9 original canada avro arrow test models in lake ontario

[tom d. friedman]

the following info was taken from the "inland seas" quarterly journal of the great lakes historical society of vermilion, ohio winter issue. this is a pretty cool hunt..... i learned that this past year of 2004 2 canadian warships, the hmcs kingston & hmcs glace bay, equipped with high technology underwater scanning gear, a remote vehicle & canada's best divers, were unable to locate 9 jet fighter aircraft models believed to be on the bottom of lake ontario, off prince edward county. the 9 models are of the avro arrow & are very important since they are virtually all that remains of the 1950's vintage canadian made jet fighter. for reasons unknown, then prime minister john diefenbaker ordered all 11 full sized planes destroyed. had 1 or more been located, it would be as close as anyone can come to resurrecting an arrow. the models were 3 metres long & 2 metres wide ( BIG FAVOR!!! can any body convert metric to feet for me?? i was bad in metric during my school years!!) were launched over the lake during design & test phases & are believed to be mired in the lake bottom. neat fyi isn't it?? in order to determine their survival all these years in the lake what does anybody think the models of the arrow were made of?? fiberglass?? aluminum?? wood?? if it's wood they are most certainly cooked by now!! to us aviation historians this was a pretty noble venture on the part of the canadian navy, but if i was a canadian tax payer i'd be plenty miffed!! regards, tom, the kosher kamikaze

[setter]

Hi

2.54 cemtermeters to the Inch

I also think the taxpayer gets a good training exercise and they are employed anyway so why not have them employed doing something useful.

Regards

John P

[Ollie]

I don't mind them doing that!

I would mind them going to fight in a country which has never attacked or did anything to us!

[tom d. friedman]

still don't get what actual size the models were in terms of u.s. standard foot measurements. i'm lucky the calculator was invented!!

[dj51d]

That's roughly 9ft 10in long and 6ft 6in wide. I really wish we would finally adopt the metric system and get it over with, The sooner we start, the sooner we can get past the transition period.

[bdk]

A meter is roughly equivalent to a yard. 39.37 inches.

[tom d. friedman]

thanks for the math refresher guys!! any thought to what these models were made of?? i was wondering how they were launched for testing?? radio controlled?? air dropped?? those 2 options seem most likely. catapult seems archaic, & i sure as hell know they were not thrown like a .50 cent kid's balsa wind up model!! regards, tom

[helinut]

The models where launched by rockets, the models had radio telemetery.