a.v. roe
About the Company
During the war, the A.V. Roe company produced several planes for warfare, such as the Anson, Lysander and the most well-known, the Lancaster Bomber in it's Malton plant, int Toronto. It was now a peacetime and new aviation ideas were surfacing. The company designed and built the first successful jet turbine powered passenger aircraft in North America called the "Jetliner". At this time the norm for passenger aviation were propeller powered planes such as the DC 3. The concept was revolutionary. After successful flights, the project was scrapped. The U.S. aircraft industry quickly picked up on idea.
Introducing the Avro Arrow
During the 1950's the "Cold War" was heating up between the United States and Russia. Nuclear bombs were everywhere, people lived in fear that a nuclear war would start and everyone would be killed.
The RCAF needing a replacement for the slow Cf-100, drew up requirements for a new "Jet Interceptor" which would fly past the north pole and shoot down the invading Russian planes in the far north before thay could reach populated areas in the south. This plane woudl protect Canada as well as the United Stated aince the shortest flying route to the Stated is over Canada. The revolutionary Mach 2+ "Avro Arrow" was designed. The "CF-105", was a large delta winged, twin engine plane that could leave bases in the south and reach the invaders in minuted.
The company was awarded the contracts and designed and testing began. To save design time and costs a prototype was not built, the company used sclae models for wind tunnel and high mach tests performed by CARDE. The results from these types of testing went right to the production line.
Testing the Avro Arrow
The rollout was on October 4, 1957, and the first flight was on March 25, 1958, successfully flown by test pilot Jan Zurakowski. The plane was successful and flight testing went on. Five planes flew for almost 70 hours, the sixth was 99% completed and was to be a Mark 2, incorporating the newly manufactured "IROQUIOS" engine provided by Avro subsidiary ORENDA. Thirty more were in various stages of production on the plant.
The "IROQUOIS" engine was a technological marvel in itse;f. Mostly created from titanium, it produced more thrust than any other engine built anywhere in the world and was very light.
The End of the Avro Arrow
Suddenly Febuary 20, 1959, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker stood in the house os commons and announced that the Arrow and Iroquois were canceled. This immediatly put over 50,000 people out of work at the plants and outside suppliers. Avro Canada was closed. All the planes, in production and flying, with their blueprints, dies, moulds, anything that had anything to do with the plane was ordered destroyed by the goverment. The pieces were cut up for scrap and smelted in Hamilton, Ontario.
A large number of engineers were immediatly recruited to NASA and worked on every US space project, including "Apollo". Avro Canada engineers played an important role in putting man on the moon. Some engineers went to the "COncord Project" and continued their work in high mach aviation.
The Avro Jetliner and Arrow are long gone, however they remain an important part of our Canadian history.