Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
::: Diefenbaker's Law ::...
Diefenbaker's Law…is the economic law of grossly unintended and unforeseen economic fall-out which can occur when one embarks on a singular, but myopic, course of economic action.
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 1:42 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 1, 2013
IT'S OFFICIAL ::: F-35 to be Replaced by Stealth Super Arrow
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 12:29 PM 0 comments
Monday, March 25, 2013
55 YEARS AGO::: Avro Arrow Maiden Flight
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 8:58 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 28, 2013
FORGOTTEN TORONTO ::: The World's ONLY Flying Saucer
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Labels: Avro Canada, Avrocar, Popular Mechanics Cover: February 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
FORGOTTEN TORONTO ::: MOSQUITO Fighter-Bombers on the Production Line
• 2013 Downsview Park photo - Paul Cardin
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 6:17 PM 0 comments
Labels: Chinese Nationalists, Cold War years, De Havilland CANADA Mosquito, DHC Production Line, Downsview, Fighter-Bomber, Mossies, RCAF DHC Mosquito, Toronto, WW II
Saturday, February 16, 2013
::: MADE IN TORONTO Mosquito…flies again!
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 9:49 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
RCAF::: 75 YEAR ANNIVERSARY (1999)
…WHO SAYS CANADA…couldn't party like it was 1999?!
Who says we can't do it in style?!
We did.
Look at this fabulous block of stamps produced for Canada Post: Postes Canada!
Looky at some of the airplanes that the RCAF once flew!!
Wondrous.
IF I could get unlimited blocks of these stamps I'd use them for all my mail…for the rest of my life!
No, foolin'.
Alas. (*sigh*) Not to be…
And just look at all the ROUNDELS the RCAF adopted for this, and that, time era!
Confused?
Well the RCAF, Canada's Air Force, has changed its military logo many times. For a complete explanation:
SEE "The Roundel Round-Up" at Vintage Wings of Canada:
www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/Article...
Brought to you by Dave O'Malley of AEROGRAPHICS Creative Services!
(FOUR of these aircraft…were MADE IN TORONTO!)
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 1:05 PM 1 comments
Labels: 4 of these aircraft were manufactured in Toronto, AEROGRAPHICS Creative Services, Canadair Argus, CF-104, CF-188 Hornet, Dave O'Malley, RCAF, RCAF DHC Mosquito, RCAF Golden Hawks Sabre, RCAF Wellington Bomber
Saturday, February 2, 2013
FLIGHT 621: 3000+ Square Foot Colossus replaces Burgsma Home
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 1:13 PM 1 comments
Monday, January 7, 2013
::: 63 Years Ago and The Loneliest 'Clunk' of All ::..
January 1st.
Late afternoon.
Hondas zoom by.
This is Canada, remember.
Hapless cars spreading salty slush like some sick squadron of mechanized fertilizing machines.
Not a care in the world, these folks.
It is whip-snap cold outside.
The air is pure peppermint.
I make my way to the Summit where Toronto's only CF-100 can be found.
On this first day of the new year, I am the only one here.
Night falls.
We are a long way away from those days when Toronto-based Avro engineers designed and produced the CF-100.
Yes, far way from those days when dozens of these Canadian fighters would be parked at Malton Airport and just as many would fill the local skies.
No more.
January 20, 1950…the Avro CF-100 'Clunk' (as we've always called her) flew for the first time…and famously became Canada's FIRST JET INTERCEPTER and also, simultaneously, Canada's FIRST ALL-CANADIAN MILITARY AIRCRAFT.
CANADA had dutifully retained its' colonial mentality until right after WW II wherein we purchased every single military aircraft for the RCAF, up to that point…from every other country, any country other than our own glorious CANADA!
CANADIANS even missed—if you can believe it— the entire era of propeller-driven military aircraft!
Bombers and fighters alike.
We did produce a trainer though, the Fleet Fort. We got that one in at the last minute of that grand old age.
Big deal~
We fall back on the Arrow, so it's laughable we couldn't even come up with one homegrown military design in the 40 years of the prop engine era!
We bought British, we bought American, hey, we even bought French…we never even thought about producing, and buying Canadian!
If ever a country wanted to remain a colony—it was Canada.
(*Sheesh. Where are my antacid pills, anyway?)
And while we did produce almost 700 CF-100s for both Canada and Belgium, in the end RCAF pilots preferred the Canadair Sabre (a hopped-up Canadian version of the American F-86 Sabre), to the CF-100 Canuck, as she was officially known, and in kind, came up with all kinds of derogatory nicknames for her. The Clunk moniker came forth because of the disconcerting sound the front landing-gear made while retracting into its undercarriage well. Unfortunately, the 'Clunk' was also called the 'Lead Sled', the CF-Zero, the Beast, and the Zilch.
IN SPITE OF the laughter today for our first act of R&D independence …the Avro CF-100 had some notables, people.
1) It was the ONLY all-weather NATO fighter stationed in Europe in 1956 and into '57. The Clunk was the only NATO fighter able to operate in extremely poor weather conditions and ZERO visibility—
2) At the start of the Korean War, the USAF needed jet-propelled all-weather interdiction/surveillance aircraft so desperately and no American manufacturer had yet produced one…they considered the Avro CF-100 and the English Electric Canberra for the role. The USAF almost never considers foreign aircraft to fill its ranks. The Canberra was eventually chosen, but the CF-100 was a serious contender.
3) The "Great Zura", Avro Canada's Chief Development Pilot, S/L Żurakowski flew the CF-100 in the 1955 Farnborough Air Show. He demonstrated the Clunk in the "falling leaf" aerobatic manoeuvre and really put it on display! The crowds and Belgium were impressed! It was a large all-weather NATO fighter aircraft yet Zura flew it like a stunt plane! Belgium ended the year with a purchase order for 53 Clunks because of what Belgian air force officials saw at Farnborough.
4) In 1952, the Great Zura took a CF-100 into a dive and it became the first straight-wing aircraft to break the sound barrier! What it could not do in level flight, it did do in a dive without breaking up!
'nuff, said—
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 4:13 PM 0 comments
Sunday, October 7, 2012
:::: MITT ROMNEY :: A Real American vs.…
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Sunday, September 9, 2012
::: Planespotting, er… Babespotting, er …Both!
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 10:15 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2012, A380, Blond babe, Emirates, plane-spotting, September, YYZ
Saturday, September 1, 2012
::: FLIGHT 621 :: RESOLUTION IS… on the Horizon for 2013.
SLOWLY, slowly.…
Ever, so slowly, the cogs of progress move forward… and what once seemed like an impossibility is fast becoming reality as the 621 Field moves toward resolution.
Yes, by this time NEXT YEAR, the Flight 621 Cemetery and Memorial Park will be in place, and the horror of the AFTERMATH of that terrible day, will finally, FINALLY, be undone.
AIR CANADA promised, and later refused to build an on-site memorial to the 109 victims of Flight 621.
No matter.
Like it or not, that very memorial IS being built, RIGHT NOW.
As I tap away at this keyboard…
Without Air Canada's sympathy. Or support.
Of, course.
So… it's over Air Canard, your four decades of impasse and moral apathy failed in the end. The deadlock IS being overthrown~
Feelin' kinda' tiny… feelin' kinda small… in the grand ole scheme of things?
Too bad Air Canada wasn't a family owned biz, instead of being run by turnstile execs. A family would know the right thing to do, even now.
(Flight 621 crash arena photographed in summer of 2012.)
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 4:05 PM 0 comments
Monday, August 20, 2012
DISASTER for CANADIANS at DIEPPE! Betrayed by a Crossword Puzzle, Ninnies, and the BBC :::: 70 Years Ago in Canadian History!!
Posted by Never Was An Arrow II at 8:06 PM 0 comments