MONTREAL GAZETTE July 6, 1970

What ever became of the CADBURY SNACK BAR ??

::: 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.

One, of course, initiates such an action to achieve a particular positive result (to cut program costs, to save taxpayer's money, etc.), but fails to foresee the looming, and adverse link to the bigger picture. And the even greater loss, or losses that will result from the initial action!

Yes…what actually happens instead from the seemingly innocent first action…is a catastrophic negative fall-out that is huge in scope…and which was neither expected, planned for, nor wanted.

Named after then-novice Prime Minister of Canada, John G. Diefenbaker, for cost-cutting actions he led the federal government to take in regards to the Avro Aircraft Company of Canada in 1959.

Diefenbaker cancelled all Avro Canada military projects which mostly included (but were not limited to) the Avro Arrow interceptor and the Orenda Iroquois jet turbine engine…to save taxpayers a few bucks.

Unfortunately, Avro…only had military contracts!

The fall-out from this singular cancellation would obviously be enormous, since the federal government of Canada was the chief purchaser of the company's offerings.

No contracts, no work, no choice!

Avro Aircraft of Canada immediately laid their whole workforce off, only three hours after the federal government's chilling announcement.

So, on the very day of Diefenbaker's cancellation…fourteen thousand bewildered Avro employees are dismissed by Avro.

An additional 11,000 employees in supportive aerospace companies are also laid off within days…and this ratchets the unemployed total up to 25,000…in a province of only 3 million folk!

300 million taxpayer's dollars had been spent by the Canadian government on the Avro projects thus far…but because Diefenbaker opts out early…the feds are then hit with enormous penalties! Thousands of contract cancellations add another 125 million dollars to the Avro production cost—bringing the alarming total footed by Canadian taxpayers to grand total of $425 million!

Twenty-seven Arrow interceptor aircraft are in various stages of completion which could have been soberly finished and sold off (and are even requested for purchase by the British and the Americans)…but, in true small-town thinker's style…all are rapidly scrapped…for the quick cash! A mere $265,000.

Nothing says stupid…like Diefenbaker stupid!

Several prototypes of the world famous Orenda Iroquois jet engine were in the final stages of testing and a contracted purchase order for 12,000 Iroquois had been inked since 1956, but Diefenbaker shamelessly cancels this outstanding order as well!

Huh?!?!

The build Iroquois engines under licence contract ALONE would have paid all of Avro's development costs to date…for both exemplary projects! Instead, in an action that STILL SUSPENDS belief…to this very day…all existing cutting-edge Iroquois engine prototypes are also scrapped…and all existing engines torched!

But the fall-out isn't over, people.

And, as they say…"it ain't over until it's over" and the fall-out wasn't over at all…for Avro OR Canada, by any means. No sir!

Just watch what happens next!

News travels fast in the aviation industry.

Avro Canada's unexpected demise travels to all four corners of the earth. The same day.

It's the new Olympics, folks.

How fast can aviation and aerospace companies make it to Toronto, and poach former Avro employees?

The race is on!

The very first…and historically biggest 'brain drain' occurs in Canadian history as Canada's most skilled and most creative research and development engineers ever, EVER!…leave Canada heading to new jobs, and to parts unknown, all over the globe.

They will never return.

These departees will become project leaders on several of the US space programs including the one that puts America in space first…and then on the moon. Some go on to assist in development of the Concorde, and various American and British civil and military classics. A working flying saucer was even created.

Diefenbaker must live with the Arrow cancellation debacle for the rest of his life. John G. is openly mocked wherever he goes. More than one attempt is made on his life. And its all because of the Arrow.

The hugest of Canadian losses is never forgotten as Diefenbaker becomes the most hated Canadian in history! The trashing of the Arrow is still heartily felt by Canadians, even five decades later. Books, documentaries, movies, and conspiracy theories haunt searching Canadians who still try to comprehend what exactly went wrong at Avro Canada.

All—to no avail.

Diefenbaker only intended to cut some defence spending…to save a few bucks…but he ended up wracking up an additional 50 per cent in taxpayer-incurred expenses and unravelled Canada's aerospace industry to boot!

Canada would never recover.

At the end of the day we had no Arrow, no Iroquois, no engineers…and a $450 million price tag with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for it!

All good moves, Dief! Only you, buddy, only you…

IT'S OFFICIAL ::: F-35 to be Replaced by Stealth Super Arrow

April 1, 2013

2:32pm

CANADIAN INVOLVEMENT in the F-35 program ended just a few minutes ago as the Harper Government tabled and voted for…an all-Canadian replacement to the troubled Lockheed-Martin offering.

An purchase order HAS ALREADY BEEN SIGNED by Harper's Conservatives for an initial order of 200 Stealth Super Arrows at the very same cost as the original F-35 procurement.

The Super Arrow will be manufactured in Toronto at a new aerospace plant that is being built right now at the old Avro Canada YYZ site!

BEAVERWORKS has the produced the first visuals for all Canadians to see.

Take a gander:  www.superarrow.ca/

55 YEARS AGO::: Avro Arrow Maiden Flight

A 35 minute flight into Canadian and world history.

The small country of CANADA had produced a technological marvel.

THOUSANDS OF CANADIANS waited and watched (inside and outside) Malton Airport as the CF-105 Avro Arrow was put through some light-duty paces on its MAIDEN FLIGHT.

The crowd mills about waiting for another pass of the Arrow, while the Arrow passes over Rexdale.  

The Avro Canada and Orenda Engine plants can be seen for the massive structures they were (look just above the flying Arrow).

It would be Canada's first and last all-Canadian supersonic airplane.  

Every other Canadian engineered aircraft SINCE has been sub-sonic~

.

CF-105 AVRO Arrow (outfitted with Orenda Iroquois Engines) “FIRSTS and NOTABLES” 

• First a/c designed with digital computers being used for both aerodynamic analysis and designing the structural matrix (and a whole lot more).

• First a/c design to have major components machined by CNC (computer numeric control); i.e., from electronic data which controlled the machine.

• First a/c to be developed using an early form of "computational fluid dynamics" with an integrated "lifting body" type of theory rather than the typical (and obsolete) "blade element" theory.

• First a/c to have marginal stability designed into the pitch axis for better maneuverability, speed and altitude performance.

• First a/c to have negative stability designed into the yaw axis to save weight and cut drag, also boosting performance.

• First a/c to fly on an electronic signal from the stick and pedals. i.e., first fly-by-wire a/c.

• First a/c to fly with fly by wire AND artificial feedback (feel). Not even the first F-16's had this.

• First a/c designed to be data-link flyable from the ground.

• First a/c designed with integrated navigation, weapons release, automatic search and track radar, datalink inputs, home-on-jamming, infrared detection, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures operating through a DIGITAL brain.

• First high wing jet fighter that made the entire upper surface a lifting body. The F-15, F-22, Su-27 etc., MiG-29, MiG 25 and others certainly used that idea.

• First sophisticated bleed-bypass system for both intake AND engine/exhaust. Everybody uses that now.

• First by-pass engine design. (all current fighters have by-pass engines).

• First combination of the last two points with an "ejector" nozzle that used the bypass air to create thrust at the exhaust nozzle while also improving intake flow. The F-106 didn't even have a nozzle, just a pipe.

• Use of Titanium for significant portions of the aircraft structure and engine.

• Use of composites (not the first, but they made thoughtful use of them and were researching and engineering new ones).

• Use of a drooped leading edge and aerodynamic "twist" on the wing.

• Use of engines at the rear to allow both a lighter structure and significant payload at the centre of gravity. Everybody copied that.

• Use of a LONG internal weapons bay to allow carriage of specialized, long-range standoff and cruise missiles. (not copied yet really)

• Integration of ground-mapping radar and the radar altimeter plus flight control system to allow a seriousstrike/reconnaissance role. The first to propose an aircraft be equally adept at those roles while being THE air-superiority fighter at the same time. (Few have even tried to copy that, although the F-15E is an interesting exception.)

• First missile armed a/c to have a combat weight thrust to weight ratio approaching 1 to 1. Few have been able to copy that.

• First flying 4,000 psi hydraulic system to allow lighter and smaller components (not until 1974 did another aircraft (Rockwell B-1 Bomber) use a hydraulic system with such high psi)

• First oxygen-injection re-light system.

• First engine to have only two main bearing assemblies on a two-shaft design.

• First to use a variable stator on a two-shaft engine.

• First use of a trans-sonic first compressor stage on a turbojet engine.

• First "hot-streak" type of afterburner ignition.

• First engine to use only 10 compressor sections in a two-shaft design. (The competition was using 17!!)

The Avro Arrow was one of Canada's finest aviation achievements, even though it never entered service. 

© 2013 Special Projects In Research

FORGOTTEN TORONTO ::: The World's ONLY Flying Saucer

AT NEW YEARS, I HAD a friend lament that …everything about Avro Canada has been forgotten!  

"Who remembers, who…??"

Well…Popular Mechanics remembers.

February 2013.

And there it is! The RCAF roundel on the Avrocar in the fold-out!!

Granted, the Avrocar was made for the US ARMY and the USAF.

But it was MADE in TORONTO.

You can't go to too far in the history of aviation without touching upon Avro Canada.

THERE'S A 1000 ways to feel sad about what happened to Avro Canada…and I can find all of them.

'nuff, said~

SEE LARGE:  www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/8517122462/sizes/o/in/...

(Avroites and Canadian patriots — Get this issue!)

FORGOTTEN TORONTO ::: MOSQUITO Fighter-Bombers on the Production Line

YES, yes…over 1,100 Mosquito Fighter-Bombers were made in Toronto.

All-wood construction these Mosquitos were.

"Use lots of glue" the factory sign reminded the largely female work force.

Back in the day (1942-44) if you flew over Downsview you'd see 20-30 of these beasties huddled around the airfield. When they came in to land, Sheppard Ave. had to be temporarily closed to allow Mosquitos to pass through!

Yes, yes, these deadly aircraft used to beat up Toronto skies.

Of course, a distant memory now.

Yes, yes the 40s interventionist Canadian Government GAVE over 200 battle-ready Mosquitos, and training support, to the Chinese Nationalists who fought a tough battle for democracy in China…and, as we all know now, lost.

The Chinese have been fighting for democracy EVER since.

What isn't well-known is the Chinese freedom fighters also had a tough time learning to fly these high-performance aircraft and pranged quite a few of them. The older Chinese pilots resented learning how-to from the brash young Canadian pilot, George Stewart, and his assistant.

And as luck would have it, George is still alive and resides in Hamilton.

That guy has many a story to tell.

Anyhow, focusing back.

Yes, yes…does anyone, BESIDES ME remember this factory of democracy that was first was enlisted to create trainers for the war effort (De Havilland Moths)…and later Mossies to bring Hitler and his war machine to its knees?

Apparently not.

TODAY this former De Havilland factory serves a forgetful public as an indoor soccer field…and will be morphed transformer style into redundant hockey arenas in the near future.

CANADIANS don't respect their own history or Canadian achievement.

That's why they know so little about it.

So one can't expect them to honour related historical sites.

And that's why a portion of De Havilland won't be saved as the Museum it should be, and was for the longest time. Enter the corrupt power players at Downsview Park who lined pockets and ninnified our history by insisting these sports facilities (sports facilities!) had to be located on the former 1929 De Havilland Factory site, instead of 500 feet N,S, E, or W of that.

But hey…look at those beauties (Mossies) on the Downsview production line, anyway!

• Original De Havilland Mosquito photo corrected and tone altered - Paul Cardin
• 2013 Downsview Park photo - Paul Cardin

::: MADE IN TORONTO Mosquito…flies again!

MADE IN TORONTO, RESTORED RECENTLY IN NEW ZEALAND…deHavilland FB.26 KA114 Mosquito, nicknamed the 'Mossie' in WW II…flies again!!

Made in Downsview (now Toronto proper) by deHavilland of Canada in 1945!

TODAY it is the only Mosquito in flying condition, in the whole-wide world!!

…how about that?

During WW II the Mosquito had many roles: Fast-bomber, Fighter-Bomber, Night Fighter, Maritime Strike Aircraft, Fast Photo-Reconnaissance, and even advanced trainer.

Commander in Chief of the Nazi Luftwaffe, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring said THIS about the Mosquito in 1943:

"In 1940, I could at least fly as far as Glasgow in most of my aircraft, but not now! It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again.What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I'm going to buy a British radio set - then at least I'll own something that has always worked."

Oh, those pesky Mosquitos!

  

On January 20, 1943…RAF Mosquitos silenced Göring's propaganda speech celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Nazis having seized power which was being broadcast live, at the time, from Berlin, to the entire German nation!

Göring was humiliated.In response to this and other increasing well-known successful RAF Mossie attacks Hermann formed special Luftwaffe units—to specifically combat these pesky Mosquitos.

No luck, chap.

The Mosquito was an ALL-WOOD construction.

It had no defensive armour, or armament, whatsoever.

HIGH SPEED was its' defence!

The Mossies could fly low, under German radar, at high speeds and were the first STEALH (radar-undetectable) AIRCRAFT brought into existence.

The main users of the Mosquito in order of units served was the RAF, RCAF, RAAF, and the USAAF.

My dad's squadron, RCAF SQN 404 put their Mossies to use as coastal anti-shipping and submarine strike aircraft.

The CANADIAN MOSQUITO FB Mk. 26 FIGHTER-BOMBER (seen above, photographer unknown) was an improved version of the Mk. 21 fighter-bomber.  It was powered by two 1,620 HP Packard-Merlin 225 piston engines. That was a boost of 200 HP from the 21!

Those Packard-Merlins, and all Canadian Packard-Merlins used in Canadian Mosquitos, were made in this (now vacant) Downsview Park building (also seen-above)!

A total of 338 Mk.26s were made in, and only in, Toronto!

7,781 Mosquitos were built overall, all marks, and 1,132 were BUILT IN TORONTO.

Will CANADA ever see a Mosquito beat up the skies of Canada, again?

In mid-June, 2013 the Canadian Mosquito (owned by Jerry Yagen) and seen above, WILL FLY once again over the skies of Toronto.

 …and possibly land at Bombardier Toronto!

It will fly as the SHOW'S HIGHLIGHT in the Hamilton Air Show on June 15-16, 2013.

SEE:  www.hamiltonairshow.com/

Oh…yeah…when this Canadian Mk. 26 was restored over a seven year period in Ardmore, New Zealand by AvSpecs Ltd …a COMPLETE SET of forms, jigs and moulds were created.  This means that MORE CANADIAN VERSION Mk. 26 MOSQUITOS will be produced in the future!

FYI, Toronto…

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!)

FLIGHT 621: 3000+ Square Foot Colossus replaces Burgsma Home

3000+ Stone Square Brick and Tumbled Foot Colossus sits atop the former Burgsma residence site … 

…where John 'Red' Burgsma and his younger brother watched in horror as the very large, brand-new, state-of-the-art four engined jetliner—an Air Canada 'stretched' DC-8…crashed right before their very eyes, right in their own backyard!

…and in the foreground is the fenced-off area of the soon-to-be official FLIGHT 621 Cemetery and Memorial Gardens.

This 'area' is historical and hallowed grounds. 

It encompasses a sizeable land zone section directly involved in the crash—the impact arena.

And notably, it contains, buried deep down, the topsoil from other parts of the site (moved here specifically by the developers last year) initially discovered by me in 2002, to have been compromised by human remains of Flight 621's victims.

THIS CEMETERY is not a 'play' cemetery… a nice gesture to those 109 passengers and crew who died here; no, this is to be an actual, official, provincially mandated cemetery and future crash memorial that contains buried deep — thousands of fragmented bone remains of those unfortunate 109 souls who died on Air Canada Flight 621, both here, and from the surrounding five acres, on July 5,1970.

Back in 2012, late last year, Barb and I were on-site before the concrete foundation for the 'colossus' had been poured. It had certainly been marked and staked out, at this point. As I looked to the ancient dilapidated bridge for my placement orientation, I was pretty sure we had located and were standing on the old Burgsma house lot.

And then came the miraculous confirmation. As I walked about, there, right THERE, on the very edge of the marked out future colossus foundation…I saw it!

What a find! What a coincidence!

An old piece of white bathroom tile from the former Burgsma home!

And since the Burgsma house was the only house ever within the crash site arena, voila— I had my clearly identifiable confirmation for the former house location!

According to Al Vanderstarren, the old Burgsma house was condemned in the mid-80s, about six months after his family (its' last residents) had moved out. Shortly thereafter the home was demolished, broken up, and plowed down into its' former basement.

Remnants from the house destruction never strayed far from the home's foundation, unlike Flight 621 artifacts that were subjected to a farmer's dragging plow through almost four decades of farming!

::: 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—