Dr. Philip Lapp
Image Credit: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/canadian-space-pioneer-philip-lapp-dies-at-85-1.1472906
Phil Lapp was born in Toronto and obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics at the University of Toronto 1950, then travelled to Boston to obtain his Master’s and Doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lapp enrolled in a new MIT graduate program in instrumentation which involved studies in five departments: aeronautical, electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as physics and mathematics. His PhD thesis on long range ballistic missiles trajectories and guidance systems was classified “Secret” by the U.S. government and never published. In 1954, Lapp was hired by the Guided Missile Division of de Havilland Canada in 1954 which won contract to design systems for air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles being developed for the RCAF and the Royal Canadian Navy.
In 1958, Lapp was a founding member and first president of the Canadian Astronautics Society (which later merged with the Canadian Aeronautical Institute). Lapp played a leading role in Special Products winning the contract to build the Alouette 1 and design its STEM antennas. He coauthored the famous “Chapman Report” in 1967 that laid out the groundwork for Canada’s space program for the next 20 years.
Lapp was a cofounder of SPAR Aerospace Products Ltd. and served as Senior Vice President when the company went public in 1968. He left SPAR as a full-time employee in 1969 to establish his own consulting company Philip A. Lapp Ltd. but remained as a member of SPAR’s Board of Directors from more than 30 years until the company was dissolved in 2000.
– 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.
