Feb. 20, 1959 cbc Archive Diefenbaker announces Avro Arrow cancellation
cbc The Avro Arrow: Canada's Broken Dream
It's the closest thing Canadian industry has to a love story and a murder mystery. The Avro Arrow, a sleek white jet interceptor developed in Malton, Ontario in the 1950s, could have been many things. It might have become the fastest plane in the world, our best defence against Soviet bombers, the catalyst to propel Canada to the forefront of the aviation industry. Instead, it became a $400-million pile of scrap metal, and the stuff of legends.
Avro ARROW
Wednesday Night #777
with Col. Pierre Sevigny
January 22, 1997
Videotapes of the United States Inauguration launched a brief discussion of that event.
The guests, mostly experts in international aviation and international finance, (both total
mysteries to the author.) then addressed the topics of the evening starting with the CBC
version of the history of the Avro Arrow and the devastating effect on the Diefenbaker government of the cancellation of the project.
John Diefenbaker is portrayed as having caved in to American demands that the Arrow
be scrapped and all existing plans, tapes, archives and models destroyed. This was not the case.
One guest who was present throughout the decision process leading up to the cancellation,
stated that it was most likely that Crawford Gordon had himself ordered the destruction in his anger. This guest described in detail the facts and situation leading up to the cancellation.
We were reminded that the manufacturer was not Canadian but British owned.
Col. Pierre Sevigny (80) at his Montréal home.
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Monday 2 February 1998
Ex-MP stirs up debate over Avro Arrow
Tories didn't order jets' destruction,
Diefenbaker cabinet member, Col. Pierre Sevigny, an officer of the Order of Canada, says
Furthermore, Sevigny said, the Americans were in favour
of continuing production of the CF-105, as the Arrow was
known, and offered to finance its construction to equip
RCAF squadrons after the Diefenbaker government
canceled the program because of its rising cost.
"...the cabinet categorically refused
the American offer. "The U.S., perhaps in an effort to
prevent any disruption in the Canadian economy, offered to
pay for the construction of the Arrow,"
Do se the wife Clou Sevigny's Art
A considerable amount of money had been spent on the project by the Canadian
government, without prospect of success in a foreseeable period of time.
Although the Iroquois engine was being built, the plane had not yet flown with it
and it was therefore unproved.
The Arrow was incredibly costly and most of the Canadian Defense budget was
being devoted to an aircraft whose performance was limited by its range (92 minutes in
the air) and whose value for defense purposes was questionable.
The Arrow was designed to counter threats of bomber attacks. The Russians had already
perfected the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with a
range of 1,600 miles which would give rise to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The only defense system, although not a great one, was the Bomarc. The Bomarc
missile had a range of 400 miles.
The project would only be viable if the Arrow were to be sold to NATO, an
impossibility.
The then Minister of External Affairs was dead against bringing nuclear
weapons into Canada. The Arrow would carry nuclear armament. More pertinent,
the Liberal Government would probably have canceled the project had the Grits
been reelected as there was increasing resentment of the dedication of so much
funding to this project to the detriment of the other branches of the Armed Forces.
(This was before Unification and Paul Hellyer!)
The Diefenbaker government knew that canceling the project would not lead to
large aircraft manufacturing job losses because the plants could be used to
manufacture cargo planes which at the time, were in increasing demand.
In fact, the cancellation of the Arrow probably led to Canada's current strength
in the design and production of civil aircraft.
All agreed that the CBC programme was great theatre, but should not be
the basis for a history course.
Wednesday 29 July 1998
The real-life Private Ryans tell their stories on the Net by FRED TASKER
Miami Herald (saved)
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