The University of Toronto by Martin L. Friedland

Author:Martin L. Friedland [Friedland, Martin L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS006000, EDU016000, HIS006020
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2013-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Gordon Patterson became head of aeronautical engineering in 1946. Photograph taken before the move from Downsview airport to the Dufferin Street site in 1959.

An engine test shed at Downsview airport was given by the government, along with $250,000 for renovation costs and $100,000 for expenses for the next three years. (The institute would not move to its present site on Dufferin Street until 1959.) The facility was to be opened officially on September 26, 1950. The minister of defence and other dignitaries were invited to attend. Patterson had developed the supersonic wind tunnel with the help of two graduate students, Irvine Glass, who joined the institute that same year as a research associate and went on to an illustrious career in aerospace studies at the University, and Gerald Bull, who went on to an infamous career – he was assassinated in Brussels in 1990 because of his work on the development of a ‘super gun’ for Saddam Hussein. The night before the opening, however, the supersonic wind tunnel, designed to operate at three times the speed of sound, was still not working. ‘I recall,’ Patterson wrote, ‘that Dean K.F. Tupper dropped into the laboratory that evening to see how matters were proceeding and promptly rolled up his sleeves to help.’ At 3 o’clock on the morning of the opening it finally ‘ran supersonic.’ The next day the tunnel worked, but only after the button was pushed a second time.

The institute was responsible for research, and the department of aeronautical engineering for teaching. Before the establishment of the department, aeronautics was taught as one of the upper year options available to students in the engineering science course (then called engineering physics). Patterson claims that his experience in not being able to combine engineering and physics was in part responsible for the engineering physics course, which had begun in 1933 with 12 students and now, with approximately 500 students, is considered one of the jewels of the engineering faculty. Ben Etkin, later the dean of engineering, had been an early graduate of the course and joined the engineering faculty as a lecturer in 1942. He would be one of many who would enhance the reputation of the institute. Patterson wrote that Etkin’s ‘exceptional versatility in the field of flight dynamics, covering the spectrum from ground cushion vehicles to spacecraft, soon became well known through his two books.’ ‘At first,’ wrote Etkin, ‘graduate students were not assigned to individual supervisors, but somewhat on the principle of a commune, all students were the responsibility of all staff. Morale was high and the atmosphere was creative.’ Research grants were obtained from Canadian and American sources. There was little, if any, discussion of whether engaging in research that was covered by strict rules of secrecy, security clearances, and restrictions on publication was desirable. It seemed natural to continue the type of government-sponsored research work that had been done during the war.

Computer science was another area in which there was substantial government support. In the year following

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