Avro Arrow lives on in Quinte West

By Steph Crosier

The legend of the Avro Arrow still lives strong in Quinte West.

Though the project was eliminated over 50 years ago, people of Quinte still came out to learn about the historic Avro Arrow. For retired pilot Marc-André Valiquette, researching the Arrow is his life. He has written three books on the Avro Arrow and has a fourth coming out this November. Valiquette held a seminar at the 413 Wing offices in Trenton last night for 40 plus attendees.

John Beti, a Trenton resident and air force admirer, saw a preview for the seminar in the local paper.

“I’m extremely interested in this project that was and thought I definitely have to attend this,” said Beti. “I am an admirer of the Avro. I felt terrible when they scrapped it.”

In Beti’s opinion “scrapping” the plane was one of the worst decisions Canada ever made.

“I still don’t really know the reasons,” said Beti. “They are blaming, maybe the United States, also the fact that the Canadian prime minister just told people to scrap the program because it was too expensive.”

Beti was 22 when the first Avro Arrow was rolled out.

“I think Canadians felt a lot of pride towards that plane,” said Beti.

During the seminar, Valiquette said what happened before the plane was built, during its creation, and finally its destruction. Valiquette explains what the aviation community calls “Black Friday.”

“The government sent a letter to Avro,” said Valiquette. “They told them to cease production without incurring anymore costs. Since today it is the single largest layoff in Canadian history.”

Avro only built five Arrows when the project was cancelled in 1953. According to Valiquette, the Canadian government tried to sell the plane to the United Kingdom and other countries but they turned it down. So the government ordered the planes and their plans to be destroyed and 10,000 people were laid off.

As the planes were taken apart in 1953, Valiquette said that small parts were and are still being used in other planes. Parts such as radios and dials in the cockpit were still usable, making it fair to say that there are still bits of the Arrow flying today.

When employees were laid off and they learned that the planes were being destroyed, they took bits and pieces of the planes with them. Arrow 202 is known as the “missing plane” because a lot of pieces of it were stolen. As this was illegal Valiquette says it is still difficult to get people to talk about it.

“People are afraid to say they have parts,” said Valiquette.

After the Arrow was destroyed, the Canadian Forces acquired many other planes in order to replace what the Arrow could have done. These planes include the Voodoo built in the US and the Starfighter CF 104. Valiquette said that the Starfighter was so poorly designed that the forces crashed about half of them in 25 years. Valiquette told the audience that the Arrow could have done all the jobs the other planes were bought for.