The Avro Arrow (file)
Posted on 07/27/2006 6:14:10 PM PDT by NorthOf45
Avro Arrow test pilot Rogers passes away in T.O.
Canadian Press July 27, 2006
TORONTO -- The man who oversaw flight operations for the revolutionary but ill-fated Avro Arrow has died.
A memorial service will be held Thursday in Toronto for Don Rogers, who died of cancer last week at the age of 89.
After the death last year of Arrow test pilot Peter Cope, Rogers became the last surviving test pilot for the company. Formerly Avro's chief test pilot, he went on to become director of flight operations, overseeing Cope and three other pilots involved in the day-to-day testing of the Arrow.
The group's contributions to aviation and Canadian heritage should not be taken lightly, said Andrew Hibbert, president of Arrow Recovery Canada.
"All we ever talk about now is astronauts and people like that, but these were the astronauts of their day,'' Hibbert said. "They were the most advanced and well-trained pilots in the world at that time.''
In addition to being a well-respected pilot, Rogers -- who died July 19 at his home in Toronto -- was very caring and "a gentleman's gentleman,'' said his son Raymond, 65.
"He was very old-school, he really was,'' Raymond said. "He was an absolute gentleman. He was quiet, he was unassuming, he was extremely modest about what he's done and accomplished in his career.''
In addition to Raymond, who wasn't a pilot but worked in aviation for 36 years, Rogers had two other children: Connie Mount, 58, and Stephen, who died in a car accident about 30 years ago.
Rogers made headlines in 1950 when he flew airmail aboard a jet for the first time ever, piloting the company's jetliner from Toronto to New York in 58 minutes -- half the previous record.
The Arrow, an ambitious aircraft that was considered revolutionary and extremely advanced for its time, had its life cut short when the supersonic interceptor jet project was scrapped by the federal Conservative government in 1959.
"1/8The Arrow3/8 was light years ahead of its time,'' said Andrew Hibbert, the president of Arrow Recovery Canada. "When it was built in the 50s it probably was one of the most advanced aircraft in the world.''
After losing his job at Avro, Rogers went on to work for de Havilland as a test pilot.
He never lost his zeal for aviation and he later travelled across the county with his wife, June, sharing his Avro experiences with historians and enthusiasts.
The pilot's lifelong love affair with flying began at the Hamilton Aero Club, where he earned his pilot's licence in 1936 at the age of 20. Flying was his passion, his son said.
"I think he liked the feel of it more than anything else, quite honestly,'' Raymond said.
''He just absolutely loved the physical aspect of it, there's no doubt about it.''
On February 20, 1959, then-prime minister John Diefenbaker announced in the House of Commons that the Arrow program would be cancelled, leading to massive layoffs, and what one expert described as an aerospace brain drain to the United States.
Frank Harvey, president of the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Canada, said many of Avro's top engineers and other employees moved to the U.S. to work for NASA and were ''instrumental'' in the successful 1969 effort to put a man on the moon.
Money was the reason cited for the cancellation of the Arrow program, but many critics say it would have eventually paid off in the end.
"I think Canada could have saved a lot of money in the long run,'' said Harvey.
''We lost a great deal as far as the aerospace technology and that didn't really pick up until 25 or 30 years later until Canadair started producing the Challenger jets.
My Canadian friends (yes, I have friends) still think that the cancellation was due to a nefarious plot by Americans (Boeing, etc).
Of course, later on the Americans would steal various hockey teams, Celine Deon, several comedians.....
I have also read that the security at Avro was a huge problem. You couldn't swing a dead seal without hitting someone spying for the Ruskies.
That is why all the dies were broken and the tools smashed.
Ping
We are still working on a way to Celine Dione out of the country. She is like athletes foot, just when you think its gone, the rash comes back.
If we offer to buy an upgraded Arrow do you think they'd take back Celine and about half of those comedians?
(OK, just Celine.)
There were a lot of Mach 2 interceptors proposed during the late 50's/early 60's that never got out of prototype. The one that leaps to mind is the F8U-3 "Crusader III". It was a pure interceptor that probably was more maneuverable and certainly faster than the Phantom II. But the Phantom could drop bombs & dual-role aircraft was where it was at.
Lockheed was proposing the YF-12A, a fighter-version of the Mach 3+ SR-71 Blackbird. It even demostrated a look down/shoot down guided missile capability. It lost out to another bomb truck, the General Dynamics F-111. The bet was on low-level penetration rather than high-level/high-speed.
A good airplane manufactured by a slightly less prominent industry, with less chance of selling a package to other countries, was simply not a viable goal.
As much as the EU and 'outsourcing' sound to my ear the same way tin tastes to my tongue: a multinational effort is the only way a Canadian, or even a British, firm with all the best talent in the world is going to profit today (or then).
Awesome!
;-)
Unfortunately, the Arrow never flew with the proper engine. I believe they were ready to install the Iroquois jet engines ... but the program got cancelled. We'll never know its true potential.
It was a really sharp looking plane and it's too bad that internal politics killed it. Didn't most of AVRO's engineers move on to NASA to work on Apollo?
That "romantic movie" was typical CBC schtick (sp?). I doubt anyone truly knows where the program would have lead and why or how the end of it all came about. I do know that there was a ton of potential there for Canadian industry and technology that was squandered. It's a damn shame.
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