Orenda engine on display at Carlton University
Image Credit: Orenda Engines Wikipedia
As Manager and Chief Engineer of the Gas Turbine Division of Avro, Paul Dilworth led the development of the Orenda jet engine in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Paul Dilworth was born on January 31, 1915, in Toronto, Ontario and graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto. After graduation he joined the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa where he was assigned to work on aero-engine technology. During the war Canada was 100 percent dependent on the United Kingdom and the United States for aircraft engines.
Dilworth and an NRC colleague were tasked with preparing a comprehensive report on UK jet engine technology and how Canada could accelerate wartime developments. What became known as the Banks Report recommended Canada establish a cold weather test facility for testing jet engines in Winnipeg and a jet engine research and development organization. Paul Dilworth was appointed the manager of Canada’s first engine test facility in Winnipeg in late 1943 and ran the facility on behalf of the NRC and later Turbo Research until it closed after the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.
A.V. Roe Canada (Avro) bought Turbo Research in 1946 and Dilworth was appointed Manager and Chief Engineer of the Gas Turbine Division of Avro, which later became Orenda Engines Ltd. The small engineering team studied various centrifugal and axial flow engine designs before designing the axial flow Chinook, research engine followed by the Orenda engine to power the Avro CF-100 and Canadair Sabre. Dilworth left Avro in 1952 to establish an engineering consulting firm later called Dilworth, Secord, Meagher and Associates Ltd. (DSMA) in Toronto that worked on a wide range of aerospace, engineering and nuclear power and developed a nuclear reactor refuelling robot that replaced spent fuel rods in the reactor core. This robotic arm was similar to what NASA was seeking for a new space craft and SPAR, CAE and DSMA teamed up to design and build the Canadarm which became Canada’s contribution to the Space Shuttle program.
– Kenneth Swartz
Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working together on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.