The Avro Arrow Story - Cancelled Without a Trace (1979)

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On 20 February 1959, Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker
abruptly halted the development of both the Arrow and its Iroquois
engines before the scheduled project review to evaluate the program
could be held.

Canada tried to sell the Arrow to the US and Britain, but no
agreements were concluded.Two months later the assembly line,
tooling, plans, existing airframes, and engines were ordered
to be destroyed.

The cancellation was the topic of considerable political
controversy at the time, and the subsequent destruction
of the aircraft in production remains a topic for debate
among historians and industry pundits.

"This action effectively put Avro out of business and its
highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered".

About the Arrow:

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor
aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held
the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft
(15,000 m) and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air
Force's (RCAF) primary interceptor into the 1960s and beyond.

The Arrow was the culmination of a series of design studies
begun in 1953 that examined improved versions of the Avro
Canada CF-100 Canuck. After considerable study, the RCAF
selected a dramatically more powerful design, and serious
development began in March 1955. The aircraft was intended
to be built directly from the production line, skipping the
traditional hand-built prototype phase.

The first Arrow Mk. 1, RL-201, was rolled out to the public
on 4 October 1957, the same day as the launch of Sputnik I.

Flight testing began with RL-201 on 25 March 1958, and the
design quickly demonstrated excellent handling and overall
performance, reaching Mach 1.9 in level flight. Powered by
the Pratt & Whitney J75, another four Mk. 1s were completed,
RL-202, RL-203, RL-204 and RL-205. The lighter and more powerful
Orenda Iroquois engine was soon ready for testing, and the first
Mk 2 with the Iroquois, RL-206, was ready for taxi testing in
preparation for flight and acceptance tests by RCAF pilots by
early 1959.

Exerpts from Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow

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