Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck - Intended users

Merry christmas eve everyone! We come with a very brief post today as there isn't many information available.

After the Korean War had started, the USAF (United States Air Force) was in urgent need of all-weather interceptors and surveillance airplanes. The urgency was so big that they considered two foreign designs to be incorporated into USAF service, the English Electric Canberra and the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck. The CF-100 was rejected for not having enough range and insufficient payload. In the end, the Electric Canberra was chosen and was built under license by Martin. It was known as the Martin B-57 Canberra.
As the Canuck Mk.3 was the first of the Canucks armed with a machine gun that could've been ready in time before the cease fire agreement of 1953 and considering that it was an all-weather interceptor, we decided to paint totally in black as another all-weather fighters that served in Korea during that year.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5 Canuck - Canadian users

Now it's time for the last post about the CF-100 Canuck.
The Mk.5 was the last variant of the CF-100 Canuck. It featured a longer wingspan in order to increase it's operational ceiling. They were powered either by Orenda 11 or Orenda 14 delivering similar thrust of power. It's special because it was armed only with rockets and had, therefore, the gun pack and machine-gun sights removed.
A total of 281 were built and 49 Mk.4B were upgraded to the Mk.5 standard and it was the first massively produced Canadian jet fighter.
It served with many Royal Canadian Air Force Squadrons, with four of them being deployed in Europe from 1956 to 1962 under the nimble bat program, which consisted on replacing the Canadair Sabre with some Canucks in order to provide some squadrons with an all-weather fighter against the Soviets.
When the Canuck was already outdated, some of them were retrofitted with some electronic counter-measures to serve in that role. It featured some radar jammers in the gun pack and chaff dispensers in the underwing pylons. It was followed by another communications-jamming version and remained in active role until 1981, however we couldn't find relevant graphical references of these versions, so they remain undrawn.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of FIghters

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5 Canuck - Belgian users

On 28th July 1957, the Belgian government announced that they had chosen the Canuck instead of the Gloster Javelin, the Sud Aviation Vautour IIN, the North American F-86K Sabre Dog and the Northrop F-89D Scorpion for the all weather fighter to serve with the Belgian Air Force.
In total, 53 of them were sold and one of them was damaged before it was delivered. In December 1957 the first fifteen of them arrived from CFB Uplands, located in Ottawa. They arrived in Marville, France after having being ferried via Goose Bay, in Labrador and Keflavik, in Iceland. Once in Marville they were handed over to the Belgian pilots who ferried them to the Belgian base of Beauvechain.
They served with the Belgian 11, 349 and 350 squadrons under the 1st "all weather" wing. They were used until 1964 when it was replaced by the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck#Operators
2. http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Avro%20Canada%20CF100%20Canuck/canuck%20frontpage.htm
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters.

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.4

The CF-100 Mk.4 was the first variant of the Canuck armed with rockets. It made it's maiden flight as a modified version of an Mk.2 on 11th October 1952. When tested, it outrunned the Canadair Sabre but it wasn't as agile as this one. It even managed to reach mach 1 in a dive on 4th December of that same year.
The prototype was used also to test a belly rocket pack mounted behind the guns with 48 FFAR rockets, but it caused several buffeting after being extended and therefore was discarded.
That prototype was lost on 23rd August 1954 during an accident where the pilot successfully ejected but the navigator, unfortunately couldn't.

The first production version of the Mk.4 appeared in September 1953 and it featured a modified cockpit with a one-piece canopy and an internal modification to make it easier for the navigator to eject after the pilot had ejected.
It was powered by two Orenda 9 engines delivering each of them 2950kgp of thrust, which required modified nacelles. Regarding avionics, it was equipped with the Hughes MG-2 fire control system and an AN/APG-40 radar in the nose, copying that way the Northrop F-89D Scorpion.
On the wingtips there was a provision for 29 Mighty Mouse rockets which could be swapped by wingtips tanks, which we have chosen to draw.
The early production of this variant lacked an autopilot, but it's not clear if it was fitted later on or not and some of them had a production tail bumper but most of them were removed, specially in the late production variants.
The Mk.4 was the true first satisfactory production variant, so when this one rolled out, the production orders for the Mk.3 were called off. Totally 137 Mk.4 were built and when an uprated Orenda 11 engine appeared, it became the standard for the Mk.4 which were designated as Mk.4B and those powered by the Orenda 9, were retroactively called Mk.4A. Only two Mk.4A were converted to Mk.4B configuration.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.3

The Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.3 was the first production version. It featured the APG-33 nose radar, an US built Hughes E-1 fire control system, and was armed with eight 0.50in Browning M3 machine guns placed in a belly tray that could be dropped out in order to increase speed.
Some experimental variants were also made, like one with four 20mm cannons instead of the 0,50in machine guns, but it was discarded as it was very problematic.
It seems that it could be equipped with some air-to-ground bombs, with a load of up to four 450kg bombs, in order to perform the rather unlikely for this airplane, ground attack role.
It's interesting to mention that an Mk.3 was fitted with four Canadair Velvet Globe missiles on underwing pylons, in order to test them, however the Velvet Globe missile program was cancelled in 1956 and that missile never entered service.
In September 1950 the Royal Canadian Air Force oredered 124 Mk.3s with the first one of them entering service in 1953.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.2

The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck was a pre-production version of the regular Canuck. Only five of them were made as they intended to be test aircrafts.
They were also powered by the Orenda 2 engine that also powered the two prototypes and one of them was fitted with dual controls in order to make it a trainer aircraft. It was labelled as the Mk.2T.

Apparently, nowadays at least one of them is conserved as a gatekeeper at the CFB St.Jean in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.1

The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck's origins can be traced back to the very late 1940s as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) needed an interceptor capable of patrolling the inmense areas of Canada's north operating in all-weather conditions.
The proposed two-seat fighter was designed around two powerful engines, an advanced radar and fire control system placed in it's nose making it that way able to fly under every weather 24/7.

Back in October 1946 a designed labelled as XC-100 was presented to the RCAF by the chief engineer Edgar Atkin who passed his design to John Frost, in order to redesign the design together with Jim Chamberlin, Avro's main Aerodynamacist.
The first prototype ,named CF-100 Canuck Mk.1, made it's maiden flight on 19th January 1950 with Gloster's chief test pilot Squadron Leader Bill Waterton at the controls. It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon engines delivering 2950Kgp of thrust each.

A second prototype was made, also belonging to the Mk.1 series, and was also powered by the same engine.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters