Friday, July 01, 2005

 

Steve's Video Of The Day: "Avro Arrow", Part 1

The Avro Arrow was a revolutionary jet interceptor, designed and built by the A.V. Roe Aircraft company of Canada. The Arrow was a plane of firsts, fly by wire, computer control, integral missile system and capable of MACH 2+. The year was 1958, and the COLD WAR was raging. The Arrow was designed to intercept Soviet Bombers, but in Canada it seems like the Federal Government is hostile to any new ideas, innovation, and forward-thinking. Basically, I think they had, have, and always will have, a severe case of "myopia", especially where aviation is concerned. Anyways, instead of me detailing exactly what happened with the "Arrow", I will post the info in 4 parts, with video/audio and lots of extra info. It is a great tale of missed opportunities, poor decisions, lack of awareness of what was happening globally, and was basically a blunder of major proportions. When the Arrow was cancelled, instead of Canada being at the forefront of aviation innovation, thousands of workers were laid off, and with barely a whimper, we shuffled to the "back of the bus", and quietly ate our "inferiority complex" sandwich. Ask Max Ward about aviation hurdles in Canada.

VIDEO 1 -The RCAF Needs A New Plane

VIDEO 2 -Unveiling The Arrow

VIDEO 3 -The Arrow's Maiden Flight

As you can see, an amazing story, and a promising airplane.

CF-105 AVRO ARROW SPECIFICATIONS

Primary Function: Supersonic all weather interceptor

Contractor: Avro Aircraft Limited

Crew: Two

Unit Cost: $3.5M ea

Powerplant

Arrow I: 2 Pratt & Whitney J-75 P5 turbojet engines each with 12,500 lbs thrust or (18,000 lbs in A/B)

Arrow II: two Orenda Iroquois axial flow turbojet engines, 26,000 lb (11,791 kg) static thrust or (30,000 lb in A/B)

Dimensions

Length: 85 feet 6 inches (26.1 meters)

Wingspan: 50 feet (15.2 meters)

Height: 21 feet 3 inches (6.5 meters)

Weights

Empty: 43,960 lb (19,935 kg)

Gross: 62,431 lb (28,319 kg)

Performance

Speed: 1,524 mph (2,453 km/h)

Ceiling: 58,500 ft (17,830 m)

Range: 820 mi (1,330 km)

Armament:

Four AIM-4 Falcon or Sparrow 2 missiles

Service Life

First Flight: March 25, 1958

End of Service: Feb 19, 1959
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March 25/58, to February 19/59, not even a chance to prove it's capabilities. Just another fine decision by the over-fed, rich, "jowled", out-of-touch, pampered, fake "intellectuals" running the country at the time, and I get a sense of "deja-vu", because today, nothing has changed!

# posted by Steve @ 4:34 AM
Comments:
I thing belive shuting down cf-105 was the right thing . It"s mission was gone with ICBM were made operational . It was a advanced aircraft but there were orther aircraft as good or better . ie sr-71 The Aircraft we realy lost out on was the Avroe Jet liner it had 5 years on every thing . It makes we wonder how shuting down over budge white elephant, the liberals are still able to to use it .
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 11:14 AM
 
Thanks for the comment, spelling and grammatical errors, and all. What I am trying to put forth with these posts, is the adversarial attitude of the Government to any innovation in aviation in Canada. Yes, the Avro C-102 Jetliner cancellation was a disgrace also, as it was a technologically superior aircraft. Howard Hughes wanted to build it under license at Convair, as he was so impressed with it. The U.S. Government deep-sixed that idea, because all Convair's technical people were needed for the Korean War effort. And by the way, getting back to the Arrow, after it's cancellation, the Canadian Government still needed jet interceptors, and got 66 used McDonnell F-101 Voodoos from the U.S. Government, and by 1988, had replaced them with 138 McDonnell F-18 Hornets, at a cost of $5.2 billion! Whatever the debate, the fact remains, cancelling the Arrow, and losing the technological advances that would have come with it, and after it, was a "bad" decision, and Canada's Aerospace Industry today suffers because of it!
# posted by Blogger Steve : 4:43 PM
 
The comment regarding "the right decision" makes me bash my head into the keyboard...it was surely the stupidist idea ever to cancell it. After years of anguish, I have discovered some pieces of good news: Industry Canada refers often to the mess when dealing with current aviation and technology decisions, at least some in charge don't want to repeat history. The US industry has paid a price and continues to pay, as Canada now helps the aviation industry, and we have infiltrated, like tentacles, parts of the US industry, most notably Bell Helicopters, robotics and space technology. Thankfully, we have tried to recover, and after these many years, Canada has clawed back to 6th, and leads some industries. So, only 95% of our government are morons.....
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 11:57 AM
 
95%, Dave? OK, I am in a "good mood" today, I will accept your numbers!

Cheers,

Steve
# posted by Blogger Steve : 12:25 PM
 
Okay, I hate to nitpik, but who can compare a dedicated recon plane (SR 71) to a combat interceptor? I'd like to see somone stuff a 16 foot internal weapons bay into the SR 71.

Oh, and if the Arrow's mission was really gone, why did we have to buy used Voodoo's 2 months later?
Dief nearly lost his mind trying to figure out how to pull that off without looking like a moron. Didn't work.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:41 AM
 
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