The Arrow: Related Stories and Resources
The Related Stories and Resources page is where you can find additional material related to the essay The Arrow, by Terence C. Gannon. You can also listen to the original essay on your favourite podcasting platform where it appeared as part of the Not There Yet podcast read by the author.
Arrow Test Models Shattered in Lake Ontario Canadian Aviator, September 27th, 2020. During the development of the Arrow, a novel approach to testing the aircraft’s future high speed flight regime was employed: build one-eighth scale models, bolt them to the tips of missiles and fire them out over Lake Ontario. For many years there was hope these models could eventually be recovered intact. Sadly, at his article reports, this will not be the case.
Thanks for Recent Claps, June 20, 2020. It is always very gratifying — humbling is actually a better word — when a new audience discovers a story which was written a while back. Thank you Mark Warren, Manish Patel, Francis Harvey, John Hurley, Chris Massey, Diana Hamilton, Frederik Debonné, Sam Little, Larry Lyons, Ricky Raccoon and Solvent for your kind support with your claps. They are very much appreciated. You may also enjoy Episode 33 of the Not There Yet podcast which is the audio version of the essay and includes some interesting soundbites from the era of The Arrow.
US and Canadian jets intercept Russian reconnaissance aircraft off Alaska CNN, March 10, 2020 by Ryan Browne. Nearly another year on, and the aircraft Canada could have built are still defending northern skies.
Canada’s Footprint: How Canada’s loss of the Avro Arrow was NASA’s gain Global News, July 19, 2019 by Mike Armstrong. In The Arrow the point was made “the resulting brain drain was all too real. Look at any significant aerospace program in the 1960s onwards — including the program which would eventually land man on the moon — and you will find amongst their leaders and best engineers a disproportionately high number with ‘formerly of Avro Canada’ on their resume” This excellent article provides a ton of detail on that sad side effect of the Arrow’s cancellation.
In pursuit of $19B contract, Sweden’s Saab offers to build fleet of fighter jets in Canada Ottawa Citizen, May 29, 2019 by David Pugliese. This would be a great opportunity to reclaim some small slice of what was lost when the Avro Arrow was cancelled back in 1959. It would also serve Canada as well to have our defence acquisitions more ‘made in Canada’. Wouldn’t that be something — in so many ways.
US intercepts Russian bombers, fighter jets off the coast of Alaska CNN, May 21, 2019 by Ryan Browne. As described in the original essay, one justification for scrapping the Avro Arrow in 1959 was “was the belief the era of manned, military aircraft was over.” Hardly. As recently as today, 60 years later, piloted F-22s from the US Air Force were called upon to intercept Russian TU-95 bombers which strayed a little too close to the sovereign airspace of the United States and Canada. It’s a job the Arrow and its successors could and should have done.
The Avro Heritage Museum Woodford, Stockport, England. Avro, the parent company from which Avro Canada was spun off in 1945, has an excellent museum which features all things Avro including the Avro Vulcan XM603 on permanent display adjacent to the main building.
55 years later, biggest question surrounding Avro Arrow remains “what if?” Global News, March 25, 2013 by Elton Hobson. Excerpt: “The first flight of the Arrow should have been a crowning moment for the Canadian aerospace industry. Yet the plane was scrapped by the federal government just a few months later, in a decision that remains controversial to this day.”
