Congratulations to the local airport on its master plan. It is exciting to think of the possibilities that having such an airport in town could bring. In their honour, we are sharing a photo of the first female manager of the Niagara District Airport: Blanche Quinn.

In 1960, Blanche started working at the flight desk, though she knew very little about flying. But that didn’t last long. Back then, there were no control towers or equipment. She had to learn to calculate the wind speed based on how straight the flag would fly. If she could see the crane over by the Port Weller Dry Docks, then she knew there were three miles of visibility, and that was good for biennial flight review flying. One of Blanche’s career highlights was accomplishing a solo flight. She spent 28 years of her life working with the Niagara Airport Commission and in 1965/66, she became manager of the Flying Club and then worked full-time for the airport commission. She eventually became the first female manager. In 1988, she retired from the airport. We think she would be quite proud to see how far it has come today.