Washington, D.C., Oct. 28 – Over the vast rugged, isolated terrain of Edwards Air Force Base, a lone Canadian Forces pilot provides the critical link between the development and the use of untried and untested aerial operation systems. In a remote area of California, Major Desmond Brophy, a native of Regina, Saskatchewan, encounters punishing 100-degree heat in the summer, freezing temperatures in the winter, and winds of 40 miles-per-hour (60 kilometers-per-hour) on a daily basis. Despite the harsh environment he works in, it is clear that Major Brophy loves his job.
With a father who was a civil aviation flight inspector for Canada’s Ministry of Transport and a mother who was a passenger agent for Air Canada, flying is in Major Brophy’s blood.
“Flying has always been a part of my life and I love everything about airplanes, the challenge of it, the mystique of it, it’s always what I wanted to do,” says Major Brophy, a pilot with the Canadian Forces for 15 years, though he has been flying for 20.
After joining the Canadian Forces in 1992, Major Brophy completed primary flight training on the T-67C Firefly, earned a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary, and earned his pilot wings after completing basic and advanced training on the CT-114 Tutor jet. Upon graduation, he was selected as a jet instructor pilot on the CT-114 and became the Senior Academic Instructor at 2 Canadian Forces Flight Training School in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan.
He was selected for CF-18 Hornet fighter training in 2000 and was nearly done with this gruelling course on September 11, 2001. Major Brophy notes that the attacks of that day really changed what the Canadian Forces were doing on operational squadrons.
“The majority of our focus was for an external threat and deploying aircraft out of country as a rapid reaction force,” Major Brophy says. “After September 11, a significant amount of our attention was focused on the domestic threat and dealing with domestic threats against security.”
As Canada focused more on domestic threats, the Canadian Forces increased training and deploying within Canada, to the Arctic, over cities, and with NORAD partners. Six years later, Major Brophy recalls that though “[September 11] initially affected the kind of training we were doing, because we were focusing on the domestic threat, and it affected the kinds of missions we were flying,” an equilibrium now exists between concentrating on domestic security and fulfilling NATO obligations as an expeditionary rapid reaction force.
While he has never seen combat, Major Brophy remembers his time as a CF-18 combat-ready pilot fondly; “We were on guard, on alert over Canadian cities and Canadian airspace so the average Canadian could go about their daily life and not worry because we were on alert and we were watching. It was very, very satisfying.”
In 2005, Major Brophy was selected for training as an experimental test pilot and graduated from the prestigious United States Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent, Maryland, in 2006, after test flying more than 20 aircraft types. When asked what his favourite plane was, Major Brophy answered the MiG-15 Soviet jetfighter, for it is “an exotic plane with some dangerous, tricky flying qualities.” He also mentioned that the Bellanca Citabria will always have a special place in his heart since it is the plane he learned to fly on and it reminds him of his Saskatchewan roots.
Since graduating from the USN Test Pilot School, Major Brophy has been stationed at Edwards Air Force Base on an exchange with the U.S. Air Force as an experimental test pilot on the F-16 Falcon. Though there are elevated risks associated with flying untested systems, Major Brophy enjoys his job claiming, “It is the perfect fusion of my two passions – flying and engineering / mathematics.”
As a pilot, Major Brophy knows how frustrating it can be when operating systems malfunction. He and the other test pilots at Edwards stress new motors and operating systems to make sure the kinks are out of the systems. If major changes are needed, the test pilots get involved with the development process by determining what those changes should be.
Besides being at the forefront of technology, Major Brophy loves being surrounded by the history of the base. Edwards AFB is where the X-15 first flew, the Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier, and the Space Shuttle Columbia landed after becoming the first shuttle launched into orbit.
Major Desmond Brophy is stationed at Edwards Air Force Base until July 2009. He and his wife are expecting their first child in December.
by Bailey Cahall, Military Public Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
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