In a modest hangar in the middle of the Springbank Airport, a group of bygone buffs is resurrecting one of the most intriguing pieces of Canadian aviation history.
“It’s not just a toy,” said Michael Ward of the Arrow II, a 60 per cent piloted model of the famed Avro Arrow currently being built inside the Avro Museum.
“It’s a pretty serious piece of equipment.”
The working replica is the flagship draw of the museum – a place dedicated to preserving the history of A.V. Roe Canada, which more than half a century ago was responsible for creating the celebrated Avro Arrow aircraft: a continuing source of myth, legend and mystery in the avionics world.
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was considered the most advanced aircraft in the country’s history when it completed its first test flight in March 1958. The plane could reach Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, cruised at an altitude of 50,000 feet, and was expected to be the crown jewel of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“There are not many aircraft that could perform as well as the Arrow – even today,” Ward said.
It total, six Arrows were constructed and another 34 were in the production process when the federal government abruptly halted the project on Feb. 20, 1959 – otherwise known as Black Friday. Engineers, designers and more were unabashedly let go, draining Canada of some of the most advanced aeronautical engineers of the time.
Two months later, nearly everything else associated with the aircraft – including the tooling, design plans, assembly lines and engines – was destroyed.
“They literally cut them up with torches,” said Ward. “There (were) a lot of rumours around why it was done. There was a suspicion that there was some espionage going on.”
Today, the full truth is still not known about the purpose of the program’s closure, and the topic continues to fascinate history buffs, aviation lovers and anyone associated with the enduring mystery.
The puzzling secret inspired the opening of the museum in 1997 – and today, it not only houses Canada’s largest collection of more 15,000 pieces of documentation from the original program, but it also is home to the in-progress build of the Avro II: the only working replica of the Arrow being created in the world.
So far, Ward said the group has raised more than $660,000 in support of the ongoing project. They expect it will take another five to eight years – and another $600,000 – for volunteers to put together the instrumentation, avionics, undercarriage and whatever else the Arrow II needs in order to take to the skies.
Ward said visitors to the museum – including pilots, military members and even former employees of the In a modest hangar in the middle of the Springbank Airport, a group of bygone buffs is resurrecting one of the most intriguing pieces of Canadian aviation history.
“It’s not just a toy,” said Michael Ward of the Arrow II, a 60 per cent piloted model of the famed Avro Arrow currently being built inside the Avro Museum.
“It’s a pretty serious piece of equipment.”
The working replica is the flagship draw of the museum – a place dedicated to preserving the history of A.V. Roe Canada, which more than half a century ago was responsible for creating the celebrated Avro Arrow aircraft: a continuing source of myth, legend and mystery in the avionics world.
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was considered the most advanced aircraft in the country’s history when it completed its first test flight in March 1958. The plane could reach Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, cruised at an altitude of 50,000 feet, and was expected to be the crown jewel of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“There are not many aircraft that could perform as well as the Arrow – even today,” Ward said.
It total, six Arrows were constructed and another 34 were in the production process when the federal government abruptly halted the project on Feb. 20, 1959 – otherwise known as Black Friday. Engineers, designers and more were unabashedly let go, draining Canada of some of the most advanced aeronautical engineers of the time.
Two months later, nearly everything else associated with the aircraft – including the tooling, design plans, assembly lines and engines – was destroyed.
“They literally cut them up with torches,” said Ward. “There (were) a lot of rumours around why it was done. There was a suspicion that there was some espionage going on.”
Today, the full truth is still not known about the purpose of the program’s closure, and the topic continues to fascinate history buffs, aviation lovers and anyone associated with the enduring mystery.
The puzzling secret inspired the opening of the museum in 1997 – and today, it not only houses Canada’s largest collection of more 15,000 pieces of documentation from the original program, but it also is home to the in-progress build of the Avro II: the only working replica of the Arrow being created in the world.
So far, Ward said the group has raised more than $660,000 in support of the ongoing project. They expect it will take another five to eight years – and another $600,000 – for volunteers to put together the instrumentation, avionics, undercarriage and whatever else the Arrow II needs in order to take to the skies.
Ward said visitors to the museum – including pilots, military members and even former employees of the company – are shocked to see how far along the Arrow II has come.
“They can’t believe what we’re doing: a bunch of amateurs building an aircraft that will fly that fast,” said Ward, adding with a smile there’s only one real reason the group isn’t creating a full-scale working model.
“We’d need a much larger hangar.”
