Destruction of the parts, plans ,production tools and any prototypes is standard procedure when UK and Commonwealth aircraft project, naval project is cancelled or the last example is withdrawn from UK, RAN or RAF service. It was the order the day TRS2 was cancelled the same when the Nimrod AD and ASW production was cancelled by Cameron a decade. Incredibly the UK even made the order when HMS Plymouth was sold to a scrap merchant this century nearly a quarter century after it decommissioned
It was a Liberal gov't project and to win the election, he said he would scrap the project, The medias were very critical of the plane as a show of force of public relations, the military did not publicly defend the technical merit of the plane feeling it was confidential and they kind of lost credibility.... the all-might of the control of information by the media industry showed its power again and Diffenbaker rided along
This was not the national dream. That was the CPR which unified our country east to west and still runs today. This was an obsolete waste of taxpayers dollars.
I think he was afraid of the future. I think his mind could not fully comprehend the horrors of what happened in the war that was just fought , and the future scared him. I can only guess that he thought that if he shut down the arrow it would make thing safer.
@@ivorholtskog5506 i’m doing a school project on this plane, and i need an interview, may I ask a few questions? 1. how old were you when it was canceled 2. What was the national sentiment towards the plane 3. And what was the sentiment towards the cancelation
Permanently damaged the Canadian psyche and pride of self and innovation. Why not pivot to a different type of jet then, rather than destroying everything and losing all that talent and brain power
It's a good point - the engineering know how. What about the clean-up plan? Ergo if bombers come over the north pole and interceptors fire nuclear warheads etc. to knock them down, what was the thinking around the eventual restoration of the boreal forest? I often think of novelist (and engineer!) Nevil Shute's story "No Highway" which describes in some detail what a NON-nuclear crash site looks like in heavy bush. Want some ketchup from Palomares, Spain on that hot dog you're eating?
Out of the ashes of this debacle came the world’s third largest aerospace industry. Absolute global leaders in general aviation, regional airliners, business aircraft, helicopters, and the turbine engines that power all of them. And funded mostly by private investment and sales, not endless taxpayers dollars. Like the Orenda engineers. Some went to Pratt & Whitney Canada. They were working on a tiny 500 hp turboprop to replace the radial engines they were building. The Orenda engineers simply couldn’t believe the tight tolerances required for such a tiny engine.. and that it was being developed on a strict $250,000 budget. That engine is the PT6 and it’s by far the best selling turbine engine in the world-still being made today for brand new aircraft.
I wish i knew the true story. I know during the avro arrow launch intercontinental supersonic heavy bombers were being not replaced but cut down by 99 percent with ballistic nuclear tipped missiles. And this was the cold war nato vs warsaw but mainly America vs Soviets. And a jet as sophisticated as the avro arrow a more sophisticated interceptor that was big enough to be a bomber. That was better in most ways including speed then the worlds other interceptors. During a arms race for the fate of the world. The United states and nato could not risk leaving top of the line canadian innovation sitting around for the soviets to steal. Which mark my words they either did or would have. So would the states, Britain and France. Also the avro arrow was a threat to America. Even though were partners more than allies america still cant let canada have a edge especially during a cold war arms race when between you and the enemy is only one country Canada. Which means the amount of Spies, subversion and traders in canada was strive. If the soviets could subvert Canada to a Soviet first posture. It could win ww3 or cold war alot easier.
It will never be admitted, but the CIA was afraid of the Avro Arrow and had a hand in the destruction of Canada's aerospace industry and ultimately our long-dead status as a functional, independent nation.
Originally there were only to be 2 Avro Arrows built, and Canada could afford to build these Interceptors. Then it became 9 and then 37 Avro Arrows to be built. From what I was reading, the only thing done by the PM at that time was to announce the end of the program. He had no authority to do so. That process was done via The Council of Canada and then went to the Governor General and then the PM. Even before that, the PM was all for the project, we had the money to build all 37. It was the members like the military and other governmental groups that talked about the inability to afford the cost, which we could do, meaning to just up and end the program. Adding in the extra, would naturally up the cost. When the PM had all the information he needed, was when he was given permission to make the announcement. If he had truly had that kind of power, I don't think people would be walking out with blueprints nor would the Cockpit of RL206 be in Ottawa. RL206 was 95% done as the next generation Mk2 Avro Arrow and was about 1 week from starting trials. RL207 was about 50% and RL208 was 25% and the other 2 other aircraft up to RL210, were almost unrecognizable as aircraft at that point. In fact, I know there was chatter about installing the 2nd PS13 Engine, and then fueling RL206 and taking off someplace. But it was shot down because RL206 was not certified to fly. I'm almost betting the story about one getting away, came from that story. The interesting part is that NO ONE admitted to saying they put an end to the Avro Arrow Program. But Diefenbaker had to, as he announced it, therefore he was the scapegoat.
The President of Avro Canada and The prime minister Diefenbaker together destroyed Avro Arrow Project, and For Canadians to be recognized for creating the best aircraft interceptor ever.
Our problem is that we don't have Pride our own greatness. Does anyone know where the Full Size Arrow is displayed today? This is one of our biggest innovation after Hockey, Insolin, Telephone, 8G Fighter Pilot Suit (so they don't pass-out)etc. Messier-Dowty (Ajax) made the original Landing Gear and the for the 50yrs Anniversary full size Model. It sits in an Airport 1.5hrs north of Toronto and can be seen on on Weekdays 9am-4pm if it is open. Shame on us Canadians. The US Apollo 11, Blackbird, Shuttle model in every Aerospace Museum. We even make Tim Hortons successful and sell it. We made the C-Series as the best selling aircraft today, but we gifted it away. No Pride to fight for it.
The best thing Diefenbaker did??.... Give aboriginals the vote (it's hard to believe they couldn't vote before Diefenbaker). The worst thing he did??.... destroy Canada's pride and joy, the Avro Arrow. That was absolutely unforgivable.
As an American, I wish the CF-105 had entered service. Outstanding aircraft. So much potential down the shitter, even more than the TSR.2. Diefenbaker was a tool.
As a Canadian… I don’t care. The Arrow was the equivalent of a fully automatic ball musket. Definitely superior to a flintlock musket.. but totally obsolete in the face of new ICBM threats. This is where we got off the train of runaway cost-plus-fee defence contracts that still plague the Pentagon.
@@calvinnickel9995 Runaway costs, yet those same engineers deciding to work on the moon landing project for NASA after getting laid off were justified costs? Keeping those engineers and using the talent/knowhow from the Arrow and into other projects within Canada would've yielded more profitable than scrapping everything - we aren't the US, there are plenty of countries that have sizable domestic manufacturing capabilities without an intrusive military industrial complex. The tech, brainpower and development could've easily been converted to a new fighter, attacker or even passenger aircraft. As for the BOMARCs and ICBM defence? Those weren't even effective at the job they were supposed to do because Deafie scrooged out on those as well.
On the contrary, they have changed, and have, in the process, changed Canada and even the Liberal party. Before Diefenbaker, Ontario was a conservative fortress and the Conservative party was about conserving Ontario's supremacy over Canada. Diefenbaker was an outsider in the party. The Liberals were about granting power to the rest of Canada - although their means for doing so was to build up Ottawa. At the time, that was acceptable to the west. Diefenbaker changed all that. He brought western populism to the party, but isolated the eastern elite. He also caused the Liberals to shift to progressivism. His premiership came at a cost - the new Diefenbaker faction clashed with the old guard. After briefly splitting away with the Reform Party, they grew their strength, rebounded to take over the Conservative party, got back into office.
@@chm985 You're not disagreeing with me - they were the status quo of the time. Diefenbaker's populism caused them to shift to the left - their problem was under Trudeau, they took it too far.
Used to be able to see the bomarc missile silos on the way up to north bay..too bad they didnt work...after scrapping the arrow we bought used voodoos from the u. s...crappy planes...nobody would buy the arrows,the debtload was huge for a small country so they went the way of the dodo...saw one in flight when i was 5
Elephant in the room: The reason the Arrow was cancelled was for the reason that at the time the arrow was built in Canada and Canada was not in NATO and so the Arrow could be sold to any country in the world . Truman knew this and so as POTUS he meet with Def and made him an offer of the Bomarc Missle and he "STREESED" how it would be in Canada's intrest to go that way for our defence and Def caved and no more Arrow.
Isn't Canada one of the founding nations of NATO? Also, on the subject of non-NATO members, isn't Sweden ouside of NATO? They've been making fighters for years, including Europe's first home-grown fully supersonic aircraft. Any evidence that they were bullied out of the fighter business?
