneer and founder of the airline Wardair Canada named after him .

Life

Maxwell W. Ward

Maxwell ("Max") W. Ward joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1940 and received his pilot's license on November 18, 1941. In the following years he trained military pilots for war missions in Europe. After the end of World War II , Ward left the RCAF and worked as a bush pilot in northern Canada. In June 1946, he founded the Polaris Charter Company in Yellowknife , which operated transport flights in the Northwest Territories . Since the company had no operating license from the relevant authority Air Transport Board ( ATB ), Ward went into close cooperation with Yellowknife Airways in May 1947 . When this cooperation broke up in October 1949, he returned to Alberta with his family and worked, among other things, as a sales representative and bricklayer until he returned to work as a bush pilot in May 1951.

In July 1952, Max Ward founded Wardair Limited and at the same time applied for a charter license for the company. When it became clear in May 1953 that the ATB would issue an operating license, he acquired a brand new de Havilland Canada DHC-3 , with which Wardair began flight operations on June 3, 1953. Initially, Ward focused on the transportation of people and supplies for the mining industry. From 1962 his company operated international charter flights , which quickly became the most important line of business. On September 18, 1967, he brought Wardair to the stock exchange and thus procured the financial means for further expansion. After the IPO , Ward held 73 percent of the shares and continued to serve as managing director. He campaigned massively for the deregulation of Canadian air traffic and continuously expanded Wardair to become Canada's third largest airline. On April 28, 1989, he sold his company shares to Canadian Airlines International and retired from professional life.

Awards and honors

• Alberta Order of Excellence (1989)
• Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame (1974)
• Canadian Business Hall of Fame (1993)
• Officer of the Order of Canada (1975)
• Order of Icarus (1973)
• Trans-Canada Trophy Winner (1973)
• Honorary doctorates from seven Canadian universities
• The Canadian Airlines has christened its first Boeing 747-400 in November 1990 in the name of Maxwell W. Ward .

Publications

• The Arctic Fox: Bush Pilot of the North Country , with Don C. Braun and John C. Warren. 2000, ISBN 0-595-00329-X .

Web links

• Maxwell William Ward ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Deregulation and the Airline Industry
• Biography (of Maxwell W. Ward)
• Alberta Order of Excellence - Maxwell W. Ward