The Last Flight of the Arrow

February 20, 1959, the Canadian prime minister stood before the House of Commons to announce that his government had decided to cancel the CF-105 Avro Arrow supersonic fighter-interceptor program. What were the reasons? Over three hundred million dollars had been spent on the aircraft considered by many to be twenty years ahead of its time. It was also suggested that the new missile age - brought on by the advent of the Russian satellite Sputnik - had made manned interceptors obsolete.

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