Sydney "Syd" Hutnick

Sydney was born March 19, 1914 in Windsor Ontario.  He began flying lessons in lieu of pay with the Border Cities Flying Club and by 1935 had his private, commercial and air engineer's license.

Prior to WW2 he worked for Fleet Aircraft, Fort Erie Ontario , in charge of all of the work on the prototype Fleet Fort except for the sheet metal work.  At the outbreak of WW2 he became Chief Air Engineer at #7 EFTS in Windsor Ontario.  He desperately wanted to join the RCAF but was denied until 1943 when there was a suitable replacement for him.  He was stationed in England but only flew one operational mission as he was used as an instuctor on the Lancaster Bombers.

After the war , he returned to Canada and started his own aircraft repair business in Windsor and began studies in aeronautical engineering at Wayne University in Michigan.

In 1947, he began working for the Ontario Provincial Air Service, now Ministry of Natural Resources, first as an engineer and then as a pilot of Norseman CF-OBH which he affectionately called "Old Buggerlugs Hutnick".  He continued his education at Wayne during the winter months and was involved with the Air Cadets in Sault Ste Marie.

While working for the Air Service he designed "the aerial estimater" to measure the size of a forest fire from the air, all snow condition skis that are still in use today and did work on waterbombing development.

Tragically he was killed when his aircraft went down with 5 men onboard on August 30, 1950 just south of Temagami Ontario.  Syd left a wife Florence, 3 year old son Bryan and daughter, Peggy age 8.