The history of RAA / ACT
(thus far!)
For those of us so smitten with the world of aviation and aerospace that we decided to devote our personal and professional lives to this calling, I would like to share with you the origins and history of Renaissance Aeronautics Associates Inc. and ACT – Advanced Composites Training.
It’s a love story, full of the great feelings of both personal and corporate success and fraught with the horrors of financial stress, fear of failure and difficult human relationships. This is a story that started in my earliest childhood memories, so I will begin this blog at the very beginning of my fascination with all things that can fly above and beyond the surface of the Earth.
My Father served in the RCAF 427 Sqn. during WWII, stationed at RAF Leeming England, No. 6 Bomber group. My first possessions in life were a diaper and a plastic Lancaster model to play with. Our family doctor was a private pilot and my first memories of flight were sitting on my Dad’s knee and holding the yoke on an old Stinson.
I clearly remember May 5th, 1961 at 14:34:13 UTC, standing in front of the clock in my kindergarten class. When asked by the teacher why I was staring at the clock I answered “they’re sending a rocket man into space”! It was the first flight of Alan Sheppard, the first American astronaut. And so it began, my love of all things air & space.
I wanted to fly but I didn’t want to ‘have’ to fly, not as a professional pilot anyway. I was far more interested in what made the ‘spinny thing’ keep turning at the front end of the Cessna. I found out on one flight what happens when it stops. Deciding to become an AME – Aircraft Maintenance Engineer it was off to college and the beginning of my career. NEXT – All things spinning, both vertical & horizontal.
Wilson J. Boynton, CET
President