The AVRO ARROW Mark 5 : What SHOULD Have Been…

A CANADIAN DEFENDER for Canadian skies.A CANADIAN DEFENDER for Canadian skies.

PICTURED is a Mark 5 Arrow from the CAF, not RCAF (unfortunately), from 409 (Nighthawk) Squadron based in Comox, BC.

Yes…what should have been~

THE ILLUSTRATION is from an unknown Canadian aviation artist who has created a lot of fantastic SIDE-VIEW illustrations of just about everything that has donned the RCAF or CAF roundel. I added "movement" to the Arrow and a dimmed-out RCAF roundel (in the background) from another work he also created.

Who is the mystery artist?

Don't know.

Unlike EVERY OTHER ARTIST alive…he doesn't sign his stuff!

Some of his creations can be found at the CANADIAN AIR & SPACE MUSEUM located at 65 Carl Hall Road in Downsview, Toronto. The museum is located across from Bombardier Aerospace Toronto.

Check out the museum…home of a life-sized Arrow…and check out the museum's ultrafine gift shop. There you can purchase illustrations by this featured, unknown artist, and lots of other rare Canadian aviation stuff!

Remember the Avro Arrow, powered by her two homegrown Orenda Iroquois engines, would have been the most advanced interceptor of her time in 1959. And remember, she was designed, created, and screeched through Toronto skies…back in that illustrious day!

Most of the engineers from AVRO AIRCRAFT OF CANADA Ltd. went south when the Arrow and Iroquois engine programmes were cancelled—and made significant contributions to NASA. They helped put America in space.

In order to reduce mounting costs…the USAF offered to provide the weapons systems for all existing 27 Arrows, free of charge, IF the Canadian government would keep the two cutting-edge programmes afloat.

John G. Diefenbaker, then Prime Minister of Canada, said no.

Curtis-Wright of the USA ordered 12,000! Orenda Iroquois engines from Avro Canada.

Diefenbaker cancelled the order and told them to forget it. His government also cancelled the French Air Force's order of 300 Orenda Iroquois engines.

The USAF then offered to buy FIVE existing Arrows from the Canadian government's inventory, shortly after the two programmes were simultaneously cancelled on February 20, 1959.

The Canadian government NEVER ANSWERED that tabled offer from the USAF.

So much for all those conspiracy theories that really dumb (loads of) Canadians believe about America sabotaging the Arrow.

America tried to save the Arrow and Orenda! MANY TIMES!!

I can't tell you how many spooky Canadians whisper, "it was those Americans" whenever the demise of the Arrow is discussed. I know Canada is a free country and all… and it's your democratic right to remain stupid…but certainly, after a while, it should be embarrassing to you when the facts absolutely negate your anti-American sentiments.

Like Jim Floyd, former Vice President of Avro Aircraft Canada (hey—remember JIm?), has said repeatedly, about who is at fault for the demise of the Arrow and Iroquois,

"We (Canadians) did it (killed the projects) to ourselves."

ex-AVRO CANADA EMPLOYEE CANADIAN BOMBSHELL…slams Canadian Prime Minister!

THE CBC WAS INTERVIEWING Avro Canada employees at the end of their final shifts. The day? February 20, 1959. In the morning, Prime Minister John G Diefenbaker announced in the House of Commons that the Arrow and Iroquois programmes were cancelled, and Avro Canada president, Crawford Gordon, promptly fired everyone at Avro that afternoon. No airplane or jet engine, to build…no work!

No one blamed Crawford Gordon for the firings.

EVERYONE blamed Dief, including this Canadian blonde bombshell captured by the CBC interviewer. I looped the clip for 3X play since it is so short.

WHO WAS this Canadian wonder woman?

I wonder if anybody out there in cyberspace knows who she was?? Curious.

She got it. And she sent her thoughts right up to the Prime Minister.

But Dief was arrogant.

A Jack. Stupid. Ass.

So he plowed ahead like every idiot would…throwing good business advice to the wind…because…well, he knew better. And so he destroyed Avro Aircraft of Canada Limited.

The blonde woman typifies CANADIAN WOMEN in general.

Here's YOUR debriefing:

"SWEET GIRLS come from the south, Barbies come from California, but Canadian girls have fire and ice in our blood. We can drive in snow and mud, handle the cold, beat the heat, be a princess, throw a right hook and drink with the boys! We can cook a wickedly good meal and if we have an opinion... You bet your ass your gonna hear it!!!"
(Janice Gattie)

And now, you know!


©1959 CBC

THE ARROW isn't coming back, folks…

AND NEITHER IS the Orenda Iroquois PS-13…

"IT'S THE CLOSET THING CANADIAN INDUSTRY has to a love story and a murder mystery.

THE AVRO ARROW, a sleek white jet interceptor developed in Malton, Ontario in the 1950's, could have been many things. It might have become the fastest plane in the world, Canada's best defence against Soviet bombers, the catalyst to propel Canada to the forefront of the aviation industry. Instead, it became a $400-million pile of scrap metal, and the stuff of legends.

Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate.

The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered...

The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Avro Arrow."
(unknown)

Cancelled February 20th, 1959…52 YEARS and counting…

::: In CANADA, in 1955…the FUTURE was WIDE-OPEN! ..::.:.

…and don't let anyone EVER tell you otherwise.

And ALTHOUGH these men gave us the C-102 Jetliner, the CF-100 Canuck, the Avrocar, the CF-105 Arrow and the Orenda jet engine line-up including the mythological Iroquois…although these men gave us their all, their everything…one man would throw it all away!

Hey, these folks could take the hint.

When the, then Prime Minister of Canada, John G. Diefenbaker (I can't even bear to repeat his name), cancelled the Avro Arrow Interceptor and Orenda Iroquois engine programmes only four years later in 1959, these guys took it all in stride.

They knew it. They weren't wanted.

And what did these aeronautical engineers do? Where would they go?

Fall back into obscurity?

Flip burgers somewhere?

Lie down, and die?

Are? You? KIDDING? Me?

The Brits and the Americans knew what these ex-Avro guys were capable of!

And British and American aviation firms came right to the parking lots at Avro Aircraft Ltd. in Toronto, and hired these guys on the spot…as they wrapped up their last few days of employment at Avro. Jim Floyd, Vice-President of Avro Aircraft of Canada Ltd. even placed some of these designers, his own team, himself… with the explicit intention to woo them back when the Diefenbaker nightmare finally ended.

It didn't end.

But justice is always sweet. So we threw away these guys in 1959…but by 1969, they had their ominous revenge.

In 1969, the Concorde flew with well-documented contributions towards that Anglo-French SST achievement coming from Mr. Jim Floyd, himself.

And again in 1969, Ex-Avro engineers, in only a few months after the 10th anniversary of the demise of the Arrow and the Iroquois…were watching deep within the confines of NASA, from their command posts, as their newest creation, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Then for the very first time in world history a man descended down a ladder on the lunar module, and proceeded to walk on the moon.

These extraordinary aviation and aerospace feats, made possible, because of SIGNIFICANT contributions from our ex-Avroites (ex-Avro employees)!

Just 10 years previous these guys were at Avro in Toronto!

Arrows to the moon, baby…Arrows…to the moon!

If you don't understand that last quip, back to sleep, Canada.

And I, am, outta', here!

Good night, Canada!

TORONTO! You'll NEVER…have a finer hour~



(This version of the photo: © Paul Cardin - Special Projects in Research)

CWH Sidesteps CANADIAN GOVERNMENT, Orders into Production…3,000 Avro Arrows!

The Prime Minister's Office was pezzed.

LAST YEAR the PMO was going to shut down the CWH museum…until someone pointed out to Harper, that the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum IS… a flying museum. The CWH have almost as many operational, fighters, bombers, interceptors, AND secret projects…as the present Canadian Armed Forces!

They are a force to be reckoned with.

That's when Harper changed his mind.

And the Prime Minister's Office could not be reached for comment, as I penned this piece.

SO ARROW PRODUCTION HAS BEEN secretly taking place in China since last year! The first Avro Arrows have already been arriving, in Hamilton…three weeks ago—

I got one!

Ok, ok, maybe they aren't operational Arrows.

Ok, ok…but they are a FINE DIECAST REPLICAS of Arrow 203!

The detail on these 1/72 scale RL 203 Arrows is beyond belief (see picture). The Arrow can stand on its own, or be placed on an included stand to race through the skies, unchallenged!

The weighty model is almost 14" long!

And the awesome detail…did I mention the awesome detail, of these Arrow models?

There's Aeroclassics, Gemini, Herpa, Franklin Mint Precision Models, etc, etc,

Well, now the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM has their own line of die-cast models.

The CWH won't tell anybody whose creating these fine models for them. For their introductory airplane, CWH has crafted the Avro Arrow RL 203 of the RCAF. And that Arrow has been selling like hotcakes. The production run of 3,000 is almost SOLD-OUT!

Why every Canadian doesn't own one of these (at $89.99) …I'll never know!

WAIT!

Well, because every Canadian can't own one…the run is limited to 3,000!!

AVIATION WORLD, in Canada, has some.

The CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE , itself, has less than 100 left!

In the USA… KensAviation.com (Stuff You Can Buy ----> Historic Aviation --> Search--> CF-105)

You been warned.

Don't come cryin' to me when you've missed out on your LAST CHANCE to own one! I told ya'. I told ya'!

MUST SEE pic, REAL LARGE:

www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/4504014574/sizes/o/

::: The Arrow, the Iroquois: Love, Planes… and the whole Damn Thing :::

ON THIS DAY, February 20, 1959… 51 YEARS AGO… the Prime Minister of Canada, John G. Diefenbaker cancelled the Arrow, and the Iroquois, programmes.

Back then, it was called Black Friday.

The casualty was the CF-105 Arrow Canadian Intercepter programme.

But that wasn't the day's only casualty. The incredible Orenda Iroquois jet engine that was to power the Mark II Arrows also died that day. Not tot mention the 14, 500 employees thrown out of work!

51 Years Ago Today

Black Friday - February 20, 1959

FIVE ARROWS and parts to complete a total of 37 of our All-Canadian Interceptor.

We could have had three squadrons of Arrows!

But then again, 50 years ago, today, was Black Friday.

Yes, February 20, 1959.

PM John A. Diefenbaker stood up in the House of Commons (Canadian Parliament), at 11 am, and cancelled the Avro Arrow and Orenda Iroquois Projects on this date exactly 50 years ago.

And Crawford Gordon Jr., President of A. V. Roe Canada, and not one to be outdone by anybody, especially by a mindless bureaucrat… terminated every Avro Canada employee in the afternoon.

All 14, 500 of them!

No aircraft to manufacture…no need for employees!

Canada would never recover.

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 Avro Arrow: The "James Dean" of Aircraft

THE DESTRUCTION of Canada's military aviation industry (the cancelling of the Avro Arrow Interceptor and the Orenda Iroquois Engine Programs) in 1959… and the subsequent decline of Canada as a modern industrial state… go hand in hand.

THE CANCELLING of the Avro Jetliner Program, and the torching of the C-102 Jetliner prototype, which could have been wildly successful as a commercial airliner venture… an airplane that had many eager buyers worldwide, including the USAF, should have been a warning to all Canadians.

Yes, that something was not quite right, not in the business soul of the Canadian aircraft manufacturing sector… but in those program overseers, within the federal departments of the Canadian government.

Everyday folks, I get up, drag myself outta' bed, and fling the bedroom window wide open, and have a look out.

It's always the same question… that comes into my head.

"Why, why, are there no Arrows flying out there…"



…from the URBAN DICTIONARY: The Avro Arrow

The AVRO ARROW is the James Dean of the aircraft world -- "Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse". Considering that only 5 were ever flown, the Arrow has generated more books, articles, documentaries and controversy than many aircraft produced by the thousands.

WHAT IF CANADA… had squadrons, and squadrons, of Arrows?

OH, BACK in ’59?

Well…… it might have looked like this–

And we would have achieved our rightful place alongside the Americans, the British, and the French ~

(Oh, heavy is my heart…)

One must always judge the strength and independence of a nation, by the industrial might of that nation.

And in the 50s, folks…

Canada.

Second. To. None—


CANADIANS, LOOK! LOOK!!

"Behold the work of
the Old…

Let your Heritage not
be lost…

But bequeath it as a
Memory, Treasure and
Blessing…

Gather the lost and
…the hidden!

And preserve it for thy
Children."

–Christian Metz


… found this wondrous poem on the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM site, and it applies both here and there —

NOTEWORTHY and OMINOUS: NO TWO ARROWS were ever photographed, together, in flight —

THE AVRO ARROW … Wow, wasn’t she a beauty?

YES, the whole world may have been going supersonic at the time Peter, but not at the speeds the Arrow was capable of.

Nor, with the Arrow's long distance Arctic Circle range and all-weather capability.

And none of the other supersonic fighters were anywhere near the size of the Arrow.

The Arrow was LARGE.

Company literature at the time boasted that the CF-105 Arrow was as big as a WW II bomber. You know, like a Lancaster…

© CBC
© CBC Home Video (The Arrow)

BUY THIS MOVIE! If you're Canadian!!
Available everywhere ON-LINE and maybe even @ Ken's Aviation!

BLACK FRIDAY and Secret Toronto: Briarcrest

Black Friday + Two Weeks.

Well, I was truly surprised when I discovered the inside of Briarcrest virtually untouched since the Avro days.

Avro STILL in our midst.

AVRO CANADA Inc. purchased this 11 acre English-style tudor estate from Avro President and General Manager Walter N. Deisher who had used it as a personal residence. Walter was let go by Avro to make way for Crawford Gordon Jr., one of Canada’s famous dollar a year boys, once called forth by CD Howe to run the country’s industrial war effort during World War II.

“Crawford, go in there and fix Avro, and fix that damn CF-100!”

Howe’s sentiments, if perhaps, not his exact words.

Gordon Crawford had been Howe’s “Boy Wonder” during the war years and received the coveted OSC award, which was given to only a very few of this elite.

Remember, when Crawford arrived, Avro Canada was in utter disarray. Completely demoralized as an organization. The CF-100 which had been proudly delivered to the RCAF, with so much fanfare only shortly before, months maybe, and had now just been returned to the company by the very same RCAF!

It was quite bad.

The wonky CF-100 examples that were returned had warped wings! Rivets were popping out everywhere.

Stress problems. Only a few short years previous, Sir Roy Dobson had publicly stated that the Lancasters built by Avro Canada (then the crown corporation Victory Aircraft) under license, were better made than the English produced ones!

But we won’t go into it here. That’s another story all in itself.

So here is the living, and meeting room at Briarcrest. Like I said, much like it was back when Crawford Gordon lived here during the final (last gasp) days of Avro.

Lived here?

Crawford, somewhat of a womanizer, had left his wife and needed a place to stay. So he came here, to the solitude, and quiet and refinement of Briarcrest.

Previous to Crawford’s stay, Briarcrest was the Avro executive get-away cottage. Complete with pool, tennis courts, a games room, and hand carved totem poles. Four authentic totem poles. All INSIDE the house, by the way, and located downstairs in the game room!

Inside the tudor style abode is a serious, yet cozy atmosphere. Intricately hand carved woodwork, ancient handmade metallic light switch plates, exotically tiled rooms…oh, I could go on and on.

Not important here.

And yeah, that’s the secret passageway to the right in this picture. It leads up to the meeting room, directly from the games room downstairs! By way of a large block stone hewn corridor!

The Diefenbaker government was to declare the results of their review about the ongoing viability of all Avro Canada related projects on March 31 of 1959. That was the declaration and promise of the Canadian government to Avro Canada. However, Diefenbaker, not listening to reason at all, whether voiced by the Opposition, the GTA community, or Avro management prematurely cancelled the projects in a spiteful move on February 20, 1959 at 11 am in the morning. This caught the company by surprise and was well before the agreed upon review date. It became known as Black Friday. Forever.

And where was Crawford when the Company received the bad news from Ottawa?

By fax I might add.

Home in bed.

Crawford had been a bit out of sorts of late, and had given express orders NOT to be disturbed unless an emergency arose at the office. Well, this was such an emergency.

Fred Smye, Assistant General Manager of Avro Canada Limited, went to Briarcrest and told a drowsy Crawford personally the bad news. News, which was already circulating like wildfire throughout his plant of 14, 000 workers. This was an utter shock to the Avro executive who had been reassuring Avro employees that all was indeed well, and that the Arrow and the Iroquois would go into full production as expected. On that assurance Avro people were buying cars, and buying homes, and having kids…with no hint of the dark days immediately before them.

Crawford Gordon now enraged, rose to the occasion. Bull. China. Shop.

He immediately called the remaining Avro executive to Briarcrest. And it was here, right in this very room, the famous Avro employee dismissal notice was crafted by those very Avro executive, and later that day delivered over the company PA system at 2 pm by J.L. Plant.

That termination notice would make headlines, splashed across Canadian newspapers, in the late evening addition, shocking Canadians everywhere.

Oh, and did ya’ notice?

SOMEBODY BESIDES me, in this GTA city of eight million, knows about Briarcrest’s Avro related days.

I didn’t hang that print, folks!

And so, in honour of that historical connection, a framed print of the CF-105 Avro Arrow being escorted by it’s aeronautical precedent, the CF-100 Canuck, proudly hangs above the Briarcrest fireplace 50 years later, put there by the present owner!

Small wonders never cease—

Oh, and Crawford, well he was let go a few months later. Yes, by the very company he had spawned and nurtured into an national empire and which had quietly became the third largest company in the Dominion of Canada by 1959. Crawford, now disillusioned, quietly moved on, to Montreal.

It has been said that once Crawford was done with a place, he never looked back. Or went back.

But Crawford we had to come here. Even fifty years hence.

We had to return to Briarcrest, if only for a moment, to once again get caught up in that aura of our past Canadian aviation excellence. Avro, the Arrow, and all that could have been…that once was the glorious Avro Canada—

And the anguished story that just won't go away.

© Paul Cardin
© Special Projects In Research

Dirge: ARROW Straight Through The Heart

We hoped it's not too late…

But folks, it's 50 YEARS too late.

For Avro. For Orenda. For Canada. For Canadians.

'nuff said—

HOMEMADE FILM captured from an airing of the Arrow's first flight. A remembrance of the Avro Arrow hosted by the City of Mississauga on Black Friday…50 years hence.

My doctor has NOW officially taken me off suicide watch…since the 50th Anniversary of Black Friday (project cancellation of Canada's Arrow) has passed. He tells me he won't be around for the 75th, but I should once again avail myself of all medical and community supports. As needed.

Arrow in Trouble!!

June 11, 1958.

Malton, Ontario now YYZ.

As you can see the Toronto built CF-105 Interceptor RL 201 is in crash sequence.

"Zura" (Polish-born test pilot, Janusz Zurakowski) is at the controls. Landing gear on the Canadian Arrow were problematic and contributed to the only two Arrow accidents.

This accident occurred because a gear shortening mechanism failed, jamming the landing gear. The Arrow's undercarriage did not fully extend. With the high landing speed, the necessary strong braking on the shorter runway, coupled with the weight of the Arrow, the left undercarriage soon gave way, and then the right, collapsing, as the interceptor left the runway!

"In the fall of 1958 the British magazine; Aviation Studies stated Canada owes it to the free world to put into production the Arrow aircraft, the most advanced interceptor in the Western world."

Never happened.

And, of course, this wasn't the real trouble the Arrow would soon find itself in.

SOON, Avro Canada and the Arrow would be dealing with lackey politicians and an inept prime minister. And it was then, her fate would be sealed–

Photo credit: L Wilkinson or P Brennan
Post-production: SPIR - Paul Cardin

In a Perfect World…

…AVRO Canada would STILL be there…as it is in this Google Map photo of 2006.

PRESENTLY, Google Maps uses a 2006 aerial map of YYZ…and to my horror Avro Canada was still there! Everyone of any importance in the Toronto region knows Avro Canada, all remaining historical buildings were torn down in that year.

Who at Google is trying to kill me with these memories?

How Did I Get This SCREENSHOT From My 3G iPhone?

Remember whatever you are seeing on your iPhone screen, while surfing the net , gaming etc. can be captured or photographed by the iPhone itself!

Press the Home Key down simultaneously with the On/Off/Sleep/Wake Button and Presto! you hear the camera shutter sound and a SCREENPIC has been created. It can be found in the iPhone's Camera Roll Photo Album in the phone itself!

50 YEARS AGO…this month…the Arrow…

…was featured in the RAF Flying Review!

The publication noted the chance of cancellation, "the talk" but they didn't take it seriously. They went on to include a 2-page illustrated cutaway of the Canadian CF-105 Arrow, alongside a full page, three sided view of her.

The four page Arrow article, "The Mighty Arrow" noted that Canada's newest interceptor was likely to become the first combat aircraft capable of reaching MACH 3 in level flight!

But then as we all know so painfully, an idiot Prime Minister had his way, and the speed record that was ours for the taking, was never broken.

And the Canadian technological marvel, known as the Arrow, was scrapped.

But in the first part of this month…50 years ago this week…there was still hope…

AND SOON, nigh, a few short weeks from now, in February…we, as Canadians, will mark…not celebrate, the 50th Anniversary of the cancellation of the Avro Arrow CF-105 and the Orenda Iroquois Engine Project.

And the little country that could…didn't.

And from that point on, it all changed for Canada.

We returned to being a consumer, not a producer.

Critics respond that it was just one damn airplane!

Nope.

It was a movement.

A well orchestrated one at that.

There had been the Avro Jetliner (North America's 1st jet airliner), and the CF-100 (NATO's first all weather interceptor).

On deck there was the Arrow, of course, the Avrocar (a working flying saucer) too, the Orenda Iroquois engine (a lighter weight jet engine with 30% more engine thrust than anything else on the military market) and there were secret plans to launch Canada into space exploration.

And France even ordered 300 Iroquois engines from Orenda, before testing had even been completed. France wanted the best for their new fighter jet, the Mirage. And the Iroquois was the best! But the Canadian government killed the engine deal alongside the Arrow.

Later, there would be Bombardier, and de Havilland Canada, both with notable aviation achievements, but it wasn't the same, folks.

Not. At. All.

AVRO CANADA was the first "place" where Canada really excelled technologically, collectively, and INDEPENDENTLY as a nation.

Here, at Derry Road and Airport Road in Malton, the future looked to be full of promise, and our potential for additional achievement seemed to be unlimited. We had competed against those larger and more established nations, the USA, Great Britain and France…and we had finally rubbed shoulders as an equal.

And then when it couldn't get any better for Canada, or our future couldn't be any brighter, a lousy prime minister and a handful of nearsighted bureaucrats, who had long ago surrendered their man-card (© Debbie Schlussel) , threw away a decades worth of extraordinary Canadian prosperity and achievement.

And our next 50 years of promise.

So, there are still some, in Canada now, who actually think the Arrow "thing" wasn't such a big deal.

And that really was so long ago…you know…

These are the very same people who can't see the connection between causation, momentum, and dominance. These blighted types are those who naively, and wrongfully conclude, that America was always that great, world, superpower, we now see before us .

What they don't realize is that America emerged as the global frontrunner, because of just five short years of WW II participation, meeting and besting the challenge placed to them by their Axis foes. A challenge that had threatened their very existence as a free nation, and scared America out of their past isolationism and mediocracy. And America hasn't even had time to look back since.

So we'll never know what Canada could have been.

Our 10 years of excellence and cumulative technological advancement was brought to swift end on Black Friday: February 20, 1959.

Almost 50 years ago now…

With the ruination of Avro Canada by the obscure Canadian federal government of the day, we only know that "our moment" of critical mass and technological momentum, when reward would have compounded reward, conceived new visions, and forged new pathways, propelling us into an exciting and novel Canadian future, was ultimately, and finally lost.

Forever.

And that's it, folks…

Never. Did. Canada. Recover.

The Arrow wasn't just a plane, you dummies. It was our future ~


©CBC
© Brown Recluse Sings!
© SPIR
© Paul Cardin

.::: Canada's LOVE AFFAIR continues:::

… with the CF-105 AVRO ARROW…

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–

::: MADE IN Toronto. Again!

There’s one thing that I’ve learned about Canadians.

WE HATE losing.

In hockey… or in AVRO Arrows.

I must again lament the loss of the Arrow… because it is in so DEEPLY INGRAINED in the Canadian psyche. In the psyche of Canadians that matter, that is.

NOW CANADIANS, instead of lamenting (with Kleenex in hand) over picture books of a plane that ONCE WAS… it’s not too late to tell the story of the Arrow to your son, this time with the Arrow right behind you!

Where will you find an ARROW?

Well, at the Toronto Aerospace Museum.

Life-size, and in all its’ regalia (day-glo colour scheme) ~

But we’re Canadians, so the story can’t end there!

We need to come full-circle; we need a flying version.

So a 2/3 scale Arrow is being built, right now, in Alberta.

And so, the Arrow WILL TAKE to the skies yet again.

AND A government that tried to erase the Arrow (OUR SYMBOL of advanced technological achievement, and of a “little” country that could) from our Canadian conscience forever, ultimately, failed, In the end.

Yes, THERE WAS an Arrow, there is an Arrow… in fact, damn it… ARROWS are springing up all over the country.

‘nuff said ~


But jus’ so you don’t think the AVRO Arrow was any ole’ plane… here are:

CF-105 AVRO Arrow “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.
• 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.

© www.AvroArrow.org
© www.globalaircraft.org
© Special Projects In Research

:::BLACK FRIDAY:::..

February 20, 1959

PM Diefenbaker cancels the AVRO Arrow programme immediately putting 25, 000 Toronto GTA aerospace employees out of work.

MOST CANADIANS never forgive this blunder.


"THE AVRO ARROW was a fantastic performing aircraft…"

"I had flown it to 1.9 Mach myself…"

"…and we had 2.3 – 2.4 Mach potential…and in 1958…THERE WASN’T another airplane in the world ANYWHERE NEAR being competitive with this airplane."

Peter Cope,
Boeing Test Pilot
(for the 727, 737, 747, 757 and 767)


For Avro veterans, the Arrow romance is rich with regret and nostalgia.

"You sit there in a hotel room full of white-haired men and listen to their testimony," he says. "These are people who went on to land a man on the moon, but they said working on the Arrow was the best time of their lives. There was this spirit of enthusiasm and creativity at Avro that they never felt again. You could just tell it was like the Apple Corp. of the 1950s."

Producer,
CBC Mini-series, The Arrow

“I can't blame old Devil “Dief” for that. But where I do blame him is in the vindictive and vengeful way the planes were destroyed. That one or two weren't saved is the real black horror of the story."

Dan Aykroyd,
Actor in the CBC Mini-series, “The Arrow”
(played Crawford Gordon, President, A.V. Roe Canada Ltd.)

“Seeing those beautiful planes being demolished - I'll never forgive them for that."

Elwy Yost,
Host, Saturday Night At The Movies
(former Avro Personnel Manager)


“The GOVERNMENT OF CANADA had rank amateurs trying to sell the best interceptor in the world to countries who already had their own interceptor programs! So when these countries predictably said, “No”, the Canadian government threw up their hands and told the public, “We have a dud…it can’t be sold!

I could easily have sold 100 AVRO Arrows to the United States!

They didn’t have a long range, high speed, independent, and so electronically advanced interceptor. Only recently (mid-80s) the F-18 Hornet achieved this status, that the Arrow had already achieved in 1959.

In 1959, the United States was very interested in buying some Canadian land near Santa Claus. Had they purchased the Arrows, I would have given them that damn, useless piece (to us as Canadians, very useful to Americans) of rock and snow!”

Way up there at the North Pole…they would have appreciated our all weather, LONG RANGE, fly-by-wire Arrows!

Paul Cardin,
Friends of Flight 621


I'VE INCLUDED clips from the movie, "The Arrow", starring Dan Aykroyd (Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters etc.) as CRAWFORD GORDON, the former president of AVRO Canada…

This is how the creation of the AVRO Arrow all began…a challenge to overcome the "impossible".

The AVRO ARROW 201 prep, first take-off, maiden flight and first landing! ALL CLIPS are comprised of actual and special effects footage. All clips are copyright CBC and if you are an aviation nut, buy the 3 hour movie. It is called, "The Arrow" and the CBC store carries it! DEFINITELY worth it!!

I INCLUDED several clips showing the Arrow in action: www.youtube.com/NWAAII


© 2007 Special Projects IR
©1997 Maclean's ©1975 CBC's There Never Was An Arrow ©1980 Avro Arrow

AVRO Mansion…and the "One" That Got Away.

WHEN A.V. ROE Canada Limited started to unravel as a company it had already become the 3rd largest company in Canada within only a few short years.

AVRO was not only building the famed Avro Arrow, and those FLYING SAUCERS (the Avrocars), but it had also set its’ sights on a venture into space!

Even more importantly, and even more secretly than the Arrow and Iroquois projects, AVRO Canada had embarked on another large-scale goal known to only a select few. AVRO Canada was already midstride in building a large, “vertically integrated” empire of enterprise!

This was the goal, not only according to famed aviation author Peter Zuuring, Avro and Arrow expert, but according to others as well.

It was here, on this 11-acre parcel of land, high above the streets of Toronto, where details of the “empire” could be discussed with an absolute guarantee of privacy.

Here…far away from the Government of Canada, the RCAF, the “moles” inside the Avro plants, and all others who just didn’t understand INDUSTRY, plans for this collossal empire were being forged, and then routinely executed. Expansion through acquisition.

Viscount Montgomery, “Monty” (formerly commander of the Eighth British Army in North Africa during WW II), was entertained by AVRO Canada and enjoyed a private dinner with other notables here, back in the heyday of both Avro and the mansion.

Ironically enough, this English style palace is only two stone throws…maybe three…from the elementary school I had attended from kindergarten to Grade six! I even stumbled upon this “mystery mansion” when I was riding around the area on my Duomatic bike one day.

In Avro’s last days…there had been many, mysterious midnight runs from the Avro Malton facility to Ottawa.

But there was only one such “run” to this refuge. And it was here, at that very last stronghold of AVRO Canada…where very likely the “one that got away” ended up. Brought here, under a shroud of secrecy, during a very well-planned, and well-executed “midnight run”.

I once met a white and wispy haired old man, so long ago now – at an aviation trade show convention. He had overheard me talking about the Avro Arrow to a woman who had recently completed a labour of love: a highly detailed, rectangular quilt of the Arrow in level flight.

He interrupted our talk and grabbed me by the arm (rather forcefully I might add), turned me about, and said, “It’s at the house!”

What?!

“It’s at the house!!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

“It’s at the house!!!” “It’s at the house!!!”

“W H A T!!!…HOUSE?”

“WHAT’S…AT THE HOUSE?!!”

He immediately produced a pen, and clumsily pulled out a white dinner napkin from his jacket pocket, and wrote down: “TECARBIRSR”.

He pronounced it, “Te-car-bir-s(a)r.”

“The Arrow…is there!”

And then he walked off.

Poof! Gone.

I never did forget the old man, and that strange afternoon encounter…or his, “Te-car-bir-s(a)r."

I actually committed it, the “riddle”, to memory.

Now, that was in the late eighties.

And now, 25 years later, I present to you: TECARBIRSR.

It is the house pictured above. I uncovered it again, through recent Arrow research, and had actually, casually, taken some pictures of the Tudor-style, stone house some months ago.

I FINALLY just solved the riddle…when I chanced upon the name of the house in my research material.

So…was the Arrow “that got away” ever here?

Is it still here…perhaps buried, even entombed, somewhere on the palatial grounds?

Was it moved from here, and if so, when? And…to where?

Many questions folks…and absolutely no answers ~

(If you do know…drop me a line)

(I won’t tell you where the house is, or what it once was called, but you’ll know it with certainty, should you find it, by the Four Watchers just above the main door! And if you do find it, as I did, perhaps you better not pry too deeply because there are very likely MORE THAN the Four Watchers, still watching…)


©2006 - 2007 Paul Cardin
©1997 Maclean's
©1980 The Arrow
©1975 CBC There Never Was An Arrow