Although very different in physique and personality, they were still called the “twins of the air.” Named for Canada’s seventh prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, May got a name change early in life when his two-year-old cousin could not get her tongue around the moniker Wilfrid. The best she could do was Woppie, shortened to Wop. His family thought it was cute, and the nickname stuck. May worked in his father’s service station and became a skilled mechanic, acquiring expertise that would be useful later in life. In 1910, the first airplane landed in Edmonton, and May was hooked. He enlisted five years later when he saw a newspaper photo of a First World War fighter plane in the skies over France. But instead of pilot instruction, he was trained as a machine gunner. He kept telling his superiors he wanted a transfer to the RFC, and in 1917, he got it. The first day of flight instruction consisted of taxiing along the runway. He was bored, but was finally allowed to take off with his instructor in the seat behind.
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