A Century of Flight in Canada

A Century of Flight in Canada has been recognized in a number of ways during 2009 - several involving Wop May...... the Air force painted one of their F-18 “Hornet” Aircraft as the “Century Hornet” - it is a beautiful aircraft as you can see from the photo and flew in air-shows across Canada. The paint job has an unusual feature - in dark blue the names of Canada’s 100 top aviators are painted, including Wilfrid “Wop” Reid May.

Photos used with permission from the photographer.

The Alberta Aviation Museum also remembered some significant historical events during 2009 - they purchased a Kelly-D homebuilt biplane, renamed it the “Spirit of Edmonton”, and recreated a number offlights, including:

• the first prairie airmail from Winnipeg to Edmonton originally flown by C.H. “Punch” Dickins
• the 1929 Mercy Flight from Edmonton to Fort Vermilion by “Wop” May & Vic Horner
• the 1919 Delivery of the Edmonton Journal to Wetaskiwin by “May Airplanes Ltd. as flown by George Gorman.
  

The 1919 flight to Edson taking an Edmonton detective in pursuit of a murderer - see the story of this flight in the section “Manhunt”.

The “Spirit of Edmonton” - photo courtesy of Les Dunford, Westlock News

In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Flight in Canada "Aviation Alberta" was posthumously recognizing "Wop" May by  presenting the "Molly & Jack Reilly Award" in recognition of his significant contributions to Aviation in Alberta. The presentation will be made to Wop's son Denny at the annual conference at Leduc, Alberta on November 6th, 2009.