Time to step up for Avro Arrow replica
By Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, October 19, 2017 04:50 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, October 19, 2017 05:04 PM EDT
At long last, a physical reminder of missing Avro Arrow has been found.
Turns out a replica of the defunct supersonic CF-105 Canadian fighter jet — built to target Soviet spy planes during the Cold War — is not with the remains of the real models at the bottom of Lake Ontario.
She’s hidden off of Derry Rd., tucked away at Pearson International Airport, near an Air Transat Hangar.
Sitting there abandoned, wings removed and exposed to the elements.
You can’t see the iconic markings on this Canadian legend, but there is no mistaking that shape and design.
“It’s a darn shame,” said Brian Munro, a volunteer at the now closed Toronto Air and Space Museum. “I can’t imagine treating a piece of Canadian history like this.”
All of the Avro planes were destroyed when the program was cancelled in the late 1950s. There is a terrific effort underway to raise some of the unmanned Arrow models that were test fired into Lake Ontario.
When they are brought up, they will be the actual pieces from the Arrow program that was cancelled.
But just a stone’s throw from a new Tim Hortons — the same spot where the Super Connie Airplane Bar was once located — photographer Mike Peake and I found the Avro Arrow replica.
“It took us volunteers 10 years to build it,” said Munro, an aviation enthusiast who is also a trained pilot. “It is identical to what was built in Malton back — on both the outside and in the cockpit.”
And for quite a while, it sat proudly at the Canadian Air and Space Museum out at Downsview Park. But when that place was closed in 2012, it was left homeless.
The replica was moved to Pearson with great fanfare and hope that its future would be bright and shiny.
Now a one-time symbol of Canadian innovation has been relegated to a far corner of the airport behind a wire fence.
“It’s just wrong,” said Munro. “It’s ironic that the very way the Avro was erased all those years ago has happened again.”
Another irony is Oct. 20 is the Avro Arrow’s designer Jim Floyd’s 103rd birthday. He has already been awarded the Wright Brother’s medal so what could we give him as a gift?
Why not put the wings back on his jet and display it for the whole world to marvel at?
“If I had my way, they would open up a new Toronto air museum at Downsview as was promised,” said Munro. “That would be the best place for the Arrow and so many other planes and memorabilia which are also hidden somewhere that we don’t even know — 47 tractor trailers of stuff including a Lancaster Bomber and some of the Snowbird planes.”
I know this is all really political and there’s no evil bad guy. I understand there is no easy solution and it is not a priority for any government.
But if Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have $10.5-million for a payout to Omar Khadr and $20 million to donate to the Clinton Foundation, you would think there could be a little bit somewhere to properly highlight Canada’s aviation history.
Maybe the private sector can help? But if anybody tries to sell it, Munro reminds it may not be theirs to do that.
“The Arrow is owned by the volunteers who built it and I can tell you they want it displayed prominently so people can see it,” he said.
And not forgotten about under a tattered tarp.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
Time to step up for Avro Arrow replica | WARMINGTON | Toronto & GTA | News | Tor