When a fascination from childhood with machines and engines of all kinds converged with a wonderment over the marvellous possibilities of space, the result was a visionary Canadian professional engineer and executive responsible for that acme of Canadian technology: Canadarm.

John MacNaughton’s reflective demeanour belies a persistent nature that does not accept ‘no’ for an answer. It is this quiet determination, coupled with a talent to envision finished products and programs, that has directed his 42-year career in Canada’s space industry. In fact, these traits that have allowed MacNaughton to build a great and successful career for himself are the very foundation of Canada’s current space program.

Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, MacNaughton studied aeronautical engineering at de Havilland’s Aeronautical Technical School and attended London University’s Hatfield College in the U.K. There, away from his parents’ watchful eyes, he took up a long-time passion: motorcycle racing. Aboard his 350cc Velocette, he careened around corners, face as close to the ground as his feet. This sensation of man and machine working together as parts of the same whole sealed his decision to spend a lifetime with designs and mechanisms that would hurl Canada onto the world stage as a source of the world’s leading space engineers – the smallest country of its kind to enjoy such a reputation.
 

John MacNaughton’s passion for the motorcycle took root while he was attending school in the United Kingdom. There he became fascinated with the sensation of working with a machine that could careen around corners with his face as close to the ground as his feet. Viewed here as a student in the early ’50s, John sits on his 350cc Velocette. [Photo, courtesy Spar Aerospace Limited]

John MacNaughton is one of Spar’s original employees. Spar began as the Special Products and Applied Research Division of de Havilland Aircraft. It had developed a unique product, the STEM antenna, which was used in the early 1960s on Alouette I, Canada’s first scientific satellite. By the time Spar became a separate public company in 1967, STEM represented 40 per cent of the new company’s sales.

From Alouette, STEM ushered Spar – and MacNaughton – into a whole series of space projects and programs: the Manned Space Program that included Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab; additional space science projects in the U.K., the U.S., Japan, France, and Germany that included ISIS, Skylark and Dragon. It also introduced MacNaughton to space scientists at universities around the world.

Through such broad exposure to the business, he developed the team concept of addressing Canadian space projects in a regionally effective manner, bringing together companies and academia. As the founding Chairman of the Aerospace Industry Association of Canada’s (AIAC) Space Committee having to deal with key people in many federal and provincial government departments, he gained considerable insight into the mechanics of government. He went on to develop the AIAC’s policy paper on space which was instrumental in the formulation of the Science and Technology Minister’s space policy of the early 1970s. Among this policy’s recommendations was that Canada consider joining the robotics area of the space shuttle program. And Canadarm was conceived. But a conception is not a birth, and as he began work on the Canadarm program in earnest, MacNaughton realized there was much to be done. He had a vision of space shuttle robotics that could be spun off to operate commercially in other hostile environments: undersea, and in nuclear reactors. No such research was under way in Canada. All of his work on the subject was from ground zero. But through sheer determination, and with the cooperation of key players in the National Research Council and the Department of Supply and Services, he worked with the many levels and organizations within the Canadian, U.S., and European governments to bring the vision to reality. The result was a memorandum of understanding between Canada’s National Research Council and NASA – the original draft of which was penned by MacNaughton himself.

MacNaughton expanded the original rationale for collaborating with the European Space Agency. His plans to gain access to the European market and to its research and development contracts and to forge new industrial links were a prescient view of the global market we live in today.

As the prime architect of Canada’s industrial strategy for extending our domestic space industry, he was a key player in the development of Canada’s various long-term space plans. The first phase of these programs resulted in such world-leading technological breakthroughs as Radarsat, a satellite that can see through clouds and darkness to return accurate images of earth from space, and Canadarm and its offspring: the robotics for the International Space Station. Phase II, now under way, moves these into the next technology generation.
 

John D. MacNaughton breaks ground in 1976 for Spar Aerospace’s new Simulation Facility for the Remote Manipulator Systems Space Division in Mississauga, Ontario. [Photo, courtesy Spar Aerospace Limited]

MacNaughton has spent his life furthering Canada’s technological and business progress, first in the international space industry and later into such other high technology areas as telecommunications. Spellbound by the power that the microprocessor has unleashed on industry and society and aware that not seizing the opportunities it offered was tantamount to corporate suicide, he led Spar through one of the most successful – and dramatic – reinventions in Canadian business. He maintained Spar’s position as Canada’s premier space company, while expanding its commercial business and moving into international communications and software markets. Communications and software now represent 45 per cent of the company’s revenues compared to 5 per cent in 1991. Spar Aerospace has entered new international markets previously untried by members of the Canadian industry; 60 per cent of the company’s revenues are derived outside of North America compared to 25 per cent in 1991. Commercial sales accounted for 56 per cent of 1995 total revenues compared to only 19 per cent in 1991.

His profession, his industry, and his country have recognized MacNaughton for his many contributions and accomplishments. Among the honours bestowed upon him are the Casey Baldwin Award (the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, 1963), Engineering Medal (Professional Engineers of Ontario, 1965), Public Service Medal (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA], 1982), McGregor Award (the Royal Canadian Air Force Association, 1983), the McCurdy Award (Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, 1983), System Professional of the Year (Association of Systems Management, 1983), Thomas W. Eadie Medal (Royal Society of Canada, 1984), Canada’s 125th Anniversary Commemorative Medal, 1993.

As Chairman of the National Quality Institute, John MacNaughton expresses his strong convictions about Canada’s need for international excellence and competitiveness. His position as a Director at Large for Junior Achievement of Canada reflects his commitment to encourage youth and thereby ensuring Canada of high-quality future recruits. He has a strong sense of nationalism and is a member of the Canadian Council for Canadian Unity. He is also a fellow and Past President of the Canadian Aeronautic and Space Institute, a former director and member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association, and past Vice Chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada.

John MacNaughton: a thinker and a doer; a dreamer and a builder.