Avro Arrow

Canada finally came of age near the end of World War II, as it was widely recognized with enormous industrial potential. Avro Aircraft Limited (AAL) was launched in 1945 for designing commercial transcontinental aircrafts, now that the Second World War was basically at its end. AAL became unsuccessful and it wasn't until 1950 when the company would decide to concentrate on military aircrafts instead because of the outbreak of the Cold War.

As of 1953, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) offered the company twenty-seven million dollars and a 5-year contract to develop a more powerful and equipped plane. It needed to be suitable to take down the next generation of Soviet nuclear bombs, which were eventually going to be used against Canada.

AAL promptly began designing the Avro CF-105 Arrow (Avro Arrow), but it was going to take an extensive amount of time before it could be finalized. The progress continued until 1956, when the RCAF and the government run by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker became impatient and shut the project down.

The government insisted to revise to Bombarc, a long-range missile company to fight against the Soviets. The Bombarc idea didn't turn out as effective as the Arrow would have, which quickly caused the Diefenbaker government to return to their initial plan, since the Arrow would do a much better job defending against the Soviet attacks.

The production of the Arrow was rebooted and was to be completed as soon as possible. The plane was finally finished after 4 years of hard work on October 4, 1957. It was presented to an astonished crowd of 14,000 in Malton, Ontario. There were multiple test runs before the maiden flight, which demonstrated in superb and ambitious results.

Shortly after, Diefenbaker agreed to join the U.S. in the North American Air Defense treaty. It was a controversial decision because he did not consult his cabinet first, causing it to raise questions about Canada's dominance and commitment to the Arrow.

The Diefenbaker government realized that the Soviets were becoming increasingly advantageous and even considered turning back to Bombarc, which was now able to defend against Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, which the Soviets were becoming heavy on.

The Arrow program was also starting to become greatly expensive, and consumed a large portion of Canada's defense budget. AAL continually approached the government for money and by 1958, they estimated that it would cost over one billion dollars to complete the full production of the multiple Arrows.

All this mayhem revolving around the Arrow was too much for the agreed organizations to proceed with, in which Diefenbaker began to have thoughts about canceling the project for good.

Prime

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