Avro Arrow test pilot

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

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:

Avro Arrow mementoes on auction block
Last Updated: Sunday, December 9, 2007 | 12:36 PM ET
CBC News

An important part of Canadian aviation history will briefly return to the spotlight Sunday as a Toronto auction house sells a collection of memorabilia related to the Avro Arrow jet.

Company papers, employee notices, models and photos — along with a copy of the fateful speech in the House of Commons announcing the project's demise — will go on the auction block around 2 p.m. ET.

The collection could sell for up to $50,000, according to Empire Auctions.

The first Avro Arrow interceptor jet was built with cutting-edge aviation technology and unveiled on Oct. 4, 1957. The federal government scrapped the project on Feb. 20, 1959.

About 14,000 people involved in the jet's development and construction lost their jobs.

In the analysis that followed, the decision to cancel the project became a symbol for some people of U.S. domination in Canadian politics.

Many believed then-prime minister John Diefenbaker stopped production of the supersonic Avro Arrow because of U.S. pressure.

"It seems that we have a product here which is far better than anything our friends from across the border can produce, and I just don't know why we have to drop it like this," said one man who lost his job at the A.V. Roe plant in Malton, Ont.

A key reason for cancelling the Arrow was the mounting cost of the program. Though the Arrow was an expensive plane, critics of the cancellation later argued that development could have been completed for the cost of the cancellation fees alone.

Canada still needed jet interceptors. Two years later the air force took possession of 66 used McDonnell F-101 Voodoo jet fighters from the United States, a plane they had rejected as inadequate before commissioning the Arrow. Editor's note -- "the infamous Widowmaker".

The planes were eventually given to Canada in exchange for Canadians staffing radar bases in the Arctic along the Pinetree Line, the first of three Cold War lines of air defence that included the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line and the Mid-Canada Line.