"For over sixty years the
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology has offered courses applicable
to the work of the air engineer and has contributed both provincially
and nationally to the progress of aviation in Canada."
- Belt of Orion Award citation, 1990
As
early as 1922, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, formerly
Calgary Institute of Technology and Art, was offering courses which were
applicable to the work of the air engineer. This included electrical
engineering, motor mechanics, battery and ignition, armature winding and
engineering mechanics. Welding and radio were added in 1927.
The Institute's entry into a
specific aviation field was casual, incidental, almost accidental when it
took on the responsibility of offering ground school courses for the
student pilots of the Calgary Air Club. The Institute continued to teach
aeronautics up to the beginning of world War II. By 1931 the Ground
Courses in Aviation, as they were designated, were offered as both day and
evening classes. In 1935, there were 45 enrollees in the day classes.
With the outbreak of World War
II, the Institute ceased to teach courses for future pilots and turned its
attention to those whose duty it was to keep the aircraft in the air. The
annual Report of the Alberta Department of Education indicates the
registrations in various air engineering categories as follows: Intake
No. 1 - 32 Fitters, Intake No. 2 - 21 Fitters, 14 Riggers, 13
Electricians, 23 Wireless Operators/Mechanics and Intake No. 3 - 23
Fitters, 18 Riggers, 40 Wireless Operators/Mechanics. These three intakes followed one another at seventeen
week intervals.
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Aircraft Engineers are as essential to the aviation
industry as pilots, yet because the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer's
work, in comparison to the pilot's, is unglamorous, its importance is
often overlooked, even in the world of aviation itself. Pilots whose
stories appear on previous pages admit freely their total reliance on
their air engineers for the air worthiness of their machines.
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The training courses continued throughout the war,
with most of the graduates entering the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)
to become air engine mechanics, air frame mechanics or wireless
operators. That their initial intake training was wholly adequate is
indicated by the fact that two of the Institute's graduates led their
intakes group in air engine mechanics at the RCAF No. 1 Wireless School
in Montreal, Quebec.
During the war the Institute operated under the most
trying of circumstances, in the grandstand at the exhibition grounds, as
the RCAF had pre-empted their building for No. 4 Wireless School. At the
end of the war they were able to move back to their own home. That year
the federal Department of Transport authorized the Institute to make
repairs to any aircraft, including the engines, carrying commercial or
private certification.
In 1947 SAIT began to teach the final year of a
three-year course leading to the examination of Associated Fellow of the
Royal Aeronautical Association. The 1989 course catalogue gave the
following information regarding the programs;
Aeronautical Engineering Technology:
Most courses focus on theoretical work. After
completing the second year, students are eligible to receive a diploma
in Mechanical Engineering Technology (Aeronautics). The third year
qualifies graduates for the diploma in AET.
Graduates have successfully taken their places in
engineering teams within the areas of aircraft design, manufacturing and
operations.
Aircraft Maintenance
An Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Technologist is
trained to maintain aircraft and components, whether structural,
mechanical, or electrical. Graduates find work in all areas of the
aviation industry, including fixed wing aircraft, rotary wing aircraft,
general aviation, corporate aviation, engine and component overhaul
facilities and heavy maintenance.
Grade XII standing is required for admission into
either program.
Today, Aeronautical Engineering graduates of SAIT are
active in the aviation industry not only in Alberta, but across Canada
and beyond. In the field of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Technology,
SAIT's two-year program is unexcelled in Canada and unsurpassed
anywhere.
The Belt of Orion Award for Excellence was bestowed
upon the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1990.
Website:
www.sait.ab.ca
