Quote:
Originally posted by Barry Churcher
Richard, thanks for the site on the Humdinga. It brought back memories of 1960. My mother worked for Dowty in Ajax and they were working on new projects after "Black Friday, Feb. 20/59" when Diefenbaker announced the cancellation of the Avro Arrow.  Mom brought home a projector and 2 films from the R&D department of Dowty. The first film was a promo for the jet drive in boats. It was filmed on the Don River in Toronto and showed the jet drive propelling this boat over logs and through the shallow water where an outboard wouldn't survive. My brother and I were more interested in watching the film being played backwards than anything else. The second film was of a Humdinga type vehicle being demonstrated to the Canadian and US military. It used the same Dowty Jet Drive for the water propellsion but I don't remember how it was powered for land use. Sadly at the time only the US Marines showed any interest and the project (with pressure from Dowty UK)  was scrapped, which led ultimately to more lay offs and Mom lost her job. Another "Made in Canada" innovation down the tubes.
Cheers,
Barry
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Thanks for the story, Barry. Don't even get me started about the Arrow.
Richard, that Humdinga looks... REALLY interesting! Dunno how you found that, but thanks for passing along the link.