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The Avro Museum in Canada is undertaking a massive challenge in building a 60 percent scale, piloted replica of the CF-105 Avro Arrow. With an approved budget, skilled volunteers and sponsors, the museum's goal is to have the Arrow II flying by 2025.
The Avro Arrow was a Canadian aircraft that the government destroyed in 1959. The museum has had the goal of building a replica for decades, originally hoping to have the replica built and flying by 2000. The idea formed when the non-profit Arrow 2000 Project Association was founded in 1997. In 2002, the group became known as the A.V. Roe Canada Aviation Museum Association, or Avro Museum for short. Due to a number of setbacks, the museum began work on the project in 2003.
By 2010 the scale replica passed its first structural inspection and was assigned serial number 001 and registered as Arrow II. In 2014 the Arrow II moved to Springbank in Alberta and the museum bought the hangar, paying half up front and then working to pay off the rest. The museum now had the space to store and maintain its ambitious project.
In 2019 the museum purchased a used Learjet to use its two GE CJ610 engines. Both of the engines were taken out and preserved in early 2020. Other parts of the Learjet would be saved and used for the Arrow II or other museum projects, and some would be sold off. By the end of July 2020, the Learjet had been fully disassembled and removed from the hangar. The new goal is to have the replica flying with a pilot by 2025.h
The aircraft is estimated to be 70 percent complete, but will need time to be completed and approved by government inspectors. According to Skies Magazine, the team has spent about $700,000 of its $1.5 million budget. While the original Arrow was made with material like expensive titanium, the scaled replica will be made from mostly carbon fiber and fiberglass. The replica is being made to be airworthy and fly at airshows.
The 60 percent scale model is about 46 feet long, 12 feet tall and with a 30-foot wingspan. The replica's empty weight is 5,500 pounds and has a useful load of 2,600 pounds. It will have a ax cruise rate of .92 Mach. The replica will have a fiberglass fuselage, carbon fiber wing and fin, fiberglass fuel tanks, fly by wire flight controls, touchscreen and autopilot instruments and LED lighting.
The original Arrow was intended to be used as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor aircraft. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, growing fear over Soviet bombers led to the RCAF commissioning Avro Canada inn 1953 to build an all-weather nuclear interceptor, able to fly higher and faster than any aircraft in its class. By 1957, the company had employed over 20,000 people, making it one of the largest in the country.
With a growing company and investors, the production of the Arrow was becoming a grandiose project, with skepticism looming right around the corner. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the plane had the world's first computerized flight control and weapons system. The Arrow could travel nearly twice the speed of sound at an altitude of 53,000 feet. Testing was extensive and without modern technology like computer simulations, was comprised mostly of wind-tunnel testing and scale model experiments. Nine models were launched over Lake Ontario to determine its flight worthiness, each being one-eighth the size of the full-scale aircraft, and two more were launched over the Atlantic Ocean.
On Oct. 4, 1957 the Arrow was unveiled before 12,000 people at the Avro plant. Its first flight took place on March 25, 1958 and broke four different speed records. Throughout the year, five more Arrows would fly a total of 66 times, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. A more powerful Mark 2 Arrow was in development, but never flew. In June of 1957, a Progressive Conservative Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, was elected after 22 years of Liberal rule. Diefenbaker cut federal spending and the $1.1 billion Arrow program was seen as too expensive. The day the first Arrow was unveiled the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, and aviation interest was shifting to space, with fear of missiles from the sky shifting to fear or missiles from space, making the initial purpose of the aircraft unclear.
The powerful jet was being surpassed in other countries and many in Canada worried the technology was already becoming obsolete. Avro tried finding a buyer for the Arrow, but with political tension and the cost of the project, a decision was made. On Feb. 20, 1959 the government canceled the Arrow project. With one decision, over 14,000 people lost their jobs. For Canadian aviation, this day became known as Black Friday. The Arrow aircraft pieces were cut apart, blueprints were destroyed and scraps were sold. By the dissolution of Avro in 1962, job losses had grown to 25,000.
According to the Avro Museum, employees wept, threw down their tools and left the factory. People were out of work and businesses relying on the project went bankrupt. The government had ordered the complete destruction of the aircraft, leaving only scattered remnants workers were too afraid to turn in, comprising most of the archive the museum has collected. Many families were uprooted, some leaving the country and others leaving the profession.
Despite the tragic end of the Arrow, aviation enthusiasts in Canada have kept the dream alive. The aircraft legacy is kept alive. Surviving blueprints were put on display, a miniseries was made based on the Arrow's story and a commemorative stamp was released. The Avro Museum is working to preserve an important part of Canadian aviation history, dedicating the time to building its 60 percent scale replica and celebrating the achievements of thousands of Canadians who worked on the original project.