[Newsbot]

Title: Avro Arrow model marks 100 years of Canadian aviation history
Category: Military
Posted By: dino_bobba_renno
Date: 2009-07-10 15:59:59
Canadian

[GreenTiger]

Very good. I always appreciate when groups of citizens gather together in a project like this to preserve not only a piece of history, but the spirit of it as well.

This was one great airplane and the pride of the people bulding it was immense. That is on display too.

[ridenrain]

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

Very good. I always appreciate when groups of citizens gather together in a project like this to preserve not only a piece of history, but the spirit of it as well.

Yeah..

$1:

The Canadian Forces’ decision to sell a rare Second World War Spitfire to a private foundation in Gatineau, Que., for $1 has upset a group of volunteers on Vancouver Island who worked thousands of hours rebuilding the plane funded by tax dollars and donations.
At the centre of the sale is the Y2K Spitfire, estimated to be worth around $700,000 and now being rebuilt at the air force museum at Comox, B.C. The project to get the plane flying again was financed by a $250,000 federal grant as well as $325,000 in donations collected from British Columbia residents, various organizations and museum visitors.
But several months ago the military approved selling the Spitfire for $1 to Vintage Wings of Canada, a private organization founded by Ottawa businessman Michael Potter.

Must be an east coast feeling.
http://www.canada.com/news/volunteers+r ... story.html

[GreenTiger]

Indeed it is an East Coast Feeling.

[ridenrain]

I'm just a little bitter over so much time, effort and money being sold to some rich prick for $1. That's a BC spitfire that will never return to Comox or even BC, unless for the air show.

The Arrow was a great achievement and this is meant as no distraction from that.

[Lemmy]

The great tragedy wasn't the loss of the Arrow, but how Canada COULD have been THE world leader in aerospace technology over the past 60 years. We had it our grasp and politics killed it.

[Mustang1]

It was a fantastic dream and a great tragedy of hubris. The Arrow goes done in the annals of aerospace history as one of the greatest "might've beens"

[sandorski]

Ya, we'll never forget it....even though I really knew nothing about it until the CBC show. Life goes on though and we've done quite alright.

[ridenrain]

Not to detract from the Arrow, but there was a fantastic TV show abiout the De Havilland DHC-2 Mk-I Beaver that captivated me. The show centered on an old wreck in the US boneyard that they hauled back to BC and completely rebuilt. Along they way they told the whole history of the company and how that aircaft is now more popular now, some decades after they stopped making them. One of the best spokesmen on this was Harrison Ford who is a huge fan of the beavers.
It's impressive design that something designed some decades ago is bigger and better than it's ever beem.

I do have to say though that the AN2 could give the Beaver a very slow run for it's money. Sure, it was a byplane and was slower but it still carried more and took off in less distance. Maybe that's why the US FAA Came down so hard against it.