Roe manufacturing plant, he was chosen by Sir Roy Dobson to train young boys in the aviation field.

He was part of a small team that turned the twinjet Manchester into the four-engined jet aircraft Lancaster bomber.

He was later appointed Chief Project Engineer at the Avro design office in Yorkshire, working on the application of jet technology to transport aircraft.

During his early career he worked under the guidance of Sir Sydney Camm of Hawker Aircraft, designer of the Hurricane Fighter and the Harrier 'Jump Jet'.

Floyd's work on jet transport in the United Kingdom led to the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner.

[9] In 1950, Floyd was awarded the Wright Brothers Medal from the Society of Automotive Engineers for his paper on the Jetliner (the first non-American recipient).

[1] In 1993, he was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame and named a Companion of the Order of Flight by the City of Edmonton.

It was named after James C. Floyd due to his status as "one of the great figures in Canada's aviation history," and his role in developing the C-102 Jetliner, the CF-100 fighter, and the Avro Arrow.