A History of Avro Arrow in the Cold War
A History of Avro Arrow in the Cold War
The Cold War background to the Arrow. The threat was from across the Pole, and the swaggering post-war Royal Canadian Air Force wanted a strong deterrent.
Design: The Arrow was primarily a triumph of innovative design. Here we glance at a few of the aircraft’s design features.
The Arrow’s fall from favor is an account of political intrigue and indecision in the face of a technologically changing world. The seeds that would ultimately doom it would be sown very early in the Arrow's life.
In December 1953, following the findings of the All-Weather Interceptor Requirements Team that no aircraft meeting the RCAF’s grueling specifications existed in other countries, the St. Laurent government awarded Avro a $27 million contract to design two prototype all-weather, two-seat, twin-engine, supersonic interceptors.
Wing assembly at the Avro plant: Before 1954 the Arrow was rarely referred to in public, and led a rather underground existence. It was after the explosion of a Soviet hydrogen bomb and the introduction of new Myasishchev M-4 Bison jet bomber which opened the possibility of a Cold War “bomber gap”,that the program was stepped up. In March 1955, the contract was upgraded to a $260-million contract for five Arrow Mk 1 aircraft powered by Pratt and Whitney engines, to be followed by 35 Arrow Mk 2s with as-yet-unavailable Iroquois engines. It was also determined at this time to do away with the costly development of prototypes and launch into assembly line production with the first model.
In September 1955, Avro told Cabinet that it needed an additional $59 million to keep the program on schedule. It was around this time that the fateful notion began to surface, not only in Canada but in the military establishments of most of the Western Alliance, that the era of the interceptor was over, and that the age of guided missiles would render them obsolete.
A model is tested in a wind tunnel:
It was also in 1955 that efforts began to sell the Arrow to the Americans and British. The Arrow project received glowing praise and admiration, but no interest as an actual purchase. This could have been anticipated as American and British Air Forces almost never purchase planes from other countries. But this seems to have contributed to a growing unease in the Liberal cabinet and among...