Government Stupidity at work again!
(The CF-105 AVRO ARROW's demise)
In the late 1950's Canada developed a 'state of the art' interceptor jet aircraft which, I boastfully state, was miles ahead of any aircraft built by any country at that time. It was probably one of the first aircraft which had features controled by computer (yes, 1958!) Every feature of it was unique!
Prime minister Diefenbacher's short sighted government suddenly cancelled this incredible project and had all the completed planes cut up and scrapped with the blue prints destroyed.
Some claim cost overruns, some say the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite would make future wars 'space based' with all planes obsolite. Others claim that there were pressures from outside countries (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) that diplomatically forced Canada to destroy the project completely so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.
Our loss was the U.S.'s gain as most of A.V. Rowe's (AVRO) engineers found employment with NASA and were instrumental in putting a man on the moon.
Check out
www.rcaf.com/aircraft/fighters/arrow/index.php
A wonderful movie by the name 'The Arrow' is available on DVD and stars Dan Aykroyd amongst others.
Yuri