Spar Aerospace founder dies
MONTREAL — Philip Lapp, who helped found SPAR Aerospace, the company that built the first Canadarm, has died at the age of 85.
His wife Colleen Lapp said her husband died in hospital near Toronto Sept. 25 after a long illness.
She described the aeronautical engineer as an accomplished Canadian who touched a lot of people.
“He was just a really bright man, ”sheadded. “But he had a common touch. ... He got along with everyone.”
Lapp’s achievements in space engineering were considerable. He was key in the construction of Alouette — Canada’s first satellite, which led the country to become the third nation in space after the United States and the Soviet Union.
Lapp also helped establish the Canadian Astronautical Society, the predecessor of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute.
Until he became ill, he volunteered his time as a member of the board of the Canadian Air and Space museum in Toronto. Robert Godwin, who served as the museum’s space curator, said Lapp leaves a huge legacy.
“His hand was in so many of these different things that we now attribute to our Canadian air and space program,” Godwin said.
He noted Lapp was the head of mechanical engineering on the Avro Arrow (CF-105)—“a legendary piece of Canadian engineering.” The Avro Arrow was considered the most advanced military aircraft of its time, but the project was cancelled by the Diefenbaker government in February 1959.
Lapp got his start after doing his thesis in the U.S. at MIT on long-range ballistic missiles in the 1950s. He designed the guidance system for one of the first rockets the Americans developed, under the classified Atlas program, and says he returned to Canada “with a lot of space stuff in my head.”
He later worked on the antennae for NASA’s early space capsules. “We didn’t blow that horn loudly,” Lapp said in a 2011 interview with The Canadian Press.
“He was so soft-spoken, did not blow his own horn, but when he spoke people tended to listen because usually what he said was worth hearing,” Godwin said.
Lapp is survived by his wife Colleen, a stepdaughter, and two sons and a daughter from a previous marriage.