Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 28

Much more devastating than the cancellation of the Jetliner was the
Canadian government's cancellation of the follow-up aircraft to the
CF100 which was the Avro Arrow, a Mach 2 all-weather, long-range
interceptor designed in the mid-1950s.
manufacture of 30 aircraft back at the Avro
factory at Malton, but the Canadian government got wind of the plan and would have
none of it. With that, all hopes to market
and build Jetliners evaporated.

Postscripts
The Jetliner cancellation was not really
a devastating blow to Avro. The company's
immediate prospects were barely dimmed,
but it left Avro with only one major, active
project for just one customer. Only a small
fraction of the workforce was still working
on the Jetliner when the project was canceled, and most of those were immediately
absorbed into the more urgent CF100 fighter
program. As an all-weather interceptor, the
CF100 eventually became a very capable aircraft, with more than 700 being delivered,
including a few exported to the Belgian Air
Force. Ironically, even though the advent
of the Korean War is routinely blamed for
giving urgency to the CF100 development
over the Jetliner, none of them ever saw
service in Korea.
Actually, the prototype Jetliner was not
quite ready to be put out to pasture. It
was kept serviceable by Avro and used for
additional aerodynamics research. It also
was employed as a very capable chase plane
and camera platform during flight testing of
the CF100 fighter because no other airplane
could keep up with it.
Pardon me now as this postscript
becomes semi-autobiographical. For many
years Toronto has hosted to the Canadian
National Exhibition on the Labour Day
weekend in early September. We all called
it "the Ex." It's a big event with roller
coaster rides, bumper cars, ferris wheels, a
midway, and displays of new cars, industrial
equipment, and lots of other amusements.
Part of the program for one day is usually
an air show over the lakefront. My parents
took me to the Ex one year in the late
1940s, and all I remember now is that's
where I saw a jet airplane for the first time:
a de Havilland Vampire fighter. A few years

later, in my early teens, I hitchhiked to
the Ex by myself from our little town north
of Toronto (those were innocent days). I
remember that Avro flew the Jetliner at the
show in 1953 and again in 1954, and on
one of those years (or maybe both years)
the Jetliner and a Comet flew low-speed and
high-speed passes together in formation.
Eventually, the Jetliner had to be retired
as there were not many spare parts in Avro's
inventory to support it for very long. At
the end of 1956 the aircraft was donated
to the National Research Council, but they
had no room to store it. They could take
only the nose section and cockpit, which
eventually were put on display at the Canada
Aviation Museum in Ottawa. What remained
was sold to a scrap metal dealer.
Much more devastating than the cancellation of the Jetliner was the Canadian
government's cancellation of the follow-up
aircraft to the CF100, which was the Avro
Arrow, a Mach 2 all-weather, long-range
interceptor designed in the mid-1950s.
Five aircraft were already in flight test and
had exceeded all the operational requirements including Mach 2 at 60,000 feet,
and 2g turns at Mach 1.5 at 50,000 feet
without losing speed or altitude. Instead
of the Arrow, the government decided to
acquire Bomarc surface-to-air missiles as
the future long-range interceptors, so all
of the Arrows, plus all of the tooling and
test data were destroyed. Many books,
documentaries and even a movie have
covered the Arrow story.
The Arrow was canceled on "Black
Friday" 20 February 1959, immediately
putting 14,500 Avro employees out of work
plus 15,000 others at supporting companies
in the supply chain. By then, I was in the
RCAF, midway through pilot training, and
like any other red-blooded, plane-crazy,
19-year-old, I had expected to become a
Mach 2 fighter pilot and save the world from
the communist threat. I didn't fancy flying
stodgy old CF100s that could barely keep up
with the DC-8s that Trans-Canada Airlines

28 The official publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

was buying, so I requested a transfer to
become an engineering officer in order to
get more practical skills that I could use
when my time in the RCAF was over.
Dixon Speas, who so masterfully tackled
the Jetliner marketing effort in the U.S. and
resigned when the Canadian government
ordered all work on the aircraft to stop, did
not return to American Airlines at the end of
his leave of absence. Instead, he founded R.
Dixon Speas Associates with head offices in
Manhasset, New York. He built the company
into one of the leading aviation consulting
firms in North America. In 1968, Speas
hired me away from my job as aerodynamics group leader at Fairchild-Hiller. In the
mid-1970s, he transferred the company to
Planning Research Corporation (PRC) and I
resigned shortly afterwards, later to rejoin
Speas for a time after he founded a new
company simply named Aviation Consulting
Incorporated. A good friend and invaluable
mentor, Speas passed away in 1998.
Trans-Canada Airlines first got into
the turbine-powered airliner age when it
acquired a number of Vickers Viscount turboprops beginning in 1954. These were roughly
the size of the second Jetliner prototype,
but not nearly as fast. The airline eventually got their first jets (Douglas DC-8s) in
1960. In 1965, the name was changed to
Air Canada.

To Dig Deeper
The most definitive reference source
for the Jetliner is The Avro Canada C102
Jetliner written in 1986 by Jim Floyd who
was the aircraft's chief designer. Besides
Floyd's narrative, the book includes a wealth
of pictures and drawings, plus recollections from many of the key players in the
Jetliner's development.
See also the article in the March 2009 issue
of the Smithsonian Air & Space magazine
entitled Woe Canada; the Only Thing That
Kept Canada From Beating the U.S. to a Jet
Airliner was Canada.



Jetrader - November/December 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Jetrader - November/December 2013

A Message from the President
Calendar/News
ISTAT Europe 2013
An Uncertain Future Remains for Aircraft Emissions Regulation
A High-Flying Birthday Celebration
Financiers and the Digital Airplane
Advances in Engine Architecture
Aviation History
Aircraft Appraisals
ISTAT Foundation
ISTAT Members on the Move
New and Returning Members
Advertiser.com/Advertiser Index
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - cover1
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - cover2
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 3
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - A Message from the President
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 5
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 6
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 7
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 8
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - Calendar/News
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - ISTAT Europe 2013
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 11
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 12
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 13
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 14
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 15
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - An Uncertain Future Remains for Aircraft Emissions Regulation
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 17
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - A High-Flying Birthday Celebration
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 19
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - Financiers and the Digital Airplane
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 21
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 22
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - Advances in Engine Architecture
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 24
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - Aviation History
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 26
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 27
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 28
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - Aircraft Appraisals
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 30
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 31
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - ISTAT Members on the Move
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - New and Returning Members
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - Advertiser.com/Advertiser Index
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - cover3
Jetrader - November/December 2013 - cover4
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