Robert Wong at Toronto Island Airport, 1946. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library.
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Resource ID
8413
Access
Open
Credit Line
Toronto Public Library
Date of Creation
1946
Keywords
Program Category
Rights
Public Domain
Caption
Robert Wong at Toronto Island Airport, 1946. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library.
Description
The first plane landed at what is now known as Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport in 1939. Today, it is the ninth-largest airport in the county; 2.8 million people landed on its runways in 2019. Two notable pilots in the history of this airport were brothers Robert and Tommy Wong. Born in British Columbia, the brothers became passionate about flying early in life. Robert Wong graduated from the Parks Air College in Missouri and went on to train pilots during WWII. However, the Wong brothers faced significant discrimination because their parents had been born in China. Initially, neither brother was allowed to serve in the Canadian forces during WWII. Only later in the war were these rules loosened, and Tommy Wong was able to enlist. Robert and Tommy Wong later operated the Central Airways flight school out of the Toronto Island Airport, which became Canada’s largest flight school in the 1950s.