-Caveat Lector- http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoFiley/filey_june10.html The Toronto Sun Sunday, June 10, 2001 Move over Roswell: Canadians had their own 'flying saucer' at Malton By MIKE FILEY The Toronto Sun The other day, while reading about NASA's failed attempt to have one of its experimental jets achieve MACH 7 (seven times the speed of sound, or approximately 4800 mph), I suddenly recalled a time when we, here in Canada, were on the verge of making aviation history. To be sure, that was almost a half-century ago. And it wasn't a plane that many hoped would make world aviation history -- it was a "flying saucer," and a Canadian-designed and built "flying saucer" at that. Perhaps a brief explanation is in order. In 1954, I was in my final year at John Fisher Public School in North Toronto. While others were collecting stamps or hockey cards, I was collecting airplane pictures. That was a time when all the major aircraft manufacturers would freely send out photos of their products. All I had to do was write and ask. In my collection I had stuff from North American Aviation (F-86 Sabre, F-100 Super Sabre), Boeing (B-47 Stratojet, B-52 fortress), Northrop (F-89 Scorpion), deHavilland (Vampire), Lockheed (F-80 Shooting Star, F-94 Starfire), Republic (F-84 Thunderstreak) and, of course, from our own Avro Canada (Jetliner and CF-100 Canuck). The Avro factory was at Malton Airport, a place I would often ride to on my bike. I would sit at the end of the runway and watch, mesmerized, as newly built CF-100s screamed down the runway and up into the clear, blue sky. At the time, my favourite book was Aircraft Of The World, a Christmas present from my uncle Cookie, who also had an interest in planes, having flown twin-engine Wellington bombers during the war. I still have his precious gift, dog-eared as it may be, with many of its pages now held together with transparent tape that isn't transparent any more. While there were few Canadian aircraft in the book, that would certainly change if what was being secretly planned at the Avro plant turned out to be a success. Stories about some sort of revolutionary aircraft being developed had been around for months. Nevertheless, when the company finally announced, in June 1954, that it was working on a revolutionary "Flat, Vertical Take-Off Supersonic Gyroplane," a kind of "flying saucer," the aviation world was stunned. Until now, air force officials on both sides of the border had dismissed "flying saucers," aka "unidentified flying objects," as figments of people's imaginations. In other words, bureaucratically speaking, there was no such thing as a "flying saucer"! For more than half a decade, Canadian and American researchers continued to work on designer Jack Frost's "flying saucer," which had been dubbed the Avrocar. In March 1961, after the expenditure of millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours, the project was shelved, with the two prototype vehicles assigned to museums south of the border. (There are plans to retrieve at least one of them for a Canadian museum. Perhaps Sheila can help.) A little more than a year later, Avro Canada, which had fostered two other revolutionary aircraft that were "shot down," the Jetliner and Arrow, was no more. The decision to abandon the Avro "flying saucer" project prompts several questions. Was it able to take off vertically? Sort of. Did it reach supersonic speeds? Definitely not. Did it make the revised edition of Aircraft Of The World? Not even as a footnote. Therefore, the Avrocar must have been a failure. Well, in the strictest sense, perhaps it was. But a more complete answer would have to acknowledge that the Avrocar was well ahead of its time and that many of the engineering concepts it pioneered would be used in the future development of other forms of land, sea and air transportation. To learn the full story of this Canadian dream, pick up a copy of Bill Zuk's new book, Avrocar, Canada's Flying Saucer, The Story Of Avro Canada's Secret Projects (Boston Mills Press, $24.95). ======================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ======================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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