John Aiken joined the RCAF straight from high school in 1960. Once he was wearing blue and part of the Regular Officer Training Plan, he began his engineering degree at the University of Western Ontario. After graduating, he attended flight school gaining a much-coveted set of RCAF pilot’s wings in 1965.
His flying career began with the mighty Century Series McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo all-weather fighter-interceptor at CFB Bagotville. After five years in the front seat of the Voodoo and acquiring an engineering degree he was well qualified for flight test. In 1971 he graduated from the United States Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at legendary Edwards AFB in California. He was immediately posted to the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta. There he gained test experience on such varied fixed-wing aircraft as the CF-5 Freedom Fighter, CT-33 Silver Star, CF-104 Starfighter and the DHC-5 Buffalo.
From Cold Lake he returned to Edwards and the Mojave Desert for nearly four years as an exchange pilot, test flying Freedom Fighter variants, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly and the Northrop T-38 Talon. Taking his growing test experience with him back to AETE, John then headed the Canadian Forces New Fighter Aircraft (NFA) Flight Evaluation team which led to Canada choosing the CF-18 Hornet to replace Voodoos and Starfighters. Once the Hornet was selected, John joined the CF-18 Project Office at the McDonnell Douglas factory in St. Louis. Back at Edwards during the NFA days he had flown the ground-breaking Northrop YF-17 Cobra, the progenitor of the Hornet which he helped choose for Canada.
In 1982, he left the Air Force to join the National Research Council’s Flight Research Laboratory as a test pilot. Flying a wide range of research programs from Zero Gravity to Cloud Physics to Magnetometer studies, he rose to head flight operations at the prestigious organization by 1993.
John retired from NRC in 2007 and now heads the Restoration Team working to bring Vintage Wings of Canada’s Hawker Hurricane XII back to flying status. His more than 10,500 flight hours, text experience and management skills make him the perfect pilot to fly and manage the stewardship of our priceless aircraft. John is presently working up currency on the Tiger Moth, Spitfire and Hurricane.