The Arrow is a four-hour miniseries produced for CBC Television in 1996, starring Dan Aykroyd as Crawford Gordon, experienced wartime production leader during World War II and president of A. V. Roe Canada during its attempt to produce the Avro Arrow supersonic jet interceptor. The film also stars Michael Ironside and Sara Botsford.
That's the one! So it was a mini series; I thought it dragged on a bit. Very interesting telling of the story.
It does sound like the Arrow's provoking the same reaction among Canadians (and others) as what the TSR.2 does in any discussion in the UK about it. I don't know a huge amount about it, but I've read a bit in magazines. Neil made an interesting point about the Canadian industry biting off more than it could chew - I don't know whether this was or wasn't the case, but regarding the TSR.2 it most certainly was and many often get themselves in knots blaming the Americans and so forth, but the real reason was that it was simply too costly an undertaking for the country at that time. There is no doubt the British industry could manufacture the aircraft, but the odds were stacked against it from the start.
In the mid Fifties the treasury stated that British airframe manufacturers had to "merge... or die", as it was put, which meant that with the next big project, firms would have to choose partners with which to deliver competing designs. This change was necessary in order for smaller companies to at least gain a foothold in a broader global market and made sense. Britain had far too many companies building aircraft at the time to fulfil solely British requirements.
In 1957, Duncan Sandys released his Defence White Paper, which specified that manned interceptors and bombers would be replaced with missiles. Not surprisingly, this had the industry and the RAF Air Staff worried. When the Canberra replacement requirement was released, no less than nine firms issued papers for approval. Pressure was on these proposals and the basic operational requirement was reissued several times to keep up with demands from the nervous air staff who kept changing their minds. Thus TSR.2 was born, but not to the original Canberra replacement spec OR 339, but to the reissued OR343 that was purposely written for it. This spec only resembled OR339, for it would have produced an aircraft more like the Panavia Tornado in capability and performance, not like the TSR.2 was; the air staff and manufacturers had created a monster. So there was the first big problem with it before construction began. Too much pressure, too many factions making decisions since it was designed by government committee under the Ministry of Supply, which meant too much was being debated, which caused delay, not to forget a complete overhaul of the aerospace industry - and the way that the project was being managed that was being undertaken to build this aircraft.
The next big issue was politics. OR339 was issued by a Conservative government, which meant that the opposition was opposed to it from the start. Once the Labour Party entered power in 1963, it was only a matter of time before the thing was cancelled. The Aussies were tipped off about this; they were advised (by Lord Mountbatten of the Admiralty who wanted to sell Buccaneers) that if Labour got in in the 1963 election the TSR.2 would be cancelled, so they didn't buy it - not surprising, really. Not a day went by when TSR.2 was not mentioned during debating time in the House of Commons. As for the Americans, much is talked about pressure from them on the British to buy their stuff, but in reality the Brits had to want to buy it in the first place for it to be sold - and they did. Once Harold Wilson got in, he sent his aviation ministers over to the USA and they met Robert MacNamara, who, no doubt would have mentioned his pet project, the TFX. Now at this stage it's worth remembering that the Brits not only had TSR.2 on the hot list, but also the HS.681 tactical airlifter, basically similar in appearance to a shorter C-141 with vectoring thrust nozzles for improved STOL in support of the TSR.2. The third project was the Hawker Siddeley P.1154 supersonic V/STOL jet fighter for the navy and RAF. All three of these projects were under pressure from political wrangling, design issues, inter service rivalry and so on. On the same day that TSR.2 was cancelled, these two projects also went. An announcement was later made that the C-130 Herc and the F-111K were being ordered for the Air Force and the F-4K Phantom II for the navy. Basically Wilson's government went for the easy option, buying from the USA, they hoped, would save enormous amounts of money; or so they thought.
The sad reality was, no one was going to buy the TSR.2, except perhaps the Aussies, because of the exorbitant cost per unit, despite interest from several countries. The number the RAF was going to receive was shrinking, and this was only after the first one had flown. At that stage there was no hint that the F-111 would end up costing as much as it did, but TSR.2 was just too expensive and the cost was rising, not to mention slipping too far behind schedule, so in hindsight it was no surprise it was cancelled, really. Back then a year behind schedule was a long time; these days it's nothing!
Does the Arrow story resemble this?
Phew - needed to get that off my chest; just got in from work (it's 3 am here).
I'll go to bed now