ISTAT Jetrader - Summer 2020 - 45

flow of maintenance and overhauls
of the RCAF's fleet of CF-100s and
their engines, and by April there were
about 2,500 back at work. But that
still left thousands unemployed and
the supply chains without a customer.
As for me, in the summer after
Black Friday, I was still in flight
training at Moose Jaw. But after a
few weeks, I just knew my heart was
not in it anymore, so I was allowed to
transfer to a program to serve as an
engineering officer. By the following
spring, when I had graduated as
an aeronautical engineer, I was
posted to Northern NORAD (North
American Air Defense Command)
headquarters near Montreal, where
most of my work involved aircraft
maintenance, repairs, upgrades and
accident investigations.
Ironically, while I was there,
the RCAF finally acquired its first

supersonic fighter/interceptors. These
were a fleet F-101 Voodoo aircraft
manufactured by McDonnell in the
United States. These were not new
ones right off the production line, but
rather transferred from the U.S. Air
Force. Much of my work at NORAD
involved these and their Pratt &
Whitney J-57 engines. I remember
noting that under the new paint on
the Canadian Voodoos, you could
scratch and see the ghosts of the
American paint underneath. To be
fair, the Voodoo was a good airplane,
but not as good as the Arrow might
have been.
Later, after serving three years, I
resigned from the RCAF, went back
to the University of Toronto and got a
master's degree, but the two surviving
aircraft manufacturers in Canada,
De Havilland and Canadair, were not
hiring engineers. Things were different

in the United States; foreign aerospace
engineers like me who applied for
work there had their permanent
resident permits fast-tracked. Boeing
answered my call and hired me on the
spot. The only question was, "How
soon can you get to Seattle?" Many of
my Canadian classmates joined me,
resulting in more brain drain from our
home country.
The Avro Arrow never really
disappeared as the government had
hoped. More than a dozen books have
been written about the Arrow, casting
blame in all directions. Several more
pieces of Arrows have been found,
and two full-scale replicas are now
in Canadian museums. There was an
excellent two-part CBC documentary
program and even a reasonably
accurate movie, "The Arrow," where
Dan Aykroyd (a Canadian) played the
role of the CEO of Avro Canada.

Jetrader

* SUMMER 2020 * 4 5
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