Career
Phipps joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and became a fighter pilot in He was shot down and became a Prisoner of War for 2 years. He succeeded in making an escape from his Prisoner Of War Camp. Phipps moved to the Northwest Territories after returning home from the war.
In 1953 and founded a business called Atlas, based in Resolute Bay.
He invented a new type of balloon tundra tire — as possibly an "improved" version of American Alvin J. Musselman"s earlier invention of a similar one in 1929/1930 — that allows an aircraft to land safely on tundra. The type of tire is known as the Weldy Special.
Atlas introduced the first regular scheduled airline service to Canada"s most northern communities. lieutenant was Weldy Phipps who introduced the first scheduled airline service to the communities of Resolute Bay, Grise Fiord, Arctic Bay, and Pond Inlet.
Their citizens have special memories of him.
The Inuit named him Angayuroluk, an affectionate nickname roughly translated as "poor older brother". Weldy was fortunate enough to obtain the registration CF-WWP (his initials) for one of his first Twin Otters. Phipps delivered supplies to a number of notable arctic expeditions, including Ralph Plaisted in 1967 and 1968.
He retired from his aviation career in 1972.
In 1961 he was awarded the Transport-Canada Trophy (Mckee) for his work perfecting the ballon tires. Phipps was elected to the Northwest Territories Legislature to the High Arctic electoral district in the 1970 Northwest Territories general election.
He served a single term in office before retiring in 1975.