Ruby MacDonald headed for Aviation Wall of Fame
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/07/2025 (249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Brandon Municipal Airport is set to honour the career and impact of an influential woman pilot.
Ruby MacDonald was one of the first woman pilots in Brandon when she earned her pilot’s licence in 1960. The airport is honouring her on its Aviation Wall of Fame next month.
“This is a great opportunity for us to show the impact that women have had in aviation,” said Brandon Municipal Airport manager Greg Brown. “Ruby was one of the first ladies from the Brandon Flying Club that got their pilot’s licence. It was significant.”
Ruby MacDonald
She will be added to the wall on Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. at the Brandon Terminal.
MacDonald, along with four friends who were also women, received their licences at the same time and then recruited other women to get their licences.
She was the first woman at the club to earn her multi-engine rating, which allowed her to pilot a twin-engine Cessna 310. MacDonald later served as the Canadian governor for the Ninety-Nines, an international all-women’s flying group.
“The Ninety-Nines, you can still see the traces of their legacy at the Brandon airport,” Brown said.
“Probably the most prominent projects that you can see that they did was the jet monument that sits on the corner of Highway 10 and Sandison Road. That was a 1970s Manitoba Centennial project that was undertaken by the Ninety-Nines and if you look at the nose of the plane, it has 99s on it.”
Brown said MacDonald brought Brandon to the forefront in aviation.
“Her role in aviation was significant, and her role in Brandon aviation was significant,” he said. “I mean, it really put Brandon on not only the national stage, but even an international stage.”
While MacDonald served as the Ninety-Nines’ governor for Canada, she met with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to discuss women in aviation.
“Ruby MacDonald was a large part of not only the Ninety-Nines in Brandon, but the Ninety-Nines in Canada,” added Brown. “We want to be able to honour that.”
The Ninety-Nines Brandon chapter closed in the 1970s, but there are still many across Canada and the world.
MacDonald was born in Limerick, Sask., in 1918, and survived the Spanish flu that year, which left her with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to her biography. She met her husband, Jim, and the family moved to Brandon because of work in 1947.
Jim soon joined the flying club, which Ruby became interested in.
MacDonald also served as the president of the local and Manitoba sections of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire and volunteered at the Brandon Mental Hospital.
MacDonald passed away in Brandon in 2004 at age 86.
She will be the third person on the airport’s Aviation Wall of Fame, which was set up in 2023. The other members are Ed McGill and Jim Wall.
The ceremony will include a presentation about MacDonald and her accomplishments.
» alambert@brandonsun.com