Museum Exhibition

Avro Arrow: A Dream Remembered

Putting Malton on the Map
Malton Ontario was already Canada’s aviation capital at the time of the Arrow project. Toronto’s new airport had been built there in 1937, and throughout the war years Malton was also home to Victory Aircraft Ltd., producers of Lancaster bombers.

A.V.Roe Co. Ltd. (AVRO) purchased the Victory factory at the end of the war. In 1949, AVRO unveiled North America’s first jet passenger plane – the Jetliner. By 1953, 18,000 men and women were working at AVRO producing the CF-100 All Weather JetInterceptor for the Canadian Air Force. Work then began on a top secret project – an interceptor for the Royal Canadian Air Force with supersonic mission capabilities, later to be christened the Arrow.

Each day over 5000 cars entered and left the parking lots of AVRO and its engine division, Orenda Engines. The traffic tie-ups and accidents were legendary. Housing shortages for workers were chronic. Noise from the testing of engines and the Arrow itself as it broke the sound barrier drove pupils and teachers at Malton’s school to distraction. Some residents jokingly blamed the night-time running of the engine test cells for Malton’s rising birth rate!

As the first Arrow became airborne, Malton made world headlines. For the next few years, this small village surrounded by farmland was indeed the aviation capital of the world.

Black Friday
On Friday February 20, 1959 radio stations across Canada announced that Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker had cancelled the Arrow project. AVRO and Orenda switchboards were jammed with calls from people frantic to know what the cancellation meant for the company, and for the nearly 14,000 men and women working there.

At 11:20 AVRO acknowledged the announcement over their public address system. Production ceased, and workers endured several anxious hours before the final grim announcement was made. Faced with the loss of its single most lucrative contract, and possibly in an attempt to pressure the government into reversing the decision, AVRO decided to lay off all workers.

It was a stunning blow to the employees. Workers were told to turn in their tools and go home. Disbelief and shock filled the parking lot as thousands of employees left. How would they pay the mortgage, the rent, the car payments?

Debate over the economic and political decision to cancel and scrap the AVRO Arrow project began immediately and continues to this day.