Robert Wong and Chinese student pilots pose in front of an aircraft

Robert Shun Wong stands second from the left in a group of five young Chinese men posing for a photograph in front of an aircraft. The photo is taken at Barker's Air Field, where Wong and his brother Tommy started a flying school in 1945, shortly before a fire destroyed the hangar. They moved the business to Toronto Island Airport the following year operating under the name Central Airways. 

Wong showed a passion for flying from an early age, building model airplanes and taking flying lessons in high school. He pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Maintenance Engineering at Parks Air College in East St. Louis, Illinois -- the first federally certified school of aviation in the U.S. -- graduating in 1940. Just shy of attending his graduation ceremony, Wong was called upon to serve as a flight engineer for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, training pilots for the Royal Canadian Air Force out of an Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) based at Windsor Airport from 1940 to 1944 as part of the war effort.