John Hamilton Parkin

Parkin, John Hamilton

John Hamilton Parkin, aeronautical engineer (b at Toronto 27 Sept 1891; d at Ottawa 14 Nov 1981). After graduating in engineering from University of Toronto, Parkin joined the faculty and worked during WWI on explosives production and aviation under T.R. Loudon. In 1917 he built a wind tunnel at U of T where models were tested for the Vickers flying boats, the first commercial aircraft designed in Canada, built at Montréal in the 1920s. Parkin joined the NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL staff in 1929 and was director of mechanical engineering 1936-57. The Depression largely stifled the Canadian aviation industry, but Parkin wrote in that period a seminal paper on transatlantic airliners. During WWII Parkin's NRC staff provided technical support to new crown corporations building British aircraft and engines, began jet engine design in 1944, and perfected the system of keeping ice off aircraft propellors that was adopted throughout the world in 1945. Their work was completely reorganized in the postwar years to support the AVRO and DE HAVILLAND companies' design and production of aircraft. Parkin also laid the foundations of the National Aeronautical Museum (now National Aviation Museum) and wrote extensively on the early history of Canadian aviation, notably Bell and Baldwin (1964).