Imagine being the absolute best at something: sports, cooking, gambling, whatever. Then, on the verge of taking your superiority to the level where you achieve fabulous wealth and worldwide fame, you are forced by some ignorant functionary to scrap your plans and actually destroy all the evidence so that you could never reach that level again.
Well, in the 1950s, here in Canada, that’s exactly what happened with the Avro Arrow CF-105 fighter aircraft program. From the day the plans for the supersonic interceptor were submitted to the then-Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent in May 1953, till its abrupt cancellation on the verge of major production, on February 20, 1959 by the Conservative government of John Diefenbaker, the Arrow was the finest fighter aircraft in the world.
If you are an aircraft buff, as I am, this is an incredibly painful part of aviation history to think about. The Arrow had no peers, set international flight records, and would still be competitive today. A delta-winged interceptor conceived to prevent advanced Russian high-speed, high-altitude atomic bombers from flying into Canada over the North Pole, where there was no radar at that time, the Malton, Ontario-built Arrow was quickly the darling of the media and the envy of governments worldwide. The Arrow project also required the development of powerful new engines to give the plane the thrust required to reach its unheard-of Mach 2.5 speeds and 50,000 feet altitudes, so the Iroquois engine was designed and manufactured. France had an order in for 200 of these engines, an order that was cancelled when the news of the Arrow’s cancellation was leaked.
By the 1959 cancellation date, since known as Black Friday, several Arrows, including a “Mark 2” version using the Iroquois engine, had been flight tested – the first one by the late test pilot Janusz (Jan) Zurakowski on March 25, 1958, with performances that were both successful and astounding. Five Mark 1 aircraft were manufactured in all, numbered as RL 201 – RL 205, with RL 206, the solitary Mark 2, the final Arrow to come off the line. Then, it was all gone. The Conservatives ordered the destruction of everything, including all the aircraft, smaller models, blueprints... though there are rumours that one complete aircraft had been hidden away and is still around somewhere. Surviving blueprints have permitted the creation of a full-sized, static model of the Arrow that was rolled out in 2008 at the former CFB Downsview military base in Toronto, Ontario. Ottawa’s Canadian Aviation and Space Museum also has a surviving nose section and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa has an original Arrow nose cone and ejector seat.
The Conservative government has never come forward with the real reason for the cancellation, but conspiracy theories abound. They used cost as a reason and, indeed, it was prohibitive, with a projected $1.1 billion earmarked for Arrow had it gone through as planned. But that was hardly unreasonable for a plane that would have created an entire new industry for Canada, one which likely would have positioned us as a world aviation power today. As it was, $33 million had to be paid out in cancellation fees. And the ensuing CIM-10 BOMARC missile program, which the Americans had convinced the Canadians to join (justified by claims that missiles were replacing fighter aircraft as nuclear deterrents) on behalf of NATO, ultimately cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars by the time it was phased out by the Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1971.
So, considering its role in the destruction of the successful development of the stellar Arrow fighter, it is most disconcerting that it is a Conservative government that is today embarking on yet another fighter jet misadventure. Unless you have been in a coma, you have likely heard that Canada has placed an order worth $9 BILLION for a fleet of 65 advanced, single-engine F-35 jet fighters. Canada has already advanced $160 million in the development of the F-35 and $350 million worth of contracts have gone out to Canadian suppliers for the various parts.
Yet, there is much anger afoot. The contracts were not put out to tender, a cardinal contravention of rules in free, Western societies, and there seems to be the same “sucking-up-to-the-Americans” methodology involved here as was the case with the Arrow and other military projects (“Star Wars” missile defence shield, anyone?).
What concerns me most is that bureaucrats are involved, in this case Canadian defence minister Peter McKay. A lawyer of criminal and family law by trade, I’d like to know what McKay’s credentials are that gives him the knowledge to plan the defence of our entire population.
Yes, I have no doubt that Mr. McKay is a very bright man and he is certainly proving that by giving us terrific retorts while he is being resoundly criticized for the manner in which his government is handling this controversy. I’d be a lot happier if a military man, someone of unquestioned brilliance and battlefield ethics, like a Romeo Dallaire, was Minister of National Defence. But inexperienced bureaucrats heading up major portfolios make me extremely nervous.
Case in point: While touring the Northwest Territories with the Giant Colon last year (you can Google it and read the rave reviews), I was in Yellowknife exhibiting on March 21, 2009 and we held a press conference attended by the Honourable Sandy Lee, NWT’s health minister. She spoke and then I said a few words to the media and answered a few questions. I mentioned that what was learned via the Giant Colon’s visits country-wide would hopefully help prevent deaths from colorectal cancer by finding potential cancers before they metastasized. You know that word, right? Everyone does... it means before cancerous cells spread to other parts of the body. It is a VERY basic term.
Later, while talking to Ms. Lee and the media while walking through the Giant Colon, the minister took me aside and said, and I quote, “While you were speaking, there was a word you used that I did not understand.” I asked her which one and she tried to repeat it... “metas.... mat....,” to which I asked, “Metastasized?” With a perfectly straight face (and really, a serious rubberized Jim Carry imitation was what my face wanted to do), I explained what it meant to the HEALTH minister of the NWT, which has some of the highest cancer rates in the country.
Very scary. And here we are, entrusting the defence of our country to another bureaucrat and another Conservative government with a sorry and intentionally clandestine record on the subject to begin with. This aircraft situation appears to be Arrow all over again and we have a right to ask questions and demand answers before it is too late.
