- Editor’s
Note:
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- This
column is a regular feature in the Wayback Times in which my
husband takes interesting people out to lunch … and sends
me the bill.
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- (It's
a tough job, but someone has to do it!)
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- Send
us an e-mail if you have someone in mind for one of Peter Neilly's
interviews over lunch.
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- Peter Neilly is Out
to Lunch
- Breaking bread with
interesting people
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- Out to Lunch!
- with Peter Neilly
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 This issue’s
Out to Lunch guest has presented me with a mysterious story connected
with the cancellation of the Avro Arrow aircraft program that
I hope our readers will be able to help us with.
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- We have not met for lunch yet, but have communicated by phone,
snail mail and email. I received the following letter from this
gentleman, along with this photograph.
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- Dear Sir,
- At Christmas in December 1959 while home on military leave,
I went to visit my uncle. He took me down to the basement in
his home, (he was a talented pottery maker). He opened the bottom
drawer of one of his workbenches and took out the model engine
that is in the attached picture.
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- Unwrapping several layers of cloth, he said “You can't
tell anyone else about this and I don't know what to do with
it.”
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- My uncle was an employee of Orenda Engines, the company that
was building the engine for the Avro aircraft under development
by Canada during the fifties.
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- My uncle then told me on February 20, 1959, the day the government
cancelled the Arrow aircraft and the Iroquois engine program,
his big boss came into his office and told him today was going
to be the last day of work because the government had cancelled
the contract.
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- The boss put the metal engine model on my uncle’s desk
and said three (or four, not sure of the number) had been made.
Then my uncle’s boss told him who were to get the other
copies and that this last one was to be presented to the then
Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker.
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- Then my uncle told me his boss said: “No way that SOB’s
going to get this now.” Then his boss turned to leave the
office, but instead said over his shoulder “don’t throw
the damn thing in the garbage because the RCMP are going through
every
square inch of this place tonight.”
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- My uncle said he was terrified of having the model. He said
it looked exactly like the real aircraft engine and so for an
hour he just sat there and looked at it. Then he was afraid of
getting his boss in trouble. (So I suppose he sneaked it out
of the
building that day).
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- My uncle kept it hidden in that drawer in his basement until
his death in 1984.
- His daughter took it out of the drawer after his passing
and set it on her living room coffee table until her passing
in 2002.
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- Because it had been a joke between my uncle and me (i.e.
say Uncle Tome, have the RCMP dropped around yet? I called them
last week). My cousin Silvia left the model to me.
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- As I am starting to get up there in years and my kids have
no interest in it, I was wondering if this model has any monetary
value?
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- Thank you.
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- For readers not familiar with the story of the Avro Arrow,
here is a brief summary.
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- The Canadian-built Arrow was recognized by many as the most
advanced and sophisticated aircraft interceptor of its type in
the world. Although built over 53 years ago, at $3.5 million
each, the Arrow was bigger, more powerful, faster and had greater
maneuverability than the American- made F-35 fighter aircraft
built today that our government is purchasing for $115 million
each.
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- The government’s cancellation of the Avro Arrow cost
the jobs of 14,000 Avro employees directly and affected 46,000
other Canadian jobs indirectly. Only five of these aircraft were
manufactured before the cancellation of the program and all five
were destroyed and melted down for scrap, along with the plans,
documents, drawings and related machinery at Avro. This fact
still upsets many people.
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- The huge amount of interest generated by the Avro Arrow has
led to numerous conspiracy theories and wild accusations concerning
its cancellation. A two-part made-for-TV CBC movie about the
Arrow, starring Dan Aykroyd, actually had a scene in it
that showed U.S. President Eisenhower pressuring Prime Minister
Diefenbaker to cancel the Arrow program and buy American.
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- Canada had an incredible lead in aircraft design and production
in the post war years that came to an abrupt end with the stroke
of a pen on February 20, 1959, still referred to by many people
as Black Friday.
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- Any input from readers of the Wayback Times concerning this
gentleman’s Avro engine model would be helpful. I can be
reached by calling the Wayback Times at 705-696-1833, or email
peterneilly@xplornet.com
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- Thank you.
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- Peter Neilly.
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