1989 was the 40th anniversary of UTIAS and one of the ways that UTIAS celebrated was by opening “the new wing”, an appellation that is still used to this day! Another part of the 40th celebration was that Professor Bernard (Ben) Etkin was asked to deliver the G.N. Patterson Lecture. This choice of speaker was unusual because, as Professor Etkin prefaced his lecture, “The Patterson Lecture is supposed to be given by an alumnus of the Institute [one at least 25 years on from receiving their PhD]. Since I am not, strictly speaking, a graduate of the institute, I really shouldn't be here at all. On the other hand, this isn't a usual Patterson lecture either, as I won't be talking about my own work, and it isn't even a scientific lecture.” Rather, Prof. Etkin was there to tell the Story of UTIAS.

Etkin had been part of the institute from the beginning, so his lecture is rich in information, and it will be made available soon for your perusal. However, for our purposes today, we will look at a few examples Prof. Etkin gave of the “enterprising propensity for practical jokes” that students had demonstrated over the years (the first of which we talked about in our last email):

“The most famous of these episodes is the time Jerry Bull, back when the laboratory was in the electrical building on campus, punched a hole through the wall of Patterson's office on a weekend to make room for his apparatus.

“Another enterprising student was Mike Parrag. Not only did he arrange sleeping quarters for himself in the loft of the old building on Sheppard Ave (which went undiscovered for a long time) – but he pulled off an incredible feat of acquisition. His graduate work was to be on flight simulation, so he went to the RCAF, and on behalf of the University of Toronto, negotiated the transfer of a surplus CF100 flight simulator. It was flown back from Germany in a Hercules transport. One day a huge tractor trailer, filled with this flight simulator, turns up at the door of the subsonic wind tunnel, and the driver wants to know where to unload it! Luckily, we had recently vacated the old shop space on the Sheppard Ave site and were able to reassemble the simulator there.

“The sense of humor has not diminished among our students. I recently found this flow sheet on a student's desk. It shows a very pragmatic approach to how to cope with experimental equipment that malfunctions.”

You never know when this advice might come in handy!

Interesting note: Prof. Etkin published the textbook Dynamics of Flight: Stability and Control in 1959 and thought that it would be in use for about 5 years. But the use of this textbook did not wane, so he published a 2nd edition in 1982.

Surprise – the textbook continued to do well, so in 1996 Etkin, joined by UTIAS Professor Lloyd Reid, updated and published a 3rd edition.

Dynamics of Flight: Stability and Control has been translated into many different languages and is still used worldwide.