Avro Arrow test pilot
 

Although not entirely within the purview of this part of the Forum...here goes:

A GlobalNews item on tonights edition reports that Jan Zurakowski, primary test pilot for the Avro Arrow trials, died today in Barry's Bay, Ontario.

He retired to Barry's bay, opening and operating a tourist camp. A Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain, after the cancellation of the Arrow program, he never flew again.

Per Ardua Ad Astra.

It sure is another sad day in Canada's aviation history.

For those interested, here is a short bio of Janusz Zurakowski - http://www.forces.gc.ca/aete/BioJanusz_e.asp

The CBC website has a pretty good backgrounder on the Arrow.

Avro Arrow bits going to auction
 

The following newsclip is a fascinating little addendum to the saga of the Arrow.

For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the story, between 1957 and 1959 Canada developed and flew a new jet fighter which, with minor modifications, would still be among the best in the world today. Before the project was cancelled, one of the prototypes reached Mach 2, and that on two American- manufactured engines which had been installed pending the completion of a unique Canadian twin-powerpack which would have been capable of driving it through Mach 3. In 1959.

There was nothing like it in the world.

The project was declared dead unilaterally by the government of Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, with the excuse that it was too expensive. What followed made no sense at all and demonstrated a criminal lack of judgment - the six existing prototypes, all related tooling and even the blueprints, were destroyed by government order. All that remains today are a few subcomponents and miscellaneous bric-a-brac.

There are many theories governing this wanton destruction, but the truth will likely never be known; the most popular is that Canada was pressured to do so by the United States government through threats of overwhelming sanctions, simply because we had done something only dreamt of by others. Regardless, the end result was the destruction of the high-tech aerospace industry in Canada, and the not-so-ironic giant leap forward of that of the U.S., for when all Avro's employees were laid off, most of the engineers were snapped up by NASA and the other U.S. aircraft companies.

All we have left is a legacy.... oh, and a 1:1 scale replica Arrow, magnificent in itself, sitting in the Toronto Aerospace Museum on the grounds of the former CFB Downsview in Toronto. Hanno or Brian, have you a couple of photos of the latter you can share here? :)

The article in question:

Geoff: et al...

Two points...the F-101 Voodoo wasn't known as the "Widowmaker". That appellation belonged to the F-104 Starfighter.

Secondly, recent declassified information leads to the plausible explanation that the Arrow was cancelled because of the following...

After WW II, Canada became infested with Communist (i.e. Russian) spies.

Witness the Gouzenko affair.

So, Canada having produced an interceptor which could reach the maximum altitude of the Skunk Works' newly developed U-2 spy plane, the US said...Hey, Canada is infested with the big Red bad guys, selling or passing on secret information back to the Rodina.

So, went the thinking, if Canada has such a plane, the possibility is very high that the Russkies will do their copy cat trick and produce a similar aircraft which would pose a threat to the U-2.

End of Arrow, end of domestic Canadian high tech technology, end of story.



:( :o :mad:

I stand corrected, of course you're right about the appellation, Jon... of course had we had the Arrow it would be a moot point... :)

The Americans sucked Dief into believing the day of the manned interceptor was gone and sold him the Bomarc missiles. When the Bomarcs proved useless (the Americans already knew that) Dief was forced to replace the CF100s so we ended up with the Voodoo and they ended up with all our aerospace technicians. It was extremely good dealing on their part.

Zura
 

He was also famous for his display in a Meteor where he managed to make it cartwheel in the vertical plane using asymetric thrust.

Re: Avro Arrow bits going to auction
 

Good Heavens!!

I thought you were talking about TSR2. . . . . . . .

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co...r2/history.php

"All tooling was destroyed; on the production line, as workers completed assembly of some airframes prior to their transport to the scrap yard, the tooling was being destroyed with cutting torches behind them. A wooden mockup of the TSR.2 was dragged out of the Warton factory and burned while the workers looked on. All technical publications were ordered to be destroyed; even photographs of the aircraft were destroyed. Boscombe Down's official records of test flights were 'lost'. "

R.

Richard:

TSR and Arrow are almost a mirror image of our shared shame WRT government mis handling of a national asset.

Vegemite:

Asymmetric, surely.
:D :kangaroo :teach:

Hi folks, bit of an update on the auction outcome. ;)

Pedantic
 

Thanks, Jon that's what I meant. :doh:

Indeed so and the malodourous olfactory sensation of rattus rattus seems to pervade both shameful scenarios.

R.

agreed
 

"I'm Karmen and am not a stranger to MLU-ers !!! I'm just strange "

I agree 100% with that statement .

Re: agreed
 

As do an few others in here I've no doubt ;)

Carman