CF-100 #100785
Image Credit: Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
As the Second World war drew to a close, the Canadian government including the Royal Canadian Air Force adopted a policy to encourage the design and development of aircraft and engines in Canada.
In September 1945, Roy Dobson, head of A.V. Roe in Great Britain (which was part of the Hawker Siddeley Group) purchased the Victory Aircraft Limited factory at Malton Airport (now Lester B Pearson International Airport) and established A.V. Roe Canada Limited (Avro Canada).
By 1946, Avro Canada was pursuing a two-jet program: a passenger jet designated the C-102 Jetliner, and a twin-engine jet fighter designated the CF-100 which met the RCAF requirements for speed, rate of climb, service ceiling, range and all-weather operations to protect Canada from Soviet bomber attack.
The CF-100 was designed and built at the Avro Canada factory under the leadership of project designer John C.M. Frost and would be powered by a Canadian designed jet engine. The prototype first flew at Malton Airport on January 19, 1950 (powered by British made Rolls Royce Avon engines from the UK) followed by the first Canadian-powered prototype on June 20, 1951.
The CF-100 was the only Avro Canada designed aircraft to enter service with 692 aircraft delivered over a nine-year period to the Royal Canadian Air Force and 53 to the Belgium Air Force, which was the only export customer. The CF-100 remained in service for more than 30 years with the last retired in 1982.
All great aircraft are built around an engine. During the war, a small group of Canadian engineers from the National Research Council went to Great Britain to study the gas turbine engines being developed by Sir Frank Whittle’s Power Jets Ltd. The result of these visits was that the NRC established a cold weather test cell at Winnipeg’s Stevenson Field in late 1943 to test a Rolls-Royce W2B engine, based on the Whittle design, and the government also established Turbo Research Ltd. in the Leaside neighbourhood of Toronto to secretly develop an axial-flow jet engine. After the war, Dobson bought the company, and it became Avro’s Gas Turbine Division. Its first product was the 2,400 lb thrust Chinook research engine which first ran on March 17, 1948, which was followed by the 6,000 lb thrust Orenda engine which ran for the first time on February 10, 1949.
The Orenda engine was selected to power both the twin engine Avro CF-100 and the single Canadair Sabre fighter. The first Orenda powered Sabre flew on October 5, 1950, followed by the first Orenda powered CF-100 on June 20, 1951. Avro’s Gas Turbine Division became Orenda Engines Ltd. Almost 4,000 Orenda engines of various versions up to 7,300 lb (2,724 kg) thrust were delivered and a handful are still flying in Canadair Sabre fighters owned by vintage aircraft enthusiasts. The Avro Arrow was developed as a successor to the CF-100 and Orenda Engines Ltd. developed the 26,000 lb (11,804 kg) Iroquois 2 engine. The Federal government cancelled the Arrow program on February 20, 1959, just weeks before the first Arrow equipped with a pair of Iroquois engines was scheduled to fly.
– Kenneth Swartz
Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working together on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.