ALL! …that remains :::...

ALL that remains…

… of our beloved Arrows.

Arrow 206.

Arrow 206 NEVER flew.

But of all the completed Arrows… she was the ONLY ONE fitted with those MIGHTY and now LEGENDARY, Canadian, ORENDA IROQUOIS engines.

And Arrow 206 was just hours away from her maiden flight when AVRO received the government’s senseless order to destroy HER and all other existing Arrows!

Just HOW MANY Arrows were scrapped?

27.

TEN complete Arrows.

Seventeen in various stages of completion, with parts in existence to complete each one.

HERE SHE IS, 206, forever perched above the admiring crowds at the Canadian Aviation Museum, formerly RCAF Station Rockcliffe (where I was born, incidentally).

A beautiful, and silent, songbird from that era in Canadian history when Canadians could achieve anything… just because we wanted to.

MADE IN TORONTO.

MADE IN CANADA.

And in 1959… there was nothin’ better.

Anywhere.

♫ ♫ LAMENT our lost Arrows ~
‘nuff said–

2 MILLION DOLLAR Giveaway!!

SPOTTED at 12:02am on Mississauga Road NEW YEARS DAY… returning from house reno.

This wrapped 2 MILLION DOLLAR wing left UNATTENDED at MHI Aerospace in Mississauga across from Microsoft Canada’s Head Office.

I thought to myself… THAT CAN’T be a wing… just left there.

It was.

As you can see…

U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e.

NOT Serni’s Forest ~

NOT Serni’s Forest ~

THERE ARE no tanks in Serni’s forest.

And there are A LOT of tanks here! From around the world. From WW I, to the present.

Where?

Major-General F.F. Worthington Memorial Park.

CFB Borden.

Worthington, “Worthy”, “FF” was Canada’s “General Patton”.

Shortly after WW I, F.F. became convinced that ARMOUR was the way to go for the Royal Canadian Army.

And he wouldn’t shut up about it.

So, finally, in 1936, F.F. was commanded to set up, organize, and command the Canadian Tank School at London, Ontario. Within two short years the whole facility was moved to Camp Borden, near Angus, Ontario. The CANADIAN ARMY needed to scale-up… as the threat to the Commonwealth, now poised by Herr Hitler and his relentless Nazism was quickly emerging on the British horizon.

So… a second command came to FF in 1940.

This time he was ordered to organize, command and TAKE OVERSEAS the 1st Army Tank Brigade and the 4th Canadian Armoured Division. No small feat, but Worthy rose to the occasion.

By 1944, FF was back at Camp Borden overseeing multitudinous base operations.

And when FF, the “Father of the Canadian Armoured Corps” died in 1967 he returned to Camp Borden one last time. To be buried.

His wife eventually joined him there.

Major-General Worthington Memorial Park, where FF and his lifelong love are entombed is indeed consecrated ground, and DND describes it as “a place for quiet reflection”.

Worthy’s son is the notable newspaper journalist, and founding editor of the Toronto Sun, Peter Worthington.

The WAR YEARS were heady days both for Major-General Worthington and my dad. One man was capping off a career, another, only beginning.

On a personal note… when I was 17, my dad took me to see the legendary Camp Borden.

It’s where he initially trained when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, way back in 1938. And so, in the late 70s, with his mind starting to fail from that affliction of Alzheimer’s, a father quietly returns, to places known, and significant, wanting to share his past with a son… while there was still time.

CAMP BORDEN will always be a wondrous, and enchanted place for me.

In 2008,

PEACE ON EARTH!! To All People of Good Will!!

Stowaway ≈

FEATURED ON the front cover of Popular Mechanics in the early 90s as the Bede BD-10.

The AFFORDABLE and PERSONAL jet was to be mass produced so everyone could afford one at $400, 000 USD.

Something went wrong.

Only 5 were made.

Three have since crashed.

Two left.

This one was/ is at the TORONTO AEROSPACE MUSEUM.

MONITOR JET of Canada bought the military rights, and this jet. It was TO BE equipped with the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT-15D engine. Note the JT-15D engine appears on an engine stand to the left of the aircraft.

PORTUGAL showed some interest in acquiring the military version of this jet.

It never went any further.

DAVID J. CARLAW of the Canadian Flying Machine Museum (Cambellford, Ontario) recently purchased this rare piece of Canadian and world aviation history.

SEE the BEDE 10 in flight: www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Q8O3B1aWM&feature=related

::: the Curse of Dave Keon..::

THE CURSE of DAVE KEON is why the Toronto Maple Leafs WILL NEVER win another Stanley Cup.

INSET CLOSE-UP: There’s “Davey” smilin’, and laughin’, lookin’ out onto the streets of Toronto from the Hockey Hall of Fame.

It's important to note that the "curse" was never pronounced onto the Toronto Maple Leafs by Dave Keon himself, but was incurred by the TLM organization through their scandalous and callous treatment of the star.

HAROLD BALLARD, then the owner of the Leafs, publicly criticized Dave's leadership in the 74/75 season and vowed never again to agree to Keon's no-trade clause. When Keon's contract came up for renewal at year's end, Ballard made it clear Keon was done as a Leaf. Ballard, who controlled Keon's NHL rights, told Keon to try to sign with another NHL team, but then set Keon's compensation price so high that no other team would sign him. Keon then jumped to the WHA to escape the wrath of Ballard.

You simply can’t mistreat a class act, like DAVE KEON gloriously was back in the day, and expect to move forward as an individual, or as an organization without incurring some sort of penalty. Offense demands recompense.

Toronto won 4 Stanley Cups because of this guy!

The LEAFS ORGANIZATION needs to satisfy, and apologize for Keon’s 1975 trade and for their shameful public and covert treatment of the Leaf's brightest star.

Dave NEVER WANTED to leave Toronto and he never should have been traded. He was always a Leaf in his heart.

Recently, sports writers and hockey fans were polled and only one question was asked.

WHO was the best Toronto Maple Leaf of all time?

The result floored even the author… who then turned the question into a book.

Dave Keon.

He was and will always be the quintessential Leaf.

SOME people think Dave "should get over it". Nope.

He's bitter because he was denied and publicly shamed. And if he had received a formal and public apology NOW from TLM… he might… MIGHT… be able to let it go…

When, or if, the Toronto Maple Leafs ever respect themselves as an organization… they'll stop with the half-way measures like those earlier this year, and give Keon what he wants.

FOR STARTERS retire NUMBER 14.

At least the Hockey Hall of Fame got it right–

I'm with ya Davey… when you left, I never watched another Leaf game again.

Long live THE CURSE!!!