I did an essay on the Arrow in grade 12 and, from what I researched the biggest reason it was snowballed was pressure from Americans. The reasearch that I did was not only at the library (before the internet) but, first hand accounts from former employees of Avro. I lived in Brampton growing up and Malton was right next door,(where they were built) there were alot of McDonald Douglas employees around at the time who happened to be my friends grandfathers,fathers and uncles and alot of them were there and employed at Avro.
To make a long story short, the Americans were not happy with abunch of hicks (canoe builders) designing and possibly selling advanced fighter jets to the rest of world. It was designed as an interceptor fighter jet, it was the first swept wing fighter jet, it had Canadian Iroqouis engines and it had Canadian weapon systems,it was 100% Canadian and, from the limited testing it did recieve it was 20 years ahead of its time. It was still in the development stages when it was scrapped and, we never did see its full potential.