It’s Official!!
The Niagara Central Airport (Welland) is to be renamed ‘Niagara Central Dorothy Rungeling Airport.
We hope to raise enough money to get the hangar repainted with Dorothy Rungeling’s name this year. Please forward this link to any aviation, historical groups you know of that may be able to help with fund raising.
Please help by donating $20 to this project.
It is the only airport to be officially named after a woman in Canada!
Please see the attached fund raising site. http://www.gofundme.com/snedu7y
For those unfamiliar with Dorothy, she is a Canadian Aviation Pioneer, and a resident of Pelham. She earned her pilot’s licence in 1949, followed by instructor’s certification in 1953, commercial licence in 1954, and Airline Transport Licence in 1958, the first woman in Canada to do so. She was the first woman to solo a helicopter and has published several books.
Dorothy’s first actual flight was in 1948, after which she decided to learn to fly at the Welland Flying Club. She soon acquired her own plane, flew to Cuba and in international air races, competed in and won the Governor General’s Cup at the Toronto Air Show in 1953. In 1956 she was named Canada’s Aviatrix of the Year. She continued to boost aviation, became the Business Manager of the Welland Flying Club, was instrumental in getting the name ‘Welland’ painted on the roof of the old Atlas Steel factory near the airport (a common early practise before instrumentation, to help aviators locate themselves).
Dorothy has been recognized with the Amelia Earnhart Medallion and a Canada Post stamp.
This year Dorothy will turn 104. Her amazing accomplishments and contributions to aviation will once again be honoured with the renaming of the Niagara Central Airport to ‘Niagara Central/Dorothy Rungeling Airport’. This will be the first airport in Canada named for a woman.
We are hoping to raise enough funds to cover legal fees, offset the cost of repainting the hangar, installing new signs on and off site, updating our website, and of course, hosting a grand celebration to unveil the new airport name.
For more info on Dorothy read here…