Paul Cardin (Never Was An Arrow II)
::: FEBRUARY 19, 1959 — The VERY LAST FLIGHT of AN ARROW
IT BEGAN WITH RL201—and it ended with RL201.
AVRO ARROW RL201 was the very first Arrow to fly…and it was the very last Arrow to fly.
Earlier in the day RL203 made "Arrow history" as it was the only time a passenger flew on an Arrow. D.E. "Red" Darrah went up with "Spud" Potocki to fine-tune the Arrow's fly-by-wire system. All in vain, as we now know.
THIS PIC is very, very, rare. In fact, I had never seen it before, until only a month ago!
It shows AVRO ARROW RL201 sitting in one of Avro Canada's hangars on February 19, 1959 just before…or just after it's very last flight. The last flight of any Arrow in the Arrow program.
Sad and ominous.
The storm clouds were indeed gathering.
FEBRUARY 20, the very next day was BLACK FRIDAY when Diefenbaker's government cancelled both Avro Canada programmes (the Arrow interceptor and the Orenda Iroquois jet engine) LEAVING Avro Canada NO CHOICE but to lay off all 13,000 GTA workers.
THIS PICTURE I think came originally from the collection of
Marc-André Valiquette. I did extensive work to clean it up somewhat for this post. Therefore it has my "black bars".
I OWN ALL of Marc-André's ARROW books.
All 5 including…
Destruction of a Dream - Tragedy of Avro Canada and The CF-105 Arrow (Volumes 1-4) can be found at Aviation World in Toronto, or online here: www.aviationworld.net/default/catalogsearch/result/?q=avr…
Marc-André's books are great both for their extensive history and for their copious historical photos.
I often return to my posts to edit content, or continue work on my photos FYI.
.
.
.
.
.
——-——— WARNING!!! : DON'T READ THIS! —-——-———
When CANADA was SUPER-GREAT we produced the CF-105 Avro Arrow Interceptor and the PS.13 Orenda Iroquois Turbojet Engine.
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.
DETRACTORS … thanks for comin' out ~
© 2015 Special Projects In Research
::: FEBRUARY 19, 1959 — The VERY LAST FLIGHT of AN ARROW
IT BEGAN WITH RL201—and it ended with RL201.
AVRO ARROW RL201 was the very first Arrow to fly…and it was the very last Arrow to fly.
Earlier in the day RL203 made "Arrow history" as it was the only time a passenger flew on an Arrow. D.E. "Red" Darrah went up with "Spud" Potocki to fine-tune the Arrow's fly-by-wire system. All in vain, as we now know.
THIS PIC is very, very, rare. In fact, I had never seen it before, until only a month ago!
It shows AVRO ARROW RL201 sitting in one of Avro Canada's hangars on February 19, 1959 just before…or just after it's very last flight. The last flight of any Arrow in the Arrow program.
Sad and ominous.
The storm clouds were indeed gathering.
FEBRUARY 20, the very next day was BLACK FRIDAY when Diefenbaker's government cancelled both Avro Canada programmes (the Arrow interceptor and the Orenda Iroquois jet engine) LEAVING Avro Canada NO CHOICE but to lay off all 13,000 GTA workers.
THIS PICTURE I think came originally from the collection of
Marc-André Valiquette. I did extensive work to clean it up somewhat for this post. Therefore it has my "black bars".
I OWN ALL of Marc-André's ARROW books.
All 5 including…
Destruction of a Dream - Tragedy of Avro Canada and The CF-105 Arrow (Volumes 1-4) can be found at Aviation World in Toronto, or online here: www.aviationworld.net/default/catalogsearch/result/?q=avr…
Marc-André's books are great both for their extensive history and for their copious historical photos.
I often return to my posts to edit content, or continue work on my photos FYI.
.
.
.
.
.
——-——— WARNING!!! : DON'T READ THIS! —-——-———
When CANADA was SUPER-GREAT we produced the CF-105 Avro Arrow Interceptor and the PS.13 Orenda Iroquois Turbojet Engine.
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.
DETRACTORS … thanks for comin' out ~
© 2015 Special Projects In Research