The Way We Were ::: 1954 ::: CANADA

THE KEEN OBSERVER will note that the AVRO ARROW is noticeably absent from this proud 1954 achievement ad of A. V. Roe Canada (or Avro Canada Aircraft Ltd. as the company came to be known).

And that's because the Arrow was STILL on the drawing boards!

But there was already excitement within the company, as this ad hints at.

Notice, AVRO CANADA is meeting the challenge through ongoing research and development depicted by the illustration that "leaves" the boxed grid at the top of the ad, and enters the picture of the Avro Canada CF-100 flying over the Toronto plant that produced her.

If you were awake in 1954, you probably weren't, but if you were, and you were looking at this ad, you'd ask yourself… why, why, did the graphic designer alter the layout of this ad… so that the viewer's eyes are directed by the "flow" of the ad, from the TOP, and from the BOTTOM… to follow through and come to rest on the research and development illustration?

Huh, why?

What A. V. Roe CANADA Limited couldn't tell you at the time, but proudly hinted at… was Avro Canada had been secretly tendered a contract by the RCAF to build Canada an cutting edge intercepter, and work towards that end, was WELL UNDERWAY at this point…

::: The Eerie, and Flight 621 .::.

You know that feelin'.

A chill down the spine.

You are alone BUT don't feel alone. A presence. Unsure what?

Strangely, it just happens sometimes when I'm doing 621 research. At home, or out in the field.

Anyways…

Rest assured… that every man-made idol humanity places his trust in, will be, thrown to the ground.

With Air Canada Flight 621, a Douglas DC-8, quite literally—

IMAGINE MY surprise, no shock! when I discovered this, last year.

A Douglas Aircraft Company (of California) ad, from the throwaway year of 1960. Proudly, and whimsically advertising their first jet airliner, the DC-8.

Raw power, folks! Fast, quiet, comfortable, dependable, and safe. Yes, safe. Rest assured, the moment you step aboard a DC-8 and enter the sky… you WILL have peace of mind.

Now, that was the hype.

The reality?

A little different with Flight 621, and many other DC-8 flights folks…

Back in the day there were "issues" with various mechanical aspects of the DC-8. A lot of incidents, accidents, and crashes were becoming the back-down-to-earth reality of this Douglas aircraft.

The Government of Canada even kept secret files on the DC-8 which can still be found in the national archives.

Through TCA and later Air Canada, which were both crown corporations, the Canadian federal government owned lots of DC-8s.

A whopping forty-four in total! Almost 10% of the entire McDonnell-Douglas production run, from 1958 through to 1972 was owned by Canadians, collectively.

And Big Brother, or the Government of Canada would later block the attempted purchase of McDonnell-Douglas DC-10s by Air Canada. The mounting evidence in the secret "8" files was a little too sobering. The "Feds" HAD had enough with Douglas, even though the DC-10's wings were made right in Toronto, right at the former Avro Canada plant!

Now, back to the ad.

Damn, it's eerie.

The ad shows an innocent blond-haired girl carrying a doll, and waving good-bye (to trusting parents).

The COLOURIZED INSET Jac Holland photo shows a similar doll found in the crash debris of Flight 621. Ironically, not even ten feet from the untouched doll was a lifeless, little, preteen blond-haired girl… amid tonnes, and tonnes, of burnt aircraft wreckage.

Age? About ten years old, I was told.

The former OPP police officer who returned with me to the crash site told me that he remembers her well. Too well.

She lay there in silence as he sadly looked down at her. Her blond hair, gently responding to a breeze, making its' way through the field.

Fifty-five minutes previous, she too, had waved good-bye.

Nobody knew it would be her last such wave.

And now, her family, would be left picking up the pieces of their personal tragedy for the rest of their lives.

The Way We Were ::: 1942 ::: CANADA

The De Havilland Aircraft Company of Canada Ltd advertisement acknowledging the Canadian-built MOSQUITO contribution…to the Allied war effort that originated from Downsview, in Toronto.


De Havilland CANADA Mosquito

"Before the end of the Second World War, de Havilland Canada built 1,134 Mosquitos, of which 444 were on strength with the RCAF in models Bomber Mk VII through Trainer Mk 29 from 1 June 1943 to 28 September 1951.

Production of the Mosquito, nicknamed the "Mossie," was the company's greatest contribution to the war effort. To reduce wartime metal use, the airframe was constructed almost entirely out of plywood.

The design intent of the Mosquito was speed instead of defensive armament, and as a result it was one of the fastest planes in the war, reaching 425 mph at 30,000 feet. The original design was intended as a light bomber, but soon proved itself in high-level photography and every phase of intruder operations." (Wikipedia)