Re: RIP Boeing Administration Building - Malton (Mississauga
Lost architecture aside, it is amazing to see how the Arrow is treated so religiously in this country. I have to laugh when I hear how an aircraft designed in the early 1950's would be a leading-edge aircraft in the 21st century-able to fly rings around whatever else was in the air. It is just not true.
The machine was never fully tested. It was never fitted with its intended engines. Its weapons system was incomplete and rocket-reliant. And it was designed solely as an interceptor and not as a multi-role aircraft. The F-4 Phantom was a far superior aircraft because it was as fast as the Arrow was intended to be, durable, able to perform well at high altitude as well as low level, and could land on aircraft carriers as well. A significant number of RCAF pilots even wanted F-4's over F-18's!
I'm not slagging the Arrow, Avro, and certainly not the engineers and technicians who worked on the project, but let's be a little more critical about this aircraft. There were more than a few NRC engineers who did not buy what Avro stated as the performance capabilities of the Arrow. As for the American's forcing the Arrow out of production, the fact of the matter was that they were mildy ALARMED that production would not take place. They were concerned that the RCAF would not have an aircraft capable of meeting the (overblown) threat of Soviet supersonic bombers. The American's had recently cancelled the F-108, and aircraft with capapbilities not unlike the Arrow. Instead, they were looking to pursue multi-role aircraft.
At the time of the Arrow, Avro was the third largest industrial company in Canada. The Arrow was financed by the Canadian taxpayer-with very little risk to Avro ($400 million in 1950's dollars). The intended cost per unit was originally to be $1.5 million. At production, the estimated cost ranged to over $12.5 to $14 million per unit. Production costs were out of control. Because of these high costs, the even the RCAF intended to cut its order. The Americans, the French and the British all had their own indigenous aircraft manufacturing and were not interested in buying expensive foreign made aircraft. With the arrival of the ICBM, the days were numbered for high altitude interceptor aircraft designed to shoot down bombers.
It was a nice aircraft, but it was not the lost national treasure or the greatest thing since sliced bread. It resulted in a bad situation wherein over 12,000 people lost their jobs on a flawed gamble during the Cold War - an era littered with flawed gambled and bad choices. By the way, Diefenbaker did cancel the project after his election. Louis St-Laurent would have cancelled the Arrow as well, but did not do so because it would have been an unpopular move right before the election that put Diefenbaker into power. One way or another, the Arrow was broken.
