AnirudhaThe First Flight
The test showed the aircraft could up to the speed of Mach 1.7. The test gave scientists the two most important information. First, the aircrafts’ stability, and second, the aerodynamic drag. The engineers studied the results and later modified its wings and nose of the plane. They also added a tail cone to the plane after the testing.
The First Of Its Kind
After some successful test Avro started building the real Arrow in 1955. The first model was launched in October 1957. However, the launch was a flop as another event overshadowed it. The Russian launched the satellite Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit the Earth which literally dominated the whole world with its success.
Not A Success
The RCAF tried their best to make the launch its success but it was the politicians who were to be blamed for the unsuccessful event. Even though the testing and all other results came positive, the whole project was later dropped in February 1959.
The Reason
Canadian politicians dropped the whole project saying that it was costing the government a lot of money. So rather than continuing the project, the government decided to buy McDonnell F-101 Voodoo aircraft and Bomarc B missiles from the United States. Canceling the whole project cost 30,000 people when they lost their job because of it.
Into The Depths
Though the government shattered the whole dream of building the supersonic Arrow aircraft, still they couldn’t destroy everything related to the aircraft. There were 9 prototypes that were lying in Lake Ontario.
Funding The Project
“The government destroyed all the drawings, models and burned everything so it wasn’t replicated. These models, at the bottom of Lake Ontario, are the only intact pieces of that whole program,” told David Shea to the National Post. David works as a senior engineer with Kraken Sonar, the company that provides few of the equipment to Raise the Arrow project.