Imagination leads to
| BY DOROTHY BROTHERTON
career in aviation
A
t age six Gordon Jennens built his fi rst airplane. Today, at 86, his eyes light up as he remembers. “I loved airplanes and I loved making things,” said Jennens. He started with birdhouses and kayaks at age fi ve, but dreamed of airplanes. An engine didn’t matter. He would fl y it with his imagination.
The opportunity came unexpectedly. Gordon had been climbing on the carport rafters, fell and landed on his shoulder. The doctor had to set it three times. Little Gor- don missed his entire Grade One while the shoulder healed. Bored and sitting indoors, he noticed his mother’s ironing board.
“It looked like the fuselage of an airplane.” To keep him busy, his mother let him play with the old ironing board. He gathered bits of scrap wood and metal and worked on the project for months. His plane sported a propeller that really turned. He could crank it, climb into the seat and imagine the wings taking him soaring into the air. Within the boy a love for aircraft was born that never died.
He often biked from his home near Okanagan Lake to the old Rutland airstrip hoping for a chance to fl y with the Barnstormers. “These were fl yers from the First World War. They’d go across Canada and take people for rides. It cost one cent a pound and I weighed 60 pounds,” said Gordon with a chuckle. His pocket quickly produced 60 cents. “The plane had an open cockpit. I had a thrill.”
His dad looked into training opportunities. His dad’s fi shing buddy, Bill Boeing, invited 14-year-old Gordon to Seattle to meet his chief engineer at the Boeing plant. The war speeded things up. At 16 Gordon
plunged into a wartime crash course in aeronautical engineering in California. At graduation he was grabbed by Boeing’s Sea Island operation near Vancouver. Mainly they built PBYs, planes used by every branch of the U.S. military and most allies.
After Pearl Harbor, things really geared up. Jennens and an Australian architect breakfasted one morning with defense department and airplane company offi cials on Lulu Island. They were told to build a new plant--fast. “We went out in the rain at 5 a.m. and staked it out. In 10 days we had it up.” The Lulu Island operation became Canada Pacifi c Airlines and soon employed 2,000 people.
Jennens joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a fl ight engineer. He trained all across Canada. When ready for discharge, he transferred to the British Fleet Air Arm and went overseas.
One evening in England after a social gathering, he escorted home a dishwasher named Sylvia. With no buses running at this late hour, he stuck out his thumb to get back to base. A man driving with only light slits (because of blackouts) pulled over. In the back seat was his daughter, another girl named Sylvia.
Today, the second Sylvia says, “My father never picked up another hitchhiker. We never got rid of this one.” She married Jennens in 1946.
His career brought him back to Kelowna, where he built rowing shells, including those used by the 1952 Canadian Olympic athletes. In retirement with his four children, he built a 60-foot replica Viking ship, which
has been in educational exhibits in 26 Canadian cities and Norway.
Pictures of young Jennens and his ironing board airplane are part of a photo mural by Kelowna Museums on a wall in the departure area at Kelowna Airport to commemorate the one hundredth year of powered fl ight in Canada.
As Jennens looks back over a colourful career, perhaps his smile was never broader than when he built his fi rst airplane from his mother’s ironing board.
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WINTER 2010 9
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Gordon Jennens’ personal collection
Dorothy Brotherton
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