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…

AVRO AIRCRAFT of CANADA 1959: STUFF That Didn't Fly Then…

…and stuff that wouldn't fly now!

To the LEFT…a snow-melter powered by Avro's Orenda 10 jet engine for the Germans.

To the RIGHT…husband's and wives's duties at breakfast time. I have no comment, here.

The original state of the magazine is coloured with age, is a little beat up, and readily observed in the centre.

THE ORENDA Magazine published for the Orenda Engine Division of Avro Aircraft of Canada Limited…is sadly dated January 30, 1959. Three weeks, exactly, from the cancellation of Avro's main projects, the Arrow and Iroquois programmes, by the treacherous Diefenbaker government.

None of these folk saw it comin'.

Everyone, all 14,500 workers, were let go.

Must view LARGE to read floating articles…

...:::.. I LOVE Canadian Aircraft ..:::

YOU KNOW, when its all said and done, I do.

You know its true.

I LOVE CANADIAN AIRCRAFT!

When I first saw the "I love Canadian Beef" ads put out by the Beef Producers of Canada, I knew their message was good. Oprah had slammed beef on national TV, and her worldwide zombies hang on every word.

But others slammed beef too. Mad Cow, you know.

SO the Beef Producers of Canada did the one thing I like best about Canadians, they fought back at the disinformation. Right away.

I knew THEN…the "I love Canadian" concept had be taken to higher ground.

So I designed MY OWN bumper sticker. The Arrow illustration is fantastic, but not my own.

Now, in case there was any doubt, everybody, past, present or future…knows where I stand.

'nuff, said—

ORENDA IROQUOIS: Diefenbaker DIDN'T get it.

It was NEVER JUST ABOUT the Arrow… it was also about the Orenda Iroquois…

It was ALSO about NATIONAL PRIDE in superb AERONAUTICAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Funded by Canada, and produced by Canadians.

And when SOMEONE tells you that Canada couldn't have sold Arrows worldwide, there was no market, just think about all those "Made in France" Dassault Mirages THAT WERE sold to various countries worldwide.

Then ask yourself why Avro Canada couldn't have stolen that market?

Well… WE would' have—

But Canadian agriculture was all Diefenbaker understood.

TECHNOLOGY was beyond his simple boyhood experiences in Saskatchewan.

Combine and hay bales, for miles.

No jet fighters.

Anywhere.

Conclusion: jet fighters are unimportant.

And like the caveman that he was, Diefenbaker killed the Arrow, and the Iroquois.

But Canada, in the 50s, was big enough to be the breadbasket of the world, AND to market her aeronautical offerings of intercepter and jet engines.

But not with a dummy at the helm.

In the fifties, CANADA needed a visionary for a prime minister.

F***, we elected a farmer.



(from Wikipedia)

The ORENDA IROQUOIS

FOR THE CF-105 Arrow project, Avro Canada had originally intended to use one of three different engines, all UK designs: Rolls-Royce RB.106, the Bristol B.0L.4 Olympus, or a license-built version of the Olympus, the Curtiss-Wright J67.

The RB.106 and J67 were selected as the primary and backup engines for the new design. However, both the RB.106 and J67 were cancelled during the Arrow's design phase, too far into the program to select the Olympus.

Orenda Engines quickly responded with the PS.13 Iroquois design.
The Iroquois design was based on simplicity and lightness.

With this in mind, Orenda pioneered work in the use of titanium in engines, with 20% by weight of the Iroquois (mainly the compressor rotor blades) consisting of this metal. Titanium has light weight, high strength and good temperature and corrosion resistance. It was estimated that the engine would be 850 pounds (386 kg) lighter than if steel had been used. During the early 1950s, this material was in short supply, and the lack of knowledge of its physical properties and fabrication techniques created problems which had to be overcome. It was also very expensive relative to the more common materials such as steel and aluminum.

It was recognized that if the engine parts could be designed with titanium, then the supporting structure could also be lightened due to reduced forces within the engine, with an overall saving in weight. Other parts, such as gearbox casings were made with a magnesium alloy. Inconel was used to make the blades in the low pressure turbine assembly and the metal insulation blanket found at the rear of the engine. This heat resistant nickel-chrome alloy retains its strength at high temperatures and resists oxidation and corrosion. The primary reason for using these advanced metals was to save weight and improve performance, creating an engine with a 5:1 thrust to weight ratio that could produce a sea level dry thrust of 19,250 lb (26,000 lb with afterburner).

The design, development and manufacture of such an advanced jet engine was accomplished in an incredibly short time by the Orenda team.

The detailed design was completed in May 1954, and the first run was achieved in December 1954.

The earlier Orenda 9 had more parts but produced less power. For example, the Orenda 9 weighed 2,560 lb (1,160 kg) and produced 6,355 lb (2,883 kg) static thrust, while the Iroquois weighed 5,900 lb. (2,675 kg) but was reported to have produced 30,000 lb (13,608 kg) static thrust with afterburner for take off. (the Orenda did not have an afterburner.)

The Iroquois was one of the most powerful jet engines in the world at its time of introduction, rated at 19,250 lbf (85.6 kN) dry, 25,000 lbf (111 kN) afterburning. It was aerodynamically matched for peak performance at 50,000 feet (15,200 m) altitude and Mach 2 speed.

CANCELLED!! The MIGHTY IROQUOIS!

COURSE, the AVRO ARROW wasn't the only casualty on BLACK FRIDAY so long ago now… on that distant 20th of February in 1959.

There was also the mighty Orenda Iroquois PS-13 supersonic jet engine programme.

It too would fall to the cutter's torch.

A stained, faded, torn, age-old ad, barely, barely… recalls the glory.

Touted as being the successor to the Orenda Jet Engine TR.5, the ORENDA IROQUOIS would never fulfil that advertised destiny.

4,000 of the original Orenda Jet Engine TR.5s were produced and when they were unleashed upon the world… those Orendas were the most powerful engines in the world.

Orenda would hold that proud title from 1949 until 1952.

The AVRO ARROW was actually, originally, set to be powered by jet engines from the UK.

But there were delays. Big delays. And because of those delays, the first Arrows ended up using American Pratt & Whitney J75s, as Avro Canada became desperate to get their Arrows into the air.

But Avro also committed themselves to their Orenda Division for a new, better, engine as Avro Aircraft of Canada Ltd. looked to their future…

And that future was wide open!

And that immediate future was to be… the Arrow Mk. II.

An improved Arrow.

And that Arrow had to have better engines than the J-75.

Loads better.

So, the challenge was on.

And, ORENDA, folks… did not disappoint.

They came up with the PS-13 design. What you're lookin' at above.

And during its' testing period, this Iroquois prototype became the most powerful jet engine in the world! Rated by pounds of thrust.

And the new Orenda also produced the loudest, man-made sound, bar none. That's THE reason it was tested hundreds of miles away, in Nobel, Ontario… far, far, from civilized man.

And suburban Toronto.

The Armée de l'Air, or the French Air Force, were mighty interested in this new, and triumphant Canadian jet engine. Dassault hoped to put it into their own evolved French interceptor, the Mirage III. The French wanted to be first in line when the Iroquois engine became available, outside of the Arrow programme.

And Dassault was actually ready, stylo in hand, to ink a 300 engine purchase deal with Avro, while the Iroquois was still only in the testing stage!

But THAT grand overture was not to be, either.

So, on February 20th, 1959, as luck finally ran out for the Arrow… luck simultaneously ran out for the Orenda Iroquois. Even though it was, and would be a record-breaking jet engine.

And Canadian Prime Minister, John G. Diefenbaker, who swung the hatchet became the all-time ninny of Canadian politics.

But, as it turned out, there was to be a third victim in this wide-sweeping fiasco.

'Course, we'll save that story… for another day—

PS - The third victim WAS NOT the B-47 that was used extensively to test the mighty Iroquois. The Iroquois DID RUIN that borrowed USAF bomber (inset ad pic) that was on loan to Avro Canada, and the RCAF, for the Orenda Iroquois' testing phase.

Significant frame damage caused by the all-powerful Iroquois being mounted on only one side of the aircraft, the starboard side, rendered the large bomber unsafe for continued use.

Yes, that B-47 was soon scraped after its quiet return to the USAF. And no, that isn't the victim I am calling to mind.

::: 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.

Our MIGHTY, MIGHTY, LANC'

… comin' right at cha'.

A PICTURE… I wish I had taken…

Year in, year out… the Canadian Christmas shopping hordes make their rounds at Best Buy, Zellers, Future Shop, HMV, Canadian Tire, MALWART etc., you know, like THESE are the only stores that are out there.

Folks, this year be original. You got a few days left.

Don't get the same old tired-out predictable gifts you always buy your loved ones.

If you already did… take 'em back!

Remember why your ex-wife left you? You know some of those nasty things she said about you were true. Stop keeping' her predictions alive! She lives to mock those sweaters, scarfs, gloves, chocolate, and after-shave you always buy. Every year.

This year its gonna' be different.

Go to your local aviation museum and admit to them… you need help. Laugh about it for sure, but they'll get it.

My local museum is the CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM.

The one in TO is the Canadian Air & Space Museum.

I go to both.

They got great mags, movies, models, shirts, framed art, jackets, calendars etc. Different stuff. Not what every other store is offering.

Again, wish I had taken this picture. But Rick Radell took this, and the other glorious photos inside. This pic alone makes this 2010 calendar worthwhile for me.

And if ye needs a calendar for 2010, you might want to consider this one available at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum for $20 CDN!

Yup, $20 CDN!! Cheap—

SEE: www.warplane.com/Gift-Shop/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=38&a...

AVRO CANADA "STAT", yes… long before the Concorde, and long before the "Concordski", there was…

The Avro Canada STAT… and there it is above—

And something called a Space Threshold Vehicle. Goodness!

What the hell was that??

PROGRESS lost…
Such a cost…
Give me things,
That don't get lost ~

Sorry, Neil.

These additional remnants of Avro Canada glory (there's always more stuff to look at), all days gone by now, I'm afraid. This VISUAL reflection (graphic) is courtesy of Jim Floyd.

Jim has been the Keeper of the Avroite Kingdom through the decades.

JIM FLOYD was Avro Canada's former Chief Design Engineer. Back in the 50s, Jim received aviation's prestigious Wright Brothers Medal for his groundbreaking work on the Jetliner and became the first non-American to receive it. And like an Old Testament prophet of the past, he sometimes shows up unexpectedly at Avroite, or other notable Canadian aeronautical gatherings. And when he gets his chance to speak, he looks out at the crowded gathering, and he points to us while thundering, reminding us that WE, WE, gave away Avro Canada and all her fine achievements.

And there I am, just as I'm about to pop my World War II souvenir SS cyanide pills, you know, to end it all, Jim bellows, and points at me,

"That's not the answer!"

I look at him. His eyes are fierce and like burning charcoal.

He is cradling a model of of the C-102 Avro Canada Jetliner under his arm.

"But, Jim"…I weakly respond, "There never was an Arrow, all of Diefenbaker's cabinet said so…"

"THERE WAS AN ARROW!!!!!!!! And A JETLINER, and AN AVROCAR, and A CANUCK, AN ORENDA and a AN IROQUOIS… and a whole lot of other things!!!!!!! You have no idea!"

Jim continued,

"YOUNG MAN, get rid of your despair, and throw off your apathy!! THE FUTURE, I repeat, the future is wide open!!!"

And with that, he hurls, hurls, his Jetliner model right at me.

I have no time to move. OR THINK. CLUNK! (no pun intended), the Jetliner hits me square in the forehead! And like being hit by Canadian boxer Eggerton Markus… down. I. Go.

I awake, a day later, in the hospital.

The attending staff tell me I had a seizure, and they can't explain the welt on my forehead.

They attempt to console me and tell me, it probably happened when I fell to the ground. I attempt to correct them. I tell them no, that I was actually hit by an Avro Jetliner.

And like any other no-nothing dummies, this nation turns out in droves, they ask me what's that?

"Well, you know, from Avro Canada. The people that produced the Arrow, produced the Jetliner first. It was the first jet powered airliner in North America, and the second in the world, at the time."

"What", the young doctor scoffs, "Before the Americans?"

"Nurse, 200 cc ----------------------, stat… stat!!"

"Hey, hey…", I respond, just barely conscious, "You know about the STAT?"

50 YEARS AGO: A Microburst… Trans-Canada Air Lines, and the Shameful Treatment of Captain Harry Bell

AS YOU SALUTE US, Captain Harry Bell, decorated WW II Halifax bomber pilot, formerly of RCAF Group 6 of Bomber Command, we salute you.

Good father. Faithful husband. Churchgoing man. Proud Canadian.

Esteemed, Trans Canada Air Lines (TCAL) captain…

Well, until October 3, 1959, that is.

And on that day, Harry’s whole world would change and the rest of the world wouldn’t catch up to Harry until 16 years later. When he should have been vindicated.

But, even then, he wasn’t.

That wasn’t TCAL, or Air Canada’s way.

Admitting that a mistake had been made, that blame had been placed on a proud man’s shoulders, where it never should have been, well, they couldn’t just do that, now could they?

Through the years there would be Workers Comp hearings. Harry’s back was pranged after the accident, but TCAL didn’t believe that, either. So Trans Canada Air Lines even got Harry a job at Japan Air Lines! Right after, they fired him!

But Harry didn’t show up at the new job, the refusnik!! The logic escaped Canada’s national airline at the time, but everyone else could see it. If Harry can’t fly airplanes for TCAL, how could he possibly fly them for JAL?! Tokyo comfort girls be damned!

Worker’s Compensation eventually sided with Harry, and forced the petulant airline management to compensate him monetarily for the injury that he had sustained while flying for them. And thereafter he received a pension from Trans Canada.

But what solution to Harry’s battered reputation?

Well, that too appeared to come out of Japan.

Ironically.

Only 16 years later.

In 1975, Japanese meterologist Tetsuya Fujita, provided the explanation, which had eluded Harry in 1959, when his TCAL four-engined Vickers Viscount (CF-TGY) quite suddenly slammed into the ground.

On that day in October of ‘59, Harry had just taken over from his co-pilot who had been piloting the new aircraft, but had become alarmed, even bewildered, by the intensity of a localized thunderstorm that had appeared unexpectedly, and only last ed briefly, over Malton Airport.

And which, they were now flying into.

Captain Bell assured his First Officer, John M. that he had control, could see the runway clearly, and would take passengers and crew, in. Check.

Maybe ten seconds later, there was a sudden drop of the Viscount, a whoosing sound, a loud thud, followed up by that even louder, unbearable sound of metal tearing.

They had landed alright. Before the runway!

Straight through a reservoir.

And the new Vickers Viscount?

Well, now, only a broken mess.

A complete write off. Hull loss, as its known in the airline biz.

John pulled Harry out his pilot’s window. Harry couldn’t move.

Jane N. the stewardess, got all passengers safely out, and away from the plane, that was now lying on the ground, broken, just aft of the cockpit. Its undercarriage… well, no where to be seen.

Harry couldn’t explain what had happened. But he knew that he had made no operational mistake in the execution of his duties as a pilot.

It didn’t take Trans Canada Air Lines long to decide what would happen, though.

Harry got his last pay cheque the following week, stapled to a letter of recommendation from Trans Canada Air Lines. The page was blank.

And Harry had kept it through the years.

Still outraged, some forty-five odd years later when I met up with him, as anybody rightly should be for being blamed for an event, especially something as colossal as a airplane crash, which he hadn't actually caused.

So WHAT was the cause, folks?

A microburst.

Oh, Microsoft… that explains it!

No, NOT MICROSOFT, they weren’t even around then… a MICROBURST!

Here’s how it happens, and yes, microbursts have thrown around even larger aircraft than Harry’s, with even more tragic results!

Harry’s Viscount entered a suddenly appearing, localized severe thunderstorm, at Toronto International Airport (Malton Airport, back then) while on the landing approach. When that flight crew had originally plotted this flight from Montreal making their customary weather check, there were no storm warnings coming out of Toronto.

The coast, or rather Malton, was clear.

All right then.

As Harry was landing his Viscount and began entering the microburst, he encountered headwinds that increased the air speed of his airplane. To maintain a slower and proper airspeed for landing, and the aircraft’s rate of descent, Harry reduced engine power to compensate.

However, just as the Viscount got through the headwind, it encountered a downdraft.

Then a tailwind.

The Viscount was now flying too slowly to stay aloft, and since power had been cut previously, the Viscount was left without the necessary power to quickly climb again.

Some aircraft go nose first after flying into a microburst.

Fortunately, Harry’s Viscount just pancaked onto the ground and thus everyone onboard survived.

Fujita published his theories on microbursts in 1974. The scientific community both embraced his theories, and reviled them at the time.

But on June 24, 1975 Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 crashed in New York City at Kennedy Airport killing 113 of the 124 aboard. That accident was blamed on a severe localized thunderstorm that caused an intense downdraft which forced the Eastern 727 airliner to pancake into the runway. Fujita, had earlier stated that when something comes down from the sky, and hits the ground, it will spread out. That was the observed pattern of the 727 crash. This outburst effect, and pattern, Fujita first noticed after flying over Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.

But the blame for the accident and loss of the Viscount prop-liner STILL remains on Harry's reputation to this day, because no one at Air Canada has done the right thing, and reversed the ancient conclusion, or offered him apology.

I have no idea whether Harry is still alive, but expect his family would certainly accept the proper overture from Air Canada. One, cancels out the other. Even many years hence.

But that is the realm for gods, and for the high, and mighty.

And not, not, for an airline that seems to be on the verge of bankruptcy, and internal disaster, every other year—

(Pictured is Harry in his RCAF bomber's jacket… and a battered and weathered Trans Canada Air Lines Vickers Viscount just like the ones Harry used to fly)

::: WIDOW and the Widowmaker ::

"Hush there, littl' darlin…"

Who she is remembering…we have no idea. Whomever…rest in peace—

The CF-105 Starfighter, of which 200 were made in Montreal.

While the CF-104, and its American version (F-104) were a favorite amongst pilots everywhere…they showed no mercy to those who flew her.

Make a mistake…you often didn't get a second chance.

Hence, the nickname "Widowmaker" given to her by pilots everywhere.

In fact 110 CF-104 were lost in operational accidents flying under the RCAF banner.

The first Canadair-constructed CF-104 (RCAF serial number 12701) was airlifted from Montreal to Palmdale, California in the spring of 1961, where it made its first flight on May 26. The second CF-104 (12702) also made its first flight at Palmdale. The first two CF-104s to fly at Montreal were Nos. 12703 and 12704, which both took to the air on August 14, 1961.

The CF-104 was powered by a Canadian-built J79-OEL-7, which was made at Orenda Aerospace in Malton.

AND REMEMBER while there was no money to finish and fly the already 37+ Avro Arrows, 17 complete, and the rest near completion…the Diefenbaker government found money to buy 200 of these!'

Diefenbaker…shot and pizzed on I say—

The Way We Were ::: 1953 ::: CANADA

That's CRAWFORD GORDON (President, A.V. Roe) and FRED SMYE (Vice President, A.V. Roe) shaking hands with the men who were rolling THE FIRST CF-100 Mark IV Canuck off the line, in 1953. On time, and right on schedule.

What a difference two years made with Crawford at the helm.

The earlier CF-100s were delivered to the RCAF in 1951, two years late by that point, and structurally unsound.

Shortly thereafter Crawford turned the whole lackluster enterprise around, commandeering Avro to become the 3rd largest company in Canada by 1955!

So when the tale of Canada is told…the story of Avro CANADA (A. V. Roe Canada) must be told, as well.

To Canadians.

Forget Louis Riel, who was only an insignificant dreamer. But, whom, my history teachers were absolutely mesmerized with back in the soulless high school years of the late 70s.

The esprit de corps at Avro Canada, and the aeronautical achievements at Avro and Orenda for Canadians, and by Canadians, in the 17 short years of her aviation related existence, were absolutely breathtaking for the outsider to behold. Employees were enthusiastic. And unquestionably devoted. As a collective they had that strong regard for the honour of their company. And their country.

Avro was the only place to be, in Canada, in the 50s.

But, let's not pretend. It'll will never happen again.

The little country that could.

Did. However briefly. And that's where it ends.

We will never again repeat the scope and diversity of those aviation technological achievements from such a united and singular industrial base.

Marvels, really—

In technology, and industrial amalgamation.

Avro Canada funded initially and exclusively by the Government of Canada…but moving toward a more public and commercial model of self-sufficiency, only to be ruined in the end.

The Jetliner, the CF-100, the Avrocar, the Orenda Iroquois, and the Arrow. And all that stuff on the drawing boards. Only far flung memories now.

So Avro Canada must always be remembered for lofty dreams, detailed planning and brilliant execution…but only, only—by those Canadians that matter.

"NEVER WAS" does acknowledge the commercial and technological success of Bombardier Aerospace Canada…but I've always been partial to military stuff.

Hey, I gave my heart to Avro.

I own the copyright to this post production rework of the original Avro photo. All rights reserved.

© Paul Cardin
© 2009 SPIR

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

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!

The Way We Were ::: 1960 ::: CANADA

The AVROCAR…Canada's Flying Saucer - the World's Only, Ever…

In 1953, US military officials visited AVRO Canada to view Canada’s new fighter-jet, the CF-100 Canuck.

“Jack” Frost, known formerly outside of AVRO Canada as John Frost, Chief Designer of the de Havilland Hornet (basically, a better Mosquito), and Swallow project, who had also worked on the famed Vampire, and had been working on “stuff” at Avro Canada since 1947 wanted to share his SPG work with the visiting USAF and defense “delegation”.

These US defense staff had only come up to see Canada’s newest fighter, but they walked away seeing a hellva’ lot more.

Frost took them over to the Schaeffer Building where the Special Projects Group of AVRO Canada was located.

Here security guards, numerous locked doors, and special pass cards were a way of life. And here the unsuspecting delegates were introduced to Project Y.

Project Y was a wooden mock-up of a flying saucer capable of flying 1,500 mph and climbing vertically.

VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing)!

The Americans were astounded.

Still, they musta' reasoned, the Canadians had accomplished a lot in recent years…Avro Canada had already produced North America’s first jetliner (five years before America’s first, the Boeing’s 707), they had just seen the brand new Canadian jet fighter, and now here, right before their eyes was Canada’s ultra-secretive Project Y.

It was all too much.

But wait Frost continued…there’s more!

So the now, the very interested Americans, were introduced to the Y-2 Project and the Avrocar venture as well.

Again, it was all too much.

But Frost’s gamble paid off…and out came the USAF (and later the US Army's) chequebook. "Jack" had shown the USAF, secret drawings and items, other Avro Canada executive, then in attendance, didn't even know about!

The USAF was so interested in these projects, they later took over all the funding of AVRO Canada’s Special Project Group, and consequently the Y Projects.

So, in February of 1959 when the Arrow related projects (the Avro Arrow I and II and the Orenda Iroquois engine) were cancelled, and all 13,000 AVRO Canada employees were terminated and thrown out of work, Avro’s Special Project Group soldiered on, alone. There the SPG worked now, in those big empty buildings, where the Arrow and the Iroquois were now only a whisper, until March of 1961 when their US funding was finally exhausted.

The USAF formally cancelled the Avrocar and the WS-606A Supersonic VTOL programs, as they were officially known in December 1961.

ABOVE, the Avrocar flies at YYZ, Malton Regional Airport then, sometime in 1960.

a NEW PUPPY for…

…Air Canada.

Only 7 months old, this is the FIRST REAL photo I've taken of Air Canada's newest "puppy".

It's BIG.

AIR CANADA is the very FIRST OPERATOR of the next generation (300 series) 777s on the North American continent.

The TWO MASSIVE GE90-115B engines which power this Air Canada "beast" are the LARGEST AIRCRAFT ENGINES in the world.

And since we're talking about Air Canada…when the Boeing Dreamliner 787 comes out in 2010, Air Canada will be the largest operator of the Dreamliner in North America with 60 on order, and the second largest operator of the Dreamliner in the world next to Qantas.

With these significant Boeing purchases, Air Canada's "love affair" with Airbus is "officially" over.

AIR CANADA has gone through different aircraft purchase stages. The DOUGLAS and Vickers stage, followed by the Airbus and Canadair stage and now the Boeing and Embraer stage.

"You and I" were meant to fly, so sings CD.


HOW TO RECOGNIZE an Air Canada 777

1) Massive size with a thin sharklike tail

2) Only in UGLY "toothpaste" livery colours

3) Two HUGE engines

4) Rear bogies… 3 sets of two wheels

'nuff said ~

(partial source: Wikipedia)

(All Flickr "pieces" processed in Streetsville.)

The Way We Were ::: 1957 ::: CANADA

The ROLL-OUT of the CF-105 Avro Arrow…here again at the Toronto Aerospace Museum in 2006~

AVRO CANADA was "wrapped up" very quickly after PM Diefenbaker cancelled the Arrow interceptor and Iroquois engine programmes. Former Avro employees were sought out immediately, by eager American and British aerospace employers. THESE VERY ex-Avro Canada engineers went on to produce Lougheed, McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing aircraft, the Concorde and then THEY PUT America in space!

Yup…Diefenbaker's irrational posturing (with Crawford Gordon, President of AVRO CANADA in 1959) and final decisive stupidity, set ALL THAT, Canada's first BRAIN DRAIN, in motion.

NEWLY-ELECT Prime Minister Diefenbaker, who preached "a brave new world" as his campaign promise…in the end, completely lacked ANY VISION or bravery whatsoever.

FOREVER TO BE REMEMBERED, as that "small town prairie lawyer" who rose to the occasion, at that defining moment, so drunk with "newfound" power and who so enraged, deliriously and maliciously, demanded an end to our (AVRO CANADA's) momentous cutting-edge, and preeminent aerospace achievements…and We…WE, the slumbering citizens of Canada, just as lost for letting him shamefully end it!

EVERY TIME I think of this needless and HORRENDOUS aviation tragedy, the death of the Arrow interceptor and the Iroquois engine projects, how close we came, I get so mad…DAMN IT…I don't know what to do!!!!!!

You'd think the years would lessen the blow!

Nope.

IF THIS reflective RAGE doesn't still consume you…even now…well then, you just can't be all that Canadian~