Avro Canada: История канадского авиастроителя

Defunct Canadian aircraft manufacturer

Avro Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1945 as an aircraft plant and within 13 years became the third largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 50,000. Bob Leckie of the Royal Canadian Air Force was a strong advocate over many years, for a wholly domestic "end to end" industry, that would design and build aircraft (and their engines) in Canada. However, the Department of National Defence, according to Avro's Roy Dobson, gave "a cold reception" to doing any more than the fabrication and assembly of aircraft and engines under licence. Each company's facilities were located across from each other in a complex at the perimeter of Malton Airport. The total labour force of both aviation companies reached 15,000 in 1958. During the same period, with Crawford Gordon as president, A. V. Roe Canada purchased a number of companies, including Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, Canadian Car and Foundry (1957), and Canadian Steel Improvement. By 1958, A. V. Roe Canada Ltd. was an industrial giant with over 50,000 employees in a far flung empire of 44 companies involved in coal mining, steel making, railway rolling stock, aircraft and aero engine manufacturing, as well as computers and electronics. In 1956 the companies generated 45% of the revenue of the Hawker Siddeley Group. In 1958, annual sales revenue was approximately $450 million, ranking A. V. Roe Canada as the third largest corporation in Canada by capitalization. By the time of the cancellation of the Arrow and Iroquois, aircraft related production amounted to approximately 40% of the company's activities with 60% industrial and commercial. In 1956, 500,000 shares were issued to the public at a total value of $8 million. By 1958, 48% of the shares of A. V. Roe Canada were publicly traded on the stock exchange. Although controlled and largely owned by UK based Hawker Siddeley Group, all profits from A. V. Roe Canada were retained within the company to fund development and growth. Management of the Canadian companies remained in Canadian hands.

Fred Smye served as director of Canadian Aircraft Production during World War II, in 1944 joined Federal Aircraft in Montreal (later Victory Aircraft). When Hawker Siddeley purchased Victory Aircraft in 1945, Smye became the first employee of A. V. Roe Canada and later that year he became assistant general manager of Avro Aircraft. He later served as president of Canadian Applied Research and Canadian Steel Improvement. Crawford Gordon left the Department of Defence Production in 1951 to take over as President and General Manager of A. V. Roe Canada to assist with problems in development and production of the Avro Canada CF 100 Canuck. Gordon oversaw Avro Canada's restructuring and expansion during the 1950s into the third largest corporation in Canada.

In 1946, A. V. Roe Canada's next design, the Avro XC 100, Canada's first jet fighter, started at the end of the era of propeller driven aircraft and the beginning of the jet age. A small number of CF 100s served with the RCAF until 1981 in reconnaissance, training and electronic warfare (ECM) roles. known as the C102 Jetliner. It nearly became the first jet transport in the world when it first flew in August 1949, a mere 13 days following the first flight of the de Havilland Comet. The Jetliner represented a new type of regional jet airliner that would not see comparable designs until the late 1950s. An aggressive marketing campaign was directed at U. S. airlines and the USAF. When the Rolls Royce Avon AJ 65 engine was withdrawn from foreign markets by the British government, the design was modified to take four Derwent engines of higher weight and lower performance. The resulting design could no longer meet the operating range requirement of Trans Canada Airlines. The sales prospects of the Jetliner floundered after the launch customer TCA withdrew from consideration of the four engine variant. The American industrialist Howard Hughes even offered to start production under license. so the second C 102 prototype was scrapped in the plant in 1951, with the first relegated to photographic duties in the Flight Test Department. After a lengthy career as a camera platform and company "hack," CF EJD X was broken up in 1956. The nose section now resides in the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa.

In 1951, during production of the CF 100 Canuck, a design was explored for a revised version with swept wings and tail modifications. Known as the CF 103, it offered transonic performance with supersonic abilities in a dive. However, the basic CF 100 continued to improve through this period, and the advantages of the new design were greatly eroded. It was considered an interim aircraft between the CF 100 and the more advanced C 104 project, and as such development did not progress beyond creation of a full size wooden mock up and separate cockpit.

By 1950, several design proposals for a supersonic interceptor were explored which included versions with swept wings, a tail less delta wing (similar to the Dassault Mirage IV), side body engine intakes, in nose engine intakes (similar to the MiG 21), turbine engines and rocket engines, and combinations of several. In 1952, two versions of a design for a delta wing fighter known as C104 were submitted to the Royal Canadian Air Force: the single engine C104/4 and twin engined C104/2. The designs were otherwise similar, using a low mounted delta wing; the primary advantages of the C104/2 were a larger overall size which offered a much larger internal weapons bay and gave twin engine reliability. Subsequent discussions between the RCAF and Avro examined a wide range of alternatives for a supersonic interceptor, culminating in RCAF "Specification AIR 7 3" in April 1953. Avro's response became the CF 105. A total of five Mark 1 aircraft were completed with several of the 29 Mark 2 models (with more powerful Iroquois engines) on the production line nearing completion. The sudden cancellation of the Arrow project by the Canadian government on 20 February 1959 led to a massive corporate downsizing and an attempt to further diversify. Many Avro Aircraft engineers who remained were reassigned to marine, truck and automobile projects. Numerous engineering and technical staff left Avro Canada primarily for the United Kingdom and the United States in a rapid "brain drain".

In early 1957, studies began on how the Arrow Mk.2 might be developed into a "Long Range Arrow" to meet the requirements for the USAF's Long Range Interceptor Experimental (LRIX) program. This was thought to be suitable as under the terms of various agreements, statements, and promises to Allied and in particular Commonwealth nations, the U. S. would buy weapons from an ally if they were the best available and the Arrow seemed to fit this description. Shortly in advance of the USAF visiting Avro in 1955 to review the Arrow's development, a contract was granted to North American Aviation for design studies for the LRIX, designated the North American XF 108 Rapier. Performance requirements were for a range of 1,000 miles, Mach 3, and combat altitude of 60,000 feet. In September 1957, Avro's Project Studies PS 1 and PS 2 were released. PS 1 included addition of wingtip mounted ramjets to supplement the main engines and a canard mounted above and behind the cockpit. PS 2 included wing extensions, an extended nose with retractable canard, two additional vertical stabilizers mounted on the wings, and four large ramjets. Estimated performance included sustained speeds of Mach 3 at 95,000 feet and vertical climb rate above 40,000 feet of Mach 2.5. The thrust to weight ratio would have been double the F 108 and over double the SR 71.

At the request of USAF Chief Scientist, a less radical modification of the Arrow than the PS 2 was pursued which became the Mark 4. The revised intakes of the Mark 3 were retained, but with smaller Curtiss Wright ramjets, without the canards and nose extension, and with a titanium skin instead of a heat shield. Performance was reduced to Mach 3 and maximum combat altitude of 80,000 feet.

The Avrocar, also called the Avro 'flying saucer' or Avro disc, was proposed to the U. S. Army as a type of "flying Jeep" that could also serve as a proof of concept test vehicle for a later supersonic flying saucer designs, PV 704 and Weapon System 606A. Two Avrocars were built, one for wind tunnel testing at NASA Ames and the other for flight testing. The designs were underpowered and only operated in a ground cushion effect, much like a hovercraft. When the Avrocar prototypes failed to perform at heights above three feet off the ground, the U. S. Army and USAF cancelled the project, in 1961. Both Avrocars were on public display, one in Building 22 of the Smithsonian Paul E. Garber facility, the other at the U. S. Army Transportation Museum, Fort Eustis, Virginia. The latter Avrocar was dismantled and put into storage c. 2002, due to increasing deterioration (it was displayed outside, and the museum is very close to the ocean). The curator of the U. S. Army Transportation Museum stated in 2008 that it would take between US$500,000 and US$600,000 to entirely restore it. Furthermore, because it is at a federal (military) installation, the work must be done by contractors, rather than volunteers. A grant of US$80,000 was received to begin restoration, however this amount was only enough to restore one piece approximately five ft by five ft.

Developed by the Advanced Projects Group, a June 1958 report by Avro's Engineering Department described a Space Threshold Vehicle intended to "get a man into the threshold of space and recover him, flying back through the corridor", where winged flight was possible between maximum altitude that could sustain lift from a winged vehicle and maximum tolerable structural temperature. This was estimated to be an altitude of between 150,000 and 200,000 feet. The STV would have had capability for in flight refueling, and an expected speed of 6,000 mph (Mach 8.5+). Avro's computer capacities provided capability in developing theories and methods similar to modern three dimensional modeling of fluid dynamics. Avro envisioned a delta shaped vehicle with downward winglets (similar to the TSR 2's), varying engine nacelle positions, titanium skin, and first flight of a research vehicle in 1962. Many engineers involved in this and similar Avro designs were later heavily involved in NASA Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. In 1954, the Canadian government decided to sell the plant and Avro Canada agreed to purchase it to maintain production of the Orenda and Iroquois engines. The company employed over 400 in the production of precision forgings, blades, jet engine components, close tolerance forging, and operation of aluminum and magnesium foundries.

In 1957, A. V. Roe Canada acquired PSC Applied Research, a manufacturer of flight navigation computers, and renamed it Canadian Applied Research. It was later divested by Hawker Siddeley Canada and merged with de Havilland Canada's Special Products division to form SPAR Aerospace (Special Products and Applied Research), developer of the Canadarm remote manipulator system for the Space Shuttle. It is today a part of MacDonald Dettwiler as MD Robotics, a subsidiary of its MDA Space Missions division.