Paul Cardin (Never Was An Arrow II)
The Way We Were ::: 1953 ::: CANADA RCAF COMETS
Yes, often… or mostly Canadian politics is just ass-backward.
At least it was in 1953.
When the RCAF bought two of these, it became the only air force on the planet to fly jet transports exclusively.
No problem with these COMETS by the way… a great de Havilland aircraft that was sold to numerous airlines worldwide, and eventually morphed into an equally successful military version (not just an executive military transport), the Nimrod, which was picked up by the RAF and a few others.
No wait!… wait… wait, there was a problem with these first run jet engine pioneering airliners… a very serious problem indeed… a structural one.
The Comets right off the assembly line were involved in a SERIES of mysterious and fatal accidents. CP-AIR, once the biggest competitor of Air Canada, got a wee break in the purchase price of its first Comet to tour their brand-spankin’ new jet airliner all around Asia, to help de Havilland whip up some additional sales.
CP Air’s Comet didn’t get far.
It crashed. And all lives were lost!
And airlines began bailing out of their Comet purchase orders faster than you could say SQUARE WINDOWS.
Square windows?
Yep.
Square passenger windows alongside pressurized cabins turned out to be the problem.
At high speeds and high altitude, too much fuselage stress occurs and cracks developed around the square window areas. Cracks mean rapid depressurization of the cabin occurs and the aircraft disintegrates or becomes unflyable. To give you an idea about the power of the decompression forces which are involved… in one such deadly accident… crash investigators found the carpet from the passenger area had been sucked into one of the airliner's wings!
And that’s why you NEVER SEE square windows in airliners to this very day… because of those legendary Comet crashes.
Meanwhile, in our own Canadian backyard we had a fully functioning JET TRANSPORT or airliner… with absolutely NO history of serious flaws… never had square windows (AVRO Canada knew that was a mistake) that just sat there idle at Malton International Airport from 1949 on.
Namely, the AVRO Canada C-102 Jetliner. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfPhIT7VLVg
Canadian Political Logic: DON’T BUY your own successful plane…buy someone else’s flawed one!
And the RCAF then had to wait, while de Havilland fixed the freshly completed RCAF Comets by thereafter retrofitting them with oval windows.
Fast forward to 2007.
And Canada…… let’s pull out of Afghanistan by 2009 EVEN THOUGH the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai is begging Canada to stay… and help keep his country from descending back into anarchy.
But watch, in 2009 … Canada will “pull out” courtesy of the Bloc, or the Liberals and Karzai’s sober assessment and pleas will have been forgotten–
Jack. Stupid. Asses.
As reported by Graeme Smith of the Globe and Mail today, President Karzai made these sobering assessments, and points among others:
“Even the current number of troops isn't enough to give the Afghan government the confidence it needs to fight corruption and solve problems of human rights, because those reforms would force confrontations with (the) armed factions.”
"We definitely need the steady, strong backing of the international community, and that has not been there.”
"The presence of Canada is needed until Afghanistan is able to defend itself, and that day is not going to be in 2009.”
“You can look around. You can see the enemy is not yet finished, is not yet defeated. Therefore it's our responsibility, all of us, to continue to work to defeat terrorism. And we cannot defeat terrorism unless we secure Afghanistan. If we do not, it will become a base for them again."
CANADA prides itself on its comprehensive foreign aid programs for struggling nations… but is she ready to "scrap it out" and just simply take out those Afghan “neighbourhood bullies” who, by the way, are dismantling all our OTHER good Canadian efforts?
(The above photo has been PS enhanced by Paul Cardin of Streetsville, Ontario)
© RCAF photo
© Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Centre
© Special Projects IR
© RCAF.com
© Globe and Mail
The Way We Were ::: 1953 ::: CANADA RCAF COMETS
Yes, often… or mostly Canadian politics is just ass-backward.
At least it was in 1953.
When the RCAF bought two of these, it became the only air force on the planet to fly jet transports exclusively.
No problem with these COMETS by the way… a great de Havilland aircraft that was sold to numerous airlines worldwide, and eventually morphed into an equally successful military version (not just an executive military transport), the Nimrod, which was picked up by the RAF and a few others.
No wait!… wait… wait, there was a problem with these first run jet engine pioneering airliners… a very serious problem indeed… a structural one.
The Comets right off the assembly line were involved in a SERIES of mysterious and fatal accidents. CP-AIR, once the biggest competitor of Air Canada, got a wee break in the purchase price of its first Comet to tour their brand-spankin’ new jet airliner all around Asia, to help de Havilland whip up some additional sales.
CP Air’s Comet didn’t get far.
It crashed. And all lives were lost!
And airlines began bailing out of their Comet purchase orders faster than you could say SQUARE WINDOWS.
Square windows?
Yep.
Square passenger windows alongside pressurized cabins turned out to be the problem.
At high speeds and high altitude, too much fuselage stress occurs and cracks developed around the square window areas. Cracks mean rapid depressurization of the cabin occurs and the aircraft disintegrates or becomes unflyable. To give you an idea about the power of the decompression forces which are involved… in one such deadly accident… crash investigators found the carpet from the passenger area had been sucked into one of the airliner's wings!
And that’s why you NEVER SEE square windows in airliners to this very day… because of those legendary Comet crashes.
Meanwhile, in our own Canadian backyard we had a fully functioning JET TRANSPORT or airliner… with absolutely NO history of serious flaws… never had square windows (AVRO Canada knew that was a mistake) that just sat there idle at Malton International Airport from 1949 on.
Namely, the AVRO Canada C-102 Jetliner. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfPhIT7VLVg
Canadian Political Logic: DON’T BUY your own successful plane…buy someone else’s flawed one!
And the RCAF then had to wait, while de Havilland fixed the freshly completed RCAF Comets by thereafter retrofitting them with oval windows.
Fast forward to 2007.
And Canada…… let’s pull out of Afghanistan by 2009 EVEN THOUGH the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai is begging Canada to stay… and help keep his country from descending back into anarchy.
But watch, in 2009 … Canada will “pull out” courtesy of the Bloc, or the Liberals and Karzai’s sober assessment and pleas will have been forgotten–
Jack. Stupid. Asses.
As reported by Graeme Smith of the Globe and Mail today, President Karzai made these sobering assessments, and points among others:
“Even the current number of troops isn't enough to give the Afghan government the confidence it needs to fight corruption and solve problems of human rights, because those reforms would force confrontations with (the) armed factions.”
"We definitely need the steady, strong backing of the international community, and that has not been there.”
"The presence of Canada is needed until Afghanistan is able to defend itself, and that day is not going to be in 2009.”
“You can look around. You can see the enemy is not yet finished, is not yet defeated. Therefore it's our responsibility, all of us, to continue to work to defeat terrorism. And we cannot defeat terrorism unless we secure Afghanistan. If we do not, it will become a base for them again."
CANADA prides itself on its comprehensive foreign aid programs for struggling nations… but is she ready to "scrap it out" and just simply take out those Afghan “neighbourhood bullies” who, by the way, are dismantling all our OTHER good Canadian efforts?
(The above photo has been PS enhanced by Paul Cardin of Streetsville, Ontario)
© RCAF photo
© Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Centre
© Special Projects IR
© RCAF.com
© Globe and Mail