Arrow Test Models Located

Searchers have apparently found what  some people call the Holy Grail of Canadian Aviation – test models of the Avro Arrow, the Canadian developed jet interceptor that was cancelled by the Diefenbaker government. 

The Arrow was arguably the most advanced jet interceptor of its time, and the cancellation had devastating effects on the Canadian aviation industry. The actual flight test aircraft, along with all their plans, were destroyed. For years, people have been searching for quarter-scale flight test models that were boosted by rockets over lake Ontario.

In the murky green deeps of Lake Ontario, about nine kilometres offshore of an old Canadian military outpost at Point Petre in Prince Edward County, a debris field of broken magnesium alloy mini aircraft parts mired in the mud and covered in quagga mussels suggest nine historically priceless, one-eighth scale test models of the full-sized aircraft, virtually disintegrated after they were fired on rockets and splashed down in Lake Ontario waters.

The evidence is undeniable, says the Raise the Arrow project team, which confirmed it has found at least one of the scale models on the lakebed scattered in pieces.

In the late 1950s, the scale models were fired from a Point Petre launch pad with telemetry that measured the hull performance of the swept-wing design to finely tweak the full-sized planes later built at Avro’s plant in Malton.

The model testing of the plane’s design was critical if the Royal Canada Air Force (RCAF) was to build a CF-105 all-weather interceptor ahead of its time and able to soar at Mach 2 speeds at heights well above 50,000 feet.

In an exclusive interview with The Intelligencer, project leader John Burzynski, president and CEO of Osisko Mining, confirmed after four summers of scouring the mucky lakebed, his team has finally located one of the baby Arrow models.

“What we found, basically, is a debris field. The one we found we are certain is one of the last four, it’s a very specific piece of the fuselage. You can see the metal. We have indications of yellow paint which strongly indicates it’s one of the last four. Only the last four were painted yellow and were of very similar construction,” Burzynski said.

For decades there have been rumours and conspiracy theories about the Arrow's demise, some people even thinking that an actual Arrow was spirited away, and is rusting away in a barn somewhere in Ontario, but sadly, nothing has ever turned up.