Paul Cardin (Never Was An Arrow II)
C'MON CANADA ::: Let's talk about the AVRO ARROW … one more time!
WHO'S READY to take me on?!
CANADA just wasn't ready for greatness, or national independence, folks!
The Arrow was ushering the Canadian public forward, toward these very related ends.
SO IT'S GOOD the Arrow perished.
THE ARROW asked a lot from Canada.
THE IROQUOIS even more.
And the fainthearts weren't ready.
Mythological aeronautical achievements born from pure CANADIAN RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT … yes, from true Canadian blood, sweat, tears and genuine problem solving skills on a level not seen in Canada since that epic era in the 50s.
Sadly, in the end, a bungling, mentally-disheveled prime minister cancelled everything.
AND a Canadian public too polite to be outraged, too polite to even complain watched from the sidelines as an obvious national travesty unfolded before the eyes of the nation! First the cancellations, then the thousands of subsequent lay-offs, then (and I hesitate to recall this) the cutter's torch to EVERYTHING!
All that Avro Aircraft of Canada had achieved, AND ALL SHE WOULD ACHIEVE, just slid right off the drafting table.
And into the garbage.
The proper response by Torontonians, on the day Dief cancelled the Arrow and the Iroquois projects would have been for the entire Hogtown citizenry to riot (yes, absolutely) and burn down the town.
Or, at the very least, Exhibition Stadium.
There should have been no other response.
That's it. Case closed.
Dief's idiocy would then have been overturned, and AVRO CANADA would have gotten back to changing the world, doing Canada proud by surprising Canada and the world with compounded ongoing technologically significant innovations, all the while making lots of money for both the company, and its dedicated and believing employees.
Alas, the Arrow and Iroquois had lots of fans, oodles of them in fact … just no fighters ~
When CANADA was SUPER-GREAT we produced the Avro Arrow and the Orenda Iroquois.
Why were these Canadian technological achievements so awesome, you ask?
CF-105 Avro Arrow's “FIRSTS and NOTABLES” to the uninitiated:
• FIRST AIRCRAFT designed with digital computers being used for both aerodynamic analysis and designing the structural matrix (and a whole lot more).
• FIRST AIRCRAFT design to have major components machined by CNC (computer numeric control); i.e., from electronic data which controlled the machine.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to be developed using an early form of "computational fluid dynamics" with an integrated "lifting body" type of theory rather than the typical (and obsolete) "blade element" theory.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to have marginal stability designed into the pitch axis for better maneuverability, speed and altitude performance.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to have negative stability designed into the yaw axis to save weight and cut drag, also boosting performance.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to fly on an electronic signal from the stick and pedals. i.e., first fly-by-wire a/c.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to fly with fly by wire AND artificial feedback (feel). Not even the first F-16's had this.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT designed to be data-link flyable from the ground.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT designed with integrated navigation, weapons release, automatic search and track radar, datalink inputs, home-on-jamming, infrared detection, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures operating through a DIGITAL brain.
• FIRST HIGH WING jet fighter that made the entire upper surface a lifting body. The F-15, F-22, Su-27 etc., MiG-29, MiG 25 and others certainly used that idea.
• FIRST sophisticated bleed-bypass system for both intake AND engine/exhaust. Everybody uses that now.
• FIRST by-pass engine design. (all current fighters have by-pass engines).
• FIRST combination of the last two points with an "ejector" nozzle that used the bypass air to create thrust at the exhaust nozzle while also improving intake flow. The F-106 didn't even have a nozzle, just a pipe.
• Use of Titanium for significant portions of the aircraft structure and engine.
• Use of composites (not the first, but they made thoughtful use of them and were researching and engineering new ones).
• Use of a drooped leading edge and aerodynamic "twist" on the wing.
• Use of engines at the rear to allow both a lighter structure and significant payload at the centre of gravity. Everybody copied that.
• Use of a LONG internal weapons bay to allow carriage of specialized, long-range standoff and cruise missiles. (not copied yet really)
• Integration of ground-mapping radar and the radar altimeter plus flight control system to allow a serious strike/reconnaissance role. The first to propose an aircraft be equally adept at those roles while being THE air-superiority fighter at the same time. (Few have even tried to copy that, although the F-15E is an interesting exception.)
• FIRST missile armed a/c to have a combat weight thrust to weight ratio approaching 1 to 1. Few have been able to copy that.
• FIRST flying 4,000 psi hydraulic system to allow lighter and smaller components.
• FIRST oxygen-injection re-light system.
• FIRST engine to have only two main bearing assemblies on a two-shaft design.
• FIRST to use a variable stator on a two-shaft engine.
• First use of a trans-sonic first compressor stage on a turbojet engine.
• FIRST "hot-streak" type of afterburner ignition.
• FIRST engine to use only 10 compressor sections in a two-shaft design. (The competition was using 17!!)
The Avro Arrow was Canada's finest aviation achievement, even though it never entered RCAF service.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it all you lousy (and laugh-at-able) AVRO CANADA DETRACTORS ~
© R.L. Whitcomb
© 2014 Special Projects In Research
This RARE Toronto photo, is the stately Arrow in mock-up form … taken from inside Avro Canada buildings that no longer exist at the now barren and chillingly desolate Derry and Airport Road intersection at YYZ..
THIS PHOTO (and others) were a special gift to me, a few years back, from a man who needs no introduction (at least in Avro Arrow circles) Canadian author, Marc-André Valiquette. Marc actually owns SEVERAL authentic Avro Arrow artifacts!
MARC has just released a new Arrow book, "Avro CF-105 Arrow - Canada's Supersonic Sentinel" that features many, never seen before photos of the Arrow.
You can get your copy, here: www.warplane.com/gift-shop/books/avro-cf-105-arrow-canada...
Or here: www.aviationworld.net/default/aviation-books/aviation-his...
C'MON CANADA ::: Let's talk about the AVRO ARROW … one more time!
WHO'S READY to take me on?!
CANADA just wasn't ready for greatness, or national independence, folks!
The Arrow was ushering the Canadian public forward, toward these very related ends.
SO IT'S GOOD the Arrow perished.
THE ARROW asked a lot from Canada.
THE IROQUOIS even more.
And the fainthearts weren't ready.
Mythological aeronautical achievements born from pure CANADIAN RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT … yes, from true Canadian blood, sweat, tears and genuine problem solving skills on a level not seen in Canada since that epic era in the 50s.
Sadly, in the end, a bungling, mentally-disheveled prime minister cancelled everything.
AND a Canadian public too polite to be outraged, too polite to even complain watched from the sidelines as an obvious national travesty unfolded before the eyes of the nation! First the cancellations, then the thousands of subsequent lay-offs, then (and I hesitate to recall this) the cutter's torch to EVERYTHING!
All that Avro Aircraft of Canada had achieved, AND ALL SHE WOULD ACHIEVE, just slid right off the drafting table.
And into the garbage.
The proper response by Torontonians, on the day Dief cancelled the Arrow and the Iroquois projects would have been for the entire Hogtown citizenry to riot (yes, absolutely) and burn down the town.
Or, at the very least, Exhibition Stadium.
There should have been no other response.
That's it. Case closed.
Dief's idiocy would then have been overturned, and AVRO CANADA would have gotten back to changing the world, doing Canada proud by surprising Canada and the world with compounded ongoing technologically significant innovations, all the while making lots of money for both the company, and its dedicated and believing employees.
Alas, the Arrow and Iroquois had lots of fans, oodles of them in fact … just no fighters ~
When CANADA was SUPER-GREAT we produced the Avro Arrow and the Orenda Iroquois.
Why were these Canadian technological achievements so awesome, you ask?
CF-105 Avro Arrow's “FIRSTS and NOTABLES” to the uninitiated:
• FIRST AIRCRAFT designed with digital computers being used for both aerodynamic analysis and designing the structural matrix (and a whole lot more).
• FIRST AIRCRAFT design to have major components machined by CNC (computer numeric control); i.e., from electronic data which controlled the machine.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to be developed using an early form of "computational fluid dynamics" with an integrated "lifting body" type of theory rather than the typical (and obsolete) "blade element" theory.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to have marginal stability designed into the pitch axis for better maneuverability, speed and altitude performance.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to have negative stability designed into the yaw axis to save weight and cut drag, also boosting performance.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to fly on an electronic signal from the stick and pedals. i.e., first fly-by-wire a/c.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT to fly with fly by wire AND artificial feedback (feel). Not even the first F-16's had this.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT designed to be data-link flyable from the ground.
• FIRST AIRCRAFT designed with integrated navigation, weapons release, automatic search and track radar, datalink inputs, home-on-jamming, infrared detection, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures operating through a DIGITAL brain.
• FIRST HIGH WING jet fighter that made the entire upper surface a lifting body. The F-15, F-22, Su-27 etc., MiG-29, MiG 25 and others certainly used that idea.
• FIRST sophisticated bleed-bypass system for both intake AND engine/exhaust. Everybody uses that now.
• FIRST by-pass engine design. (all current fighters have by-pass engines).
• FIRST combination of the last two points with an "ejector" nozzle that used the bypass air to create thrust at the exhaust nozzle while also improving intake flow. The F-106 didn't even have a nozzle, just a pipe.
• Use of Titanium for significant portions of the aircraft structure and engine.
• Use of composites (not the first, but they made thoughtful use of them and were researching and engineering new ones).
• Use of a drooped leading edge and aerodynamic "twist" on the wing.
• Use of engines at the rear to allow both a lighter structure and significant payload at the centre of gravity. Everybody copied that.
• Use of a LONG internal weapons bay to allow carriage of specialized, long-range standoff and cruise missiles. (not copied yet really)
• Integration of ground-mapping radar and the radar altimeter plus flight control system to allow a serious strike/reconnaissance role. The first to propose an aircraft be equally adept at those roles while being THE air-superiority fighter at the same time. (Few have even tried to copy that, although the F-15E is an interesting exception.)
• FIRST missile armed a/c to have a combat weight thrust to weight ratio approaching 1 to 1. Few have been able to copy that.
• FIRST flying 4,000 psi hydraulic system to allow lighter and smaller components.
• FIRST oxygen-injection re-light system.
• FIRST engine to have only two main bearing assemblies on a two-shaft design.
• FIRST to use a variable stator on a two-shaft engine.
• First use of a trans-sonic first compressor stage on a turbojet engine.
• FIRST "hot-streak" type of afterburner ignition.
• FIRST engine to use only 10 compressor sections in a two-shaft design. (The competition was using 17!!)
The Avro Arrow was Canada's finest aviation achievement, even though it never entered RCAF service.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it all you lousy (and laugh-at-able) AVRO CANADA DETRACTORS ~
© R.L. Whitcomb
© 2014 Special Projects In Research
This RARE Toronto photo, is the stately Arrow in mock-up form … taken from inside Avro Canada buildings that no longer exist at the now barren and chillingly desolate Derry and Airport Road intersection at YYZ..
THIS PHOTO (and others) were a special gift to me, a few years back, from a man who needs no introduction (at least in Avro Arrow circles) Canadian author, Marc-André Valiquette. Marc actually owns SEVERAL authentic Avro Arrow artifacts!
MARC has just released a new Arrow book, "Avro CF-105 Arrow - Canada's Supersonic Sentinel" that features many, never seen before photos of the Arrow.
You can get your copy, here: www.warplane.com/gift-shop/books/avro-cf-105-arrow-canada...
Or here: www.aviationworld.net/default/aviation-books/aviation-his...