The Avro Arrow: Canada's Favorite Delta Wing

Hello everybody welcome back to a brand new episode of Mega projects this one is heavily requested it's the abro arrow I swear every time I release a mega projects video that is a plane you're like why haven't you done the Avro Arrow yet so I'm like well now I have also a couple other things before we get started one I am wearing some fly merch if you would like to look as fly as me you can go to megamerch dot Co how about that and purchase this this one people come up to you and be like oh nice shirt is that the Concorde you'd be like actually no this is the fake Russian Concord the tupolev I'm also a massive nerd you can buy this at megaburch.com along with a ton of other designs the second thing if you're not aware yet is that I have another channel that is called side projects where we cover things that are not quite Mega enough for this channel Soviet space weapons World War II's greatest airplanes histories lost treasures all of that sort of stuff you'll find on side projects which is linked to a low below along with the merch link and let's get into it finally [Music] the early Cold War era was a time of massive development of aircraft and flight-based armaments if you've been watching Mega projects for any time at all you know that most of the examples from this period come from the USA the USSR or possibly the UK and France less famously though however perhaps the most interesting of any military aircraft from that era was the Canadian Avro Arrow the airplane designed in the 1950s included one of the most unique and engaging designs in history including its iconic delta wing speaking of despite its status as a cult favorite only a small handful of arrows were ever built and they were all destroyed shortly after completion in the end the plane's Legacy had as much to do with the political controversy surrounding it as that iconic design so let us discuss at last the Avro Arrow [Music] foreign following the end of World War II the USSR began to develop long-range bombers capable of dropping atomic bombs on distant enemies good times not really the typical bomber was a high-speed high-altitude aircraft capable of reaching industrial centers in Canada by flying over the Arctic Circle the best defense against these long-range bombers were Lightning Fast interceptors capable of cutting off an approaching bomber before hitting its Target in 1946 the company responsible for building the best Canadian aircraft was AV row Canada Limited also known as Avro see what they did there over the next seven years Avro built the formidable cf-100 introduced in 1953 the cf-100 stayed in service in the Royal Canadian Air Force rcaf until 1981. however as was the nature of Cold War Weaponry by the time it was introduced to the rcaf fleet in 1953 the cf-100 was already somewhat outdated compared with the jet-powered bombers in development by the USSR they don't call it an arms race for nothing so in 1952 the rcaf put together a new set of requirements for the next generation of interceptors the paper was called the final report of the all-weather Interceptor requirements team very catchy later that year it was submitted to Avro establishing the first set of principles that the new Interceptor would need to adhere to the second set of principles was established the following year 1953 after Avro reviewed the report of requirements they teamed up with the rcaf to determine the technical and performance specs required for the kind of SuperSonic Interceptor that they were looking for this culminated in the rcaf specification air 73 which combined with the report of requirements created a specific set of qualifications and details of what this next Generation Interceptor was gonna look like it was gonna look cool a team of RCF officers and Engineers led by a man named Ray foot tit met by a man named Ray futsett toured aircraft manufacturers throughout the U.S UK and France avra had experienced building aircraft based on designs by other companies but foot tits team found that there was nothing in the works anywhere that fit their specs so they determined to have Avro design it themselves the first and most important aspect of this new Interceptor was gonna be its speed it had to go really really fast supersonic aircraft was still relatively new and many struggled to deal with wave drag a kind of drag that only affects planes as they approach Mach 1. Avro determined to go at this problem with a solution discovered by German Engineers during World War II the research showed that variances in the shape of a plane's wings were the main factor in reducing drag and crossing the sound barrier simultaneously the plane needed large enough Wings to provide space for armaments and additional fuel fuel space was particularly important as the early jet engines of the 1950s were not exactly what you would call efficient what you would call them is terribly terribly inefficient the optimal Wing choice to meet these requirements was the delta wing a wing-shaped in the form of a triangle you see like this not only does the wing shape allow for additional storage but the increased surface area allows the plane to create more lift at higher altitudes than planes with smaller wings while the delta wing sacrificed some speed and maneuverability at lower altitudes these disadvantages were minimized because interceptors were barely called upon to do anything besides fly in a really straight line at a really high altitude as for the more specific configurations of the air 73 specs the rcaf requested a plane with a range of 556 kilometers 345 miles for a routine low-speed Mission and 370 kilometers 230 miles for a high speed interception Mission it needed a cruising speed of Mach 1.5 at an altitude of 21 000 meters that's 70 000 feet and the ability to take off from a 1.8 kilometer 6000 feet Runway it would need to maintain speed and altitude while sustaining two G's of force during high altitude Maneuvers and it must be able to turn around on the ground within 10 minutes so all I mean I could do this easy no problem Avro submitted their design for these specs in May 1953 for a plane that was officially referred to as the c-105 their plans were essentially for a two-man version of one of their earlier planes but with a single delta wing built into the upper fuselage this Wing placement allowed the belly of the aircraft to be used for storing massive amounts of armaments the plane's engine was designated as the Rolls-Royce rb-106 in December of 1953 the Canadian government appropriated 27 million Canadian dollars which is about 200 million US dollars in today's money for the project however the following year the Soviets introduced a new jet bomber to their Fleet the Maya sis Chev M4 bison furthermore reports from Canadian allies claimed that the Soviets were testing an earlier duration of the hydrogen bomb uh oh these two pieces of news seem to Spook the Canadian government why would that be into upping the funding for the project so in March of 1955 with the project already underway the Canadian government approved moved an additional 260 million Canadian dollars which is about 2 billion dollars in US dollars today of funding that is quite the jumper budget foreign by mid-1954 the earliest tests began including rudimentary computer-based testing and real-world testing with small models the models were tested in Wind tunnels and on Canadian and American military bases the models were approximately three meters long and their purpose was to determine the effectiveness of the Design's aerodynamic drag and stability so the prototypes were powered by NASA Nike rockets and they were a success one of the model planes launched from a NASA facility in Wallops Island Virginia reportedly reached Mach 1.7 following these tests the models were crashed into the Atlantic Ocean leading to something of an obsession with aeronautic enthusiasts who have reportedly searched the ocean floor for whatever they can find of the Lost models they've never been able to find any the oceans really big and models generally really small I mean even a plane would be really small it's the ocean it's massive the most significant speed bump of the pre-production days involved the plane's engine first the rolls rice RB 106 program was canceled in 1954 forcing the team at Avro to use a backup the right j67 then in 1955 the j67 program was canceled forcing Avro to look for different engines again this time they went with the Pratt of Whitley j75 while also developing a custom engine for the plane's Future iterations these two engines were eventually canceled not really these two engine changes forced the engineering team to alter the design multiple times to account for changes in the engine's weight and shape however it seems that they had finally found a keeper go ahead on production was given in 1955 and the rcaf set an aggressive timetable by which they wanted the earliest arrows completed Avro responded with some questionable production tactics to ensure that they met that timetable they adopted a system called The Cook Cragie plan While most brand new aircraft went through several prototyping stages before factory production began the cook craigie Plan called for the first plane to be built from a factory production line the project Engineers knew right away that this was something of a precarious approach to things in keeping with the project Spirit the RCF demanded several changes upon seeing the earliest full-scale mock-ups of the plane in 1956. they requested extensive state-of-the-art missiles and weapon systems even though avro's plans included more affordable yet just as capable systems because of course they did so of course the military is always right and they changed the design to meet the new specifications the new weapon systems would take several more years to complete but this apparently wasn't a concern for the rcaf this kind of change and cancellation typified much of the Arrow's production history causing delays that led to increased costs and the Canadian government's frustration despite all the problems the first Avro Arrow was completed in late 1957 with an official rollout date of October 4th 1957. the team planned a colossal ceremony and invited 13 000 aeronautic enthusiasts and press members to witness the event however they receive next to no publicity that week as their rollout date happened to be the same day that the Sputnik satellite was launched bomber the first flight took place six months later on March the 25th 1958 the plane wasn't quite finished yet as few of the armaments were ready so the engineering team added ballasts to balance the plane's weight the test pilot for the first flight was Janice zurakowski and his tests revealed no significant faults the aircraft reached supersonic speed on its third flight and on its seventh broke 1 600 kilometers an hour a thousand miles per hour while climbing upwards of 15 000 meters that's 50 000 feet there are some small discrepancies in the reported Max Speed but it most likely top down out around Mac 1.95 over the next 18 months four Mark ones the earliest iteration over the arrow were built and delivered to the rcaaf at last the final product it was a beautiful structure sleek and dramatic with its delta wing style the plane was 23.7 meters long 6.45 meters tall with a wingspan of 15 meters the total Wing area reached 114 square meters a characteristic found on virtually all delta wing planes the cruise speed at 11 000 meters that's 36 000 feet was 976 kilometers an hour placing it just below Mach 1. the combat range was 670 kilometers placing it well above the rcaf efficiency standards in the pre-planning stages its service ceiling also maxed out at 16 000 meters 53 000 feet and though the max recorded speed was 2104 kilometers an hour many of the engineers and Pilots believed that it had the potential to crack Mac 2. [Music] foreign 's earliest days in 1953 The Arrow had been a target of Civilian and Military criticism as honestly just the poor use of money the leadership of the Canadian Army and Navy were highly critical of the extensive funds given to the Air Force remember how much money they were given it was insane politically it was seen as an example of rampant liberal spending in 1957 a progressive conservative named John deifen Baker won election for the prime minister of Canada after campaigning on reduced spending shortly after his election dyfen Baker signed the NORAD agreement with the United States making Canada a partner in America's command and control this included the opportunity to coordinate with the USA's defense of North America through the use of the sage system which was focused on using anti-aircraft missiles to defend against air-based attacks another new priority was defending against long-range ballistic missiles or even attacks from space as Sputnik might have signified altogether it meant that the Avro Arrow looks more like make an expensive piece of equipment that wasn't quite as effective as it was initially supposed to be it looked like a weapon that was meant to stop an enemy that really wasn't there anymore furthermore many of the Project's components including the Armament system were still yet to be completed because of course they were on February the 20th 1959 died from Baker announced the cancellation of the Avro Arrow program he cited the changing threats to Canada's defense and the massive costs of building the new weapon while the sage program which dyphen Baker eventually joined would cost just as much as the arrow program it was seen as a more realistic counter to the Soviet Union's Potential Threat the date came known as Black Friday in the Canadian aviation industry is 15 000 Avro employees suddenly found themselves without jobs and Canada's aircraft manufacturing industry it never reached the same Heights this led to a brain drain as the best and brightest Engineers left Canada for the United States where they could continue to work on ambitious vicious and expensive projects that would take advantage of their expertise a team of 25 Elite Avro Engineers joined NASA to play a massive role in the Mercury Gemini and Apollo projects of the following decades following the Project's demise the Canadian government ordered everything related to The Arrow project to be destroyed they feared the program was infiltrated by Soviet spies a fear that might actually have been Justified and that any knowledge of the plane and its weapon system needed to be destroyed for national security purposes these orders were mostly followed as the only remaining pieces of the Five Arrows are a single nose section and two Wing Parcels they can now be seen at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa in retrospect it seems the Avro Arrow was destined to never be built on a large scale perhaps because it would have been so spectacular while the production and design problems were dealt with maybe the biggest problem with the airplane was who was building it World War II was an excuse for excessive spending on military weaponry and infrastructure but costs soared as technology improved throughout the Cold War as such the number of countries that could justify building such pricey jet engine aircraft dwindled until it was essentially just to come countries the USA and the USSR it's disappointing that no fully functional Avro arrows exist but it seems that in retrospect his cancellation might have been a prudent choice so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did Smash that like button below if you want to look cool with a delta wing megamerch dot Co is where you go there's also a link below and don't forget to subscribe to side projects because your watch to the end why wouldn't you and thanks for watching [Music] thank you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 329,398

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Id: em06II6ScnA

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020