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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2371.PDF
/ FLIGHT, 27 August 1954 Canadair-built North American Sabres of the Royal Canadian Air Force. development of a vitally important class of aircraft and one, moreover, which, though first flown with British Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets, has been planned with the ultimate installation of Canadian Orendas in mind." We were gratified to see our remarks quoted by Canada's C.A.S. in a message to the R.C.A.F., and to this he appended his own observation: "I pass on this editorial to you because it is indicative of the thinking in other countries regarding the CF-100, and because it is encouraging to us to see this type of reaction from abroad." Teamed with an ever-growing force of CF-lOOs is a vast chain of radar stations, and the Canadian writer Ross Willmot, in a recent contribution to our contemporary Canadian Aviation, expresses current Canadian thought in the following terms: "Of all the complicated jobs today's R.C.A.F. has undertaken prob ably none is more vital and more exacting in its new requirements than that of defending North America across the comparatively unexplored wastes of the roof of the world. It is a distinctly Canadian job and so it is most fitting that it should be the THE COMMONWEALTH AIR FORCES Present and Future Equipment, and Some Pertinent Factors ELSEWHERE in this issue the principal types of aircraft manufactured or assembled in the factories of the Commonwealth are reviewed in considerable detail. Most of these are serving today, or will serve in future, along side entirely British-built machines and some well-chosen importations from America. Here surveyed is the hetero geneous equipment of all the Commonwealth air forces and some factors influencing the composition of those arms. The Royal Canadian Air Force /~VF 3,000 or so aircraft operated by this progressive Service *~ most are now jet-propelled and Canadian built; and of over 1,000 military aircraft delivered last year by Canadian companies, the greater part went to units of the R.C.A.F. Having regard to Canada's heavy and diverse commitments, not only in her own territory but as a major contribution to NATO defence, the reason for the comprehensive variety of aircraft types in use or on order is readily understandable. Of first-line machines the most characteristically Canadian is the Avro Canada CF-100 long-range all-weather fighter, of which we wrote in an editorial in 1950: "To Canada must go die credit for having initiated within the Commonwealth the responsibility of young men trained with Canadian methods and using Canadian designed and produced equipment. Like so many other present-day duties of the R.C.A.F. it is international in character, for the U.S.A.F. shares this role with the R.C.A.F. The Korean airlift, the air defence of Western Europe, sea-lane patrols in the Atlantic and Pacific and such world-wide transport flights as diat of the Prime Minister, these, like CF-100 Arctic scrambles, are a far cry from the R.C.A.F.'s original jobs." The standard single-seat day intercepter of the R.C.A.F. is now the Orenda-powered Canadair-built Sabre 5, and this type is in process of re-equipping all twelve R.C.A.F. squadrons on this side of the Atlantic. As the earlier J47-engincd Sabre variants are displaced by the new machines, they are being transferred to other NATO countries as part of Canada's mutual aid programme for NATO. In addition, a considerable number of J47 turbojets are being transferred to other NATO countries as mutual aid, and a combined Canadian/U.S. mutual aid programme has already resulted in 370 Canadian-built Sabres being provided for the R A.F. Though made in Canada, these have about 30 per cent American components. The Sabre was preceded in R.C.A.F. service by the de Havilland Vpmpirc and small numbers of these fighter/bombers remain on charge. The North American Mustang—which has Serving Canada: Above, Avro Canada' CF-100s; top right, Avro Lancaster; bottom left, D.H. Canada Otters; bottom right, Canadair North Star
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