CF-105 The Avro Arrow

“In its planning, design and flight-test programme, this fighter, in almost every way the most advanced of all the fighters of the 1950s, was as impressive, and successful as any aircraft in history.”
— Bill Gunston, 1981
In 1953 Canadian Air-Force wanted a new interceptor to protect the northern part of the country from the USSR heavy bomber. At this time jets had the speed of 1060 km/h and ceiling of 12000 m. The Canadian Generals wanted their new jet to have the speed of 2410 km/h (mack 2) and a ceiling of 50,000 ft+.

They went to Avro with this plains to make the jet and at the time it was almost impossible thing to do. Avro took the contract and deside that this project will be an all Canadian Jet.
Avro had in the past made plans during World War II for the British and Canadian Air Force. Here are some of the air craft that they made:


Handley Page Hampden Medium Bomber
Primary Users: RAF and RCAF
Crew: 4
Maiden Flight: 21, June, 1936
Produced: 1936 to 1941
Retired: 1945
Number Built: 1,430
Length: 16.33 m
Height: 4.37 m
Wingspan: 21.98 m
Powerplant: 2 Bristol Pegasus XVIII 9-Cylinder Radial engines (980 hp each)
Maximum Speed: 410 km/h at 4,724 m
Service ceiling: 5,790 m
4 to 6 7.7 mm Vickers K Machine Guns
Bombs/Torpedoes and Mines: 1,814 kg

Avro Lancaster Heavy Bomber
Primary Users: RAF and RCAF
Crew: 7
Maiden Flight: 8, January, 1941
Produced: 1942
Retired: 1963 (In Canada)
Number Built: 7,377
Length: 21.18 m
Height: 5.97 m
Wingspan: 31.09 m
Powerplant: 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines (1280 hp each)
Maximum Speed: 450 km/h at 5,600 m
Service ceiling: 8,160 m
8 7.70 mm Browning Machine Guns
Payload: max 10,000 kg, typical 6,400 kg

There are a few variants of the Lancaster; Avro Lancastrian, Avro Lincoln, Avro York and the Halifax.

Hawker Hurricane Fighter; Battle of France and Battle of Britain
Primary Users: RAF and RCAF
Crew: 1
Maiden Flight: 6, November, 1935
Produced: 1937 - 1944
Number Built: 14,000
Length: 9.84 m
Height: 4.0 m
Wingspan: 12.19 m
Powerplant: 1 Rolls-Royce Merlin XX liquid-cooled V12 engines (1,185 hp)
Maximum Speed: 547 km/h at 6,400 m
Service ceiling: 10,970 m
8 7.70 mm Browning Machine Guns

The Cold War Canadian Designed
Avro CF 100 Canuck
Primary Users:RCAF and Belgian
Crew: 2
Maiden Flight: 19, January, 1950
Produced: 1952
Retired: 1981 (In Canada)
Number Built: 692
Length: 16.5 m
Height: 4.4 m
Wingspan: 17.4 m
Powerplant: 2 Avro Orenda 11 turbojets
Maximum Speed: 888 km/h
Service ceiling: 13,700 m

Avro CF-105 Arrow
Primary Users: RCAF
Crew: 2
Maiden Flight: 25, March, 1958
Produced: Canceled
Retired: 20, February 1959
Number Built: 5
Length: 23.71 m
Height: 6.25 m
Wingspan: 15.24 m
Powerplant: 2 Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3 turbojets (this was going to be replaced with the Iroquois Jet Engines)
Maximum Speed: 2,104 km/h at 15,000m
Service ceiling: 16,150 m
1 to 4 AIR-2 Genie unguided nuclear rockets
8 AIM-4 Falcon, Canadair Velvet Glove (cancelled 1956)
2 AIM-7 Sparrow II 2D Active guidance missiles (cancelled)

Design and development

At the start of the project, there was some debate on the design of a supersonic jet. Namely the wings, straight or swept style wings. The CF-100 had straight wings and it can carry a lot of fuel within the wings. After some testing with mock-up of wooden jets, they decided to go with a delta style wings and tailless. With using the delta wings, they increase the amount of fuel the jet can carry and keeping the wings thin so that it can be very aerodynamic.

One new idea that Avro employed in their new supersonic jet. Adding 4,000 pounds per square inch hydraulic system, It used small actuators and piping, this first time that this kind of system was used. This was a rudimentary “Fly-By-Wire”, most modern jets use today.

In 1955 Avro was given the go-head to start rolling out the prototype jets, five where made and the flight test started. For the most part the testing went really good. However one of the jets landing gear broke on landing. At this time the Iroquois engines where not completed, so the Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3 turbojets where used in their place. The rollout of the first CF-105, marked as RL-201, took place 4 October 1957. The company had planned to capitalize on the event, inviting more than 13,000 guests to the formal occasion. Unfortunately, the media and public attention for the Arrow rollout was dwarfed by the launch of Sputnik the same day.

Sputnik was the first satellite launch from Earth. The Russian name "???????" means literally "co-traveller", "travelling companion" or "satellite", and its R-7 launch vehicle was designed initially to carry nuclear warheads.

RL-201 first flew on March 25 1958 with chief development test pilot Janusz Zurakowski. The aircraft demonstrated excellent handling throughout the flight envelope. The Jet went supersonic on only its third flight and reached at three quarters throttle. (Mach 1.98).

Political issues

Storms of Controversy revealed a top secret brief prepared for George Pearkes, then Minister of National Defence, for his July 1958 meeting with U.S. officials. The brief states,

"The introduction of SAGE in Canada will cost in the neighbourhood of $107 million. Further improvements are required in the radar… NORAD has also recommended the introduction of the BOMARC missile… will be a further commitment of $164 million… All these commitments coming at this particular time… will tend to increase our defence budget by as much as 25 to 30%…"

It was the Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (Liberal) that approved and gave the go-head with the Avro CF-105 Arrow. They had refused the USA offers on their jets, namely the CF-101 Voodoo and the Bomarc Missiles. The Government did not want the Nuclear missiles installed on Canadian soil. They tried to sell USA, British and the French governments on the CF-105 Arrow. The USA was no, the French did not want the jets, however they wanted the Iroquois engines and order 200 for their Mirage Jets. Some years later the British government was about to order the CF-105 Arrows after the first flight test and later changed their minds on the deal, then the French cancelled their order on Iroquois engines, in 1957.

At this time there was an election in Canada and the Liberal Party lost. The Progressive Conservative lead by John Diefenbaker, won a Minority Government. It is believed that some one in the Canadian government leak-out the information that the Avro CF-105 Arrow was about to be cancelled.

In 1958 there was another general election in Canada and John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative won the election. They started to cancel majority of the Liberal projects, calling them "industrial welfare".

Black Friday -- Broken Dreams


On 20 February 1959, later know as "Black Friday", the government of Canada, Prime Mister John Diefenbaker canceled the Avro Arrow.

Avro of Canada at the time only had two projects on the go. One being the CF-105 Arrow and the other was the Orenda Iroquois. With no new money, a decision was made to layoff all of the employees at the time. This immediately put over 50,000 people out of work at the plants and outside suppliers.

Within two months, all aircraft, engines, production tooling and technical data were ordered scrapped. This was partly in response to Royal Canadian Mounted Police fears that a Soviet "mole" had infiltrated Avro, later confirmed to some degree in the Mitrokhin archives. Officially, the reason given for the destruction order from Cabinet and the Chiefs of Staff was to destroy classified and "secret" materials utilized in the Arrow/Iroquois programs.

Along with the five flying test models and production aircraft, blueprints and other materials were destroyed leading to the creation of a piece of Canadian mythology. The rushed destruction incited a number of conspiracy theories alleging American culpability for the Arrow's demise. There remains an enduring but fanciful legend that one of the prototypes was spirited away after the cancellation and remains intact, but continues to be the basis of an urban legend.

Following the Canadian government's cancellation of the Avro Arrow project in 1959, CF-105 Chief Aerodynamicist Jim Chamberlin led a team of 25 engineers to NASA's Space Task Group to become lead engineers, program managers, and heads of engineering in NASA's manned space programs-Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. This team would eventually grow to 32 Avro engineers and technicians, and become emblematic of what many Canadians viewed as a "brain drain" to the US. Many other engineers, including Jim Floyd (whose design studies at Hawker Siddeley (Avro Aircraft's UK parent) on the HSA.1000 SST design studies were ultimately influential in the design of the Concorde) found work abroad in either the UK or the United States.

Key People of Avro Canada


Gordon Jr. Crawford
December 26, 1914 - January 26, 1967
Born in: Winnipeg Man
He was the President of Avro 1952 to 1959

During the Second World War, he helped the government to reorganize the industrial resource to meet the needs of the wartime productions. In 1952 he was called upon to become the new president of Avro.

A quot from the Avro Vice-President (Engineering) James C. Floyd.
"At the time we laid down the design of the CF-105, there was a somewhat emotional controversy going on in the United States on the relative merits of the delta plan form versus the straight wing for supersonic aircraft… our choice of a tailless delta was based mainly on the compromise of attempting to achieve structural and aeroelastic efficiency, with a very thin wing, and yet, at the same time, achieving the large internal fuel capacity required for the specified range"

After “Black Friday”, James Floyd moved England. He did come back to Canada in 1981 and retired in the Toronto area in the shadows of the once-great Avro Canada company buildings, that are now demolished.

Janusz Zurakowski
September 12, 1914 - Februrary 9, 2004
Born in: Ryzawka, Russia
He was the chief development test pilot

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he flew with the Polish air force. After the defeat, he escaped the Germans and went to England. He flew in Spitfire V in the Battle of Britain. He also escorted the USAAF bombers on daylight bombing raids

After the war he became a test pilot for RAF, he flew 30 different type of plan. He moved to Canada in 1952 and was a test pilot for Avro. He broke the sound barrier on 18 December 1952, diving the CF-100 fighter, the first straight-winged jet aircraft to achieve this feat. He flew Arrows RL 201, 202 and 203, over a total of 21 flights, 23.75 hours, reaching speeds of Mach 1.89 and an altitude of 50,000 feet.

After flying Arrow 203 on 26 September 1958, Janusz decided to give up test flying for good, fulfilling a promise he had made to his wife to stop experimental flying once he reached the age of 40.

John Carver Meadows Frost
1915 - October 9 1979
Born in: Walton-on-Thames, England

In 1947 he left England and moved to Canada, where he started to work at Avro Canada. On 14 June 1947, the Avro design team met their new Project Designer, working on the XC-100 (CF-100) and later worked on the CF-105 and the Avrocar.

After Black Friday he moved to New Zealand.

Jim Chamberlin
May 23, 1915 - 1981
Born in: Kamloops, British Columbia

Chamberlin was chief aerodynamicist on the C-102 Jetliner and CF-100 "Canuck" jet interceptor and, later, chief of technical design for the CF-105 Avro Arrow, generating many of the ideas that would make the design famous.

After Black Friday, he and 25 others moved to the States and worked in NASA on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects.

Chamberlin was described by a NASA Administrator as "one of the most brilliant men ever to work with NASA." In March 1962, millions of people watched John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, wave to the crowds in New York from the lead limousine of his ticker tape parade. Directly behind, in the second limousine, was Jim Chamberlin

Chamberlin left NASA in 1970 to join McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, where he prepared an ultimately unsuccessful space shuttle bid before becoming technical director for the company's facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, a position he held until his death in 1981.