Sixty Years On, We Still Dream of the Arrow

left to right and top to bottom: then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker; opening ceremony with a crowd milling around the Avro CF-105 Arrow RL201; welcoming Zurakowski after testing the Avro CF-105 Arrow RL201; transferring design instructions onto a master glass cloth for the reproduction of parts; The Avro Arrow was a beautiful machine. It still would be, if there were any left. Orland French recalls the romance and mystique of the Canadian supersonic superstar that never was. I was 13 when the first Avro Arrow was rolled out for public viewing in 1957. Sharp, clean lines. A magnificent delta-wing design. A dazzling white coat of paint. A futuristic twin-engine supersonic interceptor. It was Canadian. It was acknowledged as the best of its kind in the world. Man, it made us swell with patriotic pride. I soon had a gleaming plastic model of an Arrow on my homework desk. That was probably 40 years before I had my personal Arrow moment. I had travelled to Barry’s Bay to meet an author ... Read full article.