George Bayliss Lothian George Bayliss Lothian George Bayliss Lothian was born November 20, 1909 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was one of the first pilots of Trans-Canada Air Lines in 1937, which later became Air Canada. He died February 13, 2000. George Lothian was the first Canadian pilot to log 100 aircraft crossings of the North Atlantic and set the trans-Atlantic crossing speed record three times. When he retired from Air Canada in 1968 he had logged over 21,000 as pilot in command of many different piston and jet transport aircraft. He reluctantly gave flight instruction in the Vickers Viscount turboprop airliner
Three-surface aircraft canard foreplanes flew in 1985 and derivatives of this design became the only military types to enter production. Also in 1979, Piaggio began design studies on a three-surface civil twin turboprop which, in collaboration with Learjet, would emerge as the Piaggio P.180 Avanti. This type first flew in 1986 and entered service in 1990, with production continuing today. In the Avanti, the three-surface configuration is claimed to significantly reduce wing size, weight and drag compared to the conventional equivalent. Two experimental aircraft adopting this configuration were subsequently built by Scaled Composites under the lead of Burt Rutan and flown in