For a country such as Canada to commit, in 1953, to building a machine as advanced as the Avro CF-105 Arrow was bold in the extreme. Announcing the intention to do so, the government minister responsible said, “We have started on a program of development that gives me the shudders.” But just four years later, Avro’s engineers had succeeded in building an awesome-looking delta-winged machine. She first flew in March 1958, and it was clear to all those involved in the test program that there was record-breaking potential.
A month later, during her first high-speed run, the Arrow was recorded flying at 50,000 feet and Mach 1.98. All involved knew she was capable of much more, but she never had the chance to show it. Less than a year after her triumphant first flight, the Arrow was abruptly cancelled in favor of surface-to-air missiles.
Never again would Canada design a combat aircraft. And it was a decision that still smacks of vandalism.
One member of its parliament, fiercely opposing the cancellation, described the Arrow as “The greatest single achievement in Canadian aviation history, and the greatest combined effort of design and development ever undertaken in this country.”
The United States certainly thought so, and hired many of the engineers who had been working on the Arrow to work for NASA, where they were to distinguish themselves during the effort to put a man on the moon.
