The Avro Arrow airplane - Some strange events and connections to NASA:
In his 1976 book, Early Supersonic Fighters of the West, aviation guru Bill Gunston stated, Avro Canada CF-105 "[Arrow] was by a wide margin the most advanced fighter in the world”.
The Arrow looks like a triangle [variation of UFO craft?]
The production of the CF-105 was cancelled in February 1958, and all the planes were destroyed — a moment that became known as “Black Friday” in Canadian aviation industry. There is only one full-sized replica of the Avro Arrow in existence [NOTE: not sure if true, I have also read that only a few pieces remain].
The story behind the move has been a mystery ever since.
As for A.V. Roe, the company had grown to be the third largest in Canada, from its inception in 1946, to Black Friday in 1959. By 1962, it ceased to exist. [NASA destroyed the Canadian aerospace/potential future space program?]
Many Canadians would attribute the Arrow’s untimely demise to backroom pressure from the U.S. and its aerospace industry [NASA???]
Canada replaced the Arrow with a lacklustre American missile system BOMARC that the US itself was retiring, as it didn't really work, especially without the nuclear heads.
All details of the Arrow were inexplicably shredded. Perhaps the most egregious of acts following the immediate termination of the project is that all flying aircraft, including engines, jigs, tooling, technical information and blueprints, were ordered destroyed. For over 30 years, no one owned up to the decision.
In what was described as the ‘brain drain’, several top engineering minds moved to companies or agencies offshore. Most notably, 25 top engineers were immediately recruited by 💫NASA💫 in the United States and placed in key positions in aiding the development of the Mercury space capsules and subsequent follow-ons including Gemini, Apollo and the Space shuttle.
It pioneered modern fly-by-wire technology - One of the key features which set the Arrow apart from other aircraft of the day was that it was the first production aircraft to be designed and flown with a flight control system known as fly-by-wire. Incorporated into the design was transistorized technology.
A little-known fact is that instrumental in the design of the fly-by-wire controls of the Mercury spacecraft, were Jim Chamberlin and Richard R. Carley, drawing on their experience as ex-Avro Arrow engineers, who went to work for NASA immediately after the cancelation of the Arrow.
With five preproduction aircraft successfully flying, 32 others in various stages of assembly and Mark II Arrow 206, being readied for taxi trials with the Iroquois engine, the project was abruptly terminated. That same afternoon, A.V. Roe Canada Limited was told to cease and desist on all work related to the Arrow and its Iroquois engine, including all subcontracts. Some 14,000 employees who had been working at Avro and Orenda were ordered to drop tools and leave the premises. In all, government records estimate some 25,000 people were affected by the decision, when one factored in the various subcontractors. Newspapers of the day put the totals much higher.
Its key mission in war time was to prevent attack from incoming enemy aircraft from across the North Pole and south into Canadian skies and into the United States.
Addendum: The American XF-108 — also canceled — also bears an important mention. Its appearance and specifications were nearly identical to the Arrow, though its development lagged behind its Canadian counterpart a bit. It was canceled seven months after the Arrow was, for all the same reasons, with only one wooden mockup having been built.
The Avro Arrow airplane - Some strange events and connections to NASA:
In his 1976 book, Early Supersonic Fighters of the West, aviation guru Bill Gunston stated, Avro Canada CF-105 "[Arrow] was by a wide margin the most advanced fighter in the world”.
The Arrow looks like a triangle [variation of UFO craft?]
The production of the CF-105 was cancelled in February 1958, and all the planes were destroyed — a moment that became known as “Black Friday” in Canadian aviation industry. There is only one full-sized replica of the Avro Arrow in existence [NOTE: not sure if true, I have also read that only a few pieces remain].
The story behind the move has been a mystery ever since.
As for A.V. Roe, the company had grown to be the third largest in Canada, from its inception in 1946, to Black Friday in 1959. By 1962, it ceased to exist. [NASA destroyed the Canadian aerospace/potential future space program?]
Many Canadians would attribute the Arrow’s untimely demise to backroom pressure from the U.S. and its aerospace industry [NASA???]
Canada replaced the Arrow with a lacklustre American missile system that the US itself was retiring, as it didn't really work.
All details of the Arrow were inexplicably shredded. Perhaps the most egregious of acts following the immediate termination of the project is that all flying aircraft, including engines, jigs, tooling, technical information and blueprints, were ordered destroyed. For over 30 years, no one owned up to the decision.
In what was described as the ‘brain drain’, several top engineering minds moved to companies or agencies offshore. Most notably, 25 top engineers were immediately recruited by 💫NASA💫 in the United States and placed in key positions in aiding the development of the Mercury space capsules and subsequent follow-ons including Gemini, Apollo and the Space shuttle.
It pioneered modern fly-by-wire technology - One of the key features which set the Arrow apart from other aircraft of the day was that it was the first production aircraft to be designed and flown with a flight control system known as fly-by-wire. Incorporated into the design was transistorized technology.
A little-known fact is that instrumental in the design of the fly-by-wire controls of the Mercury spacecraft, were Jim Chamberlin and Richard R. Carley, drawing on their experience as ex-Avro Arrow engineers, who went to work for NASA immediately after the cancelation of the Arrow.
With five preproduction aircraft successfully flying, 32 others in various stages of assembly and Mark II Arrow 206, being readied for taxi trials with the Iroquois engine, the project was abruptly terminated. That same afternoon, A.V. Roe Canada Limited was told to cease and desist on all work related to the Arrow and its Iroquois engine, including all subcontracts. Some 14,000 employees who had been working at Avro and Orenda were ordered to drop tools and leave the premises. In all, government records estimate some 25,000 people were affected by the decision, when one factored in the various subcontractors. Newspapers of the day put the totals much higher.
Its key mission in war time was to prevent attack from incoming enemy aircraft from across the North Pole and south into Canadian skies and into the United States.