Thursday 22 December 2016

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow

Now it's time to write about a true flying legend.
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was conceived back in 1952 to a requirement from 1952 made by the Royal Canadian Air Force, the CF-105  was a two-seat tandem all-weather interceptor of which 37 airplanes were ordered.
Of those 37, the first five of them were known as the Mk.1 and were powered by two Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3 turbojet engines delivering each of them 5670kgp of power which could raise up to 8392kgp after applying the afterburner at maximum power.
The sixth and consecutive airplanes, would've been the Mk.2 series which were expected to be powered by two Orenda PS-13 Iroquis turbojet engines delivering each of them 8732kgp of power and 11794kgp whe afterburning.
The Mk.2 series were to be armed with eight AIM-4 Falcon, three AIM-7 Sparrow or some unespecified number of Canadair Velvet Globe Anti-Air Missiles placed internally in a bay that would deploy when needed.
The first Mk.1 prototype was flown on 25th March 1958 and the other four in 1st August, 22nd September and 27th October, the very same day that the Soviet Sputnik satellite was successfuly launched, so it overshadowed the presentation of this airplane. The fifth one flew on 11th January 1959.
The third prototype achieved the speed of mach 1.5 and mach 1.98 speed was achieved when, on 20th February 1959 the programme was cancelled due to various political reasons. By then, the first airplane of the Mk.2 series was almost complete, and was about to join the testing flights followed by further four that weren't so completed. Urban legends claim that one of those prototypes wasn't destroyed and it's lying inside some hangar, rusting somewhere.











Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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