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Avro Canada Arrow F.1A (or it might be an F.2A)

Started by kitbasher, March 03, 2018, 02:37:35 AM

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Weaver

Quote from: kitnut617 on March 04, 2018, 11:25:10 AM
I think you'll find that the Rolls-Royce Rb.106 was only for the RAF option, the book I have on the Arrow doesn't mention the RR engine at all. It was always intended to have the Iroquois and the interim engine was the J79 engine as in the F-4 Phantom, which was being developed at the same time. Remember Avro Canada didn't have plans to sell the aircraft to Britain, they were after a USAF contract and the use of the J79 was for commonality with what the USAF was going to use

The interim engine was the J-75, not the J-79. The latter wouldn't have been powerful enough.

Just been reading the Wiki page on it. The story there is that the Rb.106 was the first choice, but it was cancelled in 1954 (not 1957 as I stated). The next choice was the Wright J-67, which was a licence-built Bristol Olympus. The F-106 was originally supposed to have this engine, but the Americanization of the British design did not go well and it too was cancelled. The F-106 switched over to the J-75 and the Arrow followed suite for it's intermediate engine, whilst funding development of the Iroquois as it's ultimate engine.

Sources:

The Arrow by James Dow, pages 85 & 90: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZpiZo5fJrCsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=arrow+dow&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyhaGoxdPZAhXGKsAKHYpvD2cQ6wEILDAA#v=onepage&q=arrow%20dow&f=false

Flying Canucks II by Peter Pigott. Unfortunately the relevant pages don't appear on the Google Books preview here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k28RSZtM2j0C&pg=PA121&dq=088882193X&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYzvrfx9PZAhWYHsAKHUPrCBMQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=088882193X&f=false

I have the 'Arrowheads' book on the CF-105 published in 1980 and revised in 1992. This repeats the same story, and even has an panel of Avro drawings showing the evolution of the aircraft, with the last two labelled 'CF-105/Rb.106 Aug 1953' and 'CF-105/P.S.13 Jun 1955'.

The Rb.106 couldn't have been the intended engine for the RAF version, because the RAF weren't seriously interested in the Arrow in 1954. It was only when it became apparent that the F.155T aircraft wouldn't be available until the mid '60s that they considered the Arrow as a stop-gap purchase, and by then, the engine options were the Olympus, the projected reheated Conway and the Gyron.
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kitbasher

Ailerons sorted, wings fitted.  Now for the cockpit.
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