Quote:
Originally posted by Jon Skagfeld
Through a certain amount of research, I'm fairly certain (in my own mind) just why the Arrow project was killed.
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There were several reasons the Arrow was cancelled. The "Oliver Stones" out there will tell you the U.S. put pressure on the Canadian Government to cancel it. That is simply not the case. The Arrow cancellation was due to internal Canadian politics, increasing development costs, and lack of foresight of the future battlefield.
The All Weather Requirements Team from AFHQ was formed in 1952 and in April of 1953 the RCAF released it's specs for a new supersonic fighter. AVRO came up with a delta planform and received the go ahead from Ottawa in July 1953. The party in power at that time were the Liberals under Louis St. Laurent who had backed the program, albeit with reservations. The Conservatives who were less friendly to the Arrow program won a landslide victory in 1958. Diefenbaker personally thought that manned interceptors "would go the way of the Pterodactyl." All this culminated in "Black Friday" when Diefenbaker rose in the House of Commons on Feb. 20, 1959 and announced the cancellation of the Arrow. His reasons for the cancellation were manyfold. The Russians had fewer long range bombers than thought and ICBMs were about to be supplemented by sub-launched missiles which would negate the need for manned interceptors. Costs were also spiralling out of control which brings us to:
Development costs. The CF 105 Arrow was a quantum leap forward in aerospace technology at the time. Consider the new problems encountered in metallurgy, airframe design, engine design, fire control and weapon systems. Canada, albeit with the help of the UK and the US was shouldering most of the costs for not just the aircraft, but also the "Iriqouis" engines from Orenda and the "Velvet Glove", a semi-active radar homing air to air missile. The US was helping with the developement costs of the Velvet Glove, but dropped their financial backing to concentrate on the Sparrow, which it was thought was going to be a superior air to air missile. Here is where the conspiracy theorists started blaming the US and that rumour has only grown over the decades.
The cancellation was the culmination of many things, and Canada's greatest mistake. The technology surge enjoyed by the US after our scientists went looking for work elsewhere was only rivalled by the technology the Nazi rocket scientists brought to the US after WW II. History has shown Ottawa's short sightedness in their decision as Canada has purchased several weapons systems such as the Bomarc and the CF 101, CF 104, CF 5, and the CF 118, none of which could have done the job of the Arrow.