Some interesting aviation news and a glaring copy edit mistake
From our neighbors to the North at
The Toronto Star:
New Avro Arrow design pitched to feds as alternative for F-35s: report
A consortium of Canadian manufacturers sought to go back in time to help move Canada�s air force into the future.
Documents obtained by Global News indicate the storied CF-105 Avro Arrow was put forward as an alternative to the purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets.
And among the project�s champions is one of Canada�s top soldiers, retired Maj.Gen. Lewis MacKenzie.
The Arrow was an advanced, all-weather supersonic interceptor jet developed in the 1950s but the project was scrapped before a single plane could be built.
"
project was scrapped before a single plane could be built"???
Ruh Roh! Actually the article leads off with a picture of said aircraft in flight with the caption:
The Avro Arrow in flight, circa 1958. A new report says that a group of Canadian manufacturers put forward a plan to the Harper Conservatives to resurrect the storied aircraft as an alternative to the costly F-35
It was an amazing bit of engineering and makes perfect sense to make it today with modern engines and avionics.
There were several planes built and
five were flown albeit not in final configuration (different engines and avionics). One went to Mach 1.98 but this was not its limit.
Around the time it was being developed, the USA formed
NORAD and developed the
BOMARC missles covering the same tasks as the Arrow (taking out Russian long-range bombers) for a lot less $$$. Canada had been spending a lot of money under a liberal government and the newly elected conservative had to cut funding.
I remember seeing a documentary on my favorite airplane (SR-71 Blackbird) and they interviewed several of the project engineers and asked them that if they were tasked to design the same airplane today, almost 50 years later, would they make any changes. The answer to the man was no.
Posted by DaveH at September 9, 2012 9:52 PM