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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1927.PDF
78 FLIGHT Canadian Aviation in 1959 . .. Geophysicists of Hunting Technical and Geophysical Exploration Services Ltd. pay out cable for the new Sparker underwater seismic device A. V. Roe Canada Ltd, Malton, Ontario, De Havilland Aircraftof Canada Ltd., Downsview, Ontario, and Canadair Ltd., Montreal P.Q., had been reviewed. No comparative figures werereleased. The Canadian government merely announced that Canadair's had been the lowest. However to conform with govern-ment policy to spread the job over the country (and in Canadair's case to keep its 10,000 skilled workers in business after the CL-28Argus and CL-44 programmes phase out), the prime contract was sliced down the middle for the Toronto and Montreal areas.Canadair Ltd. is awarded a 91,500,000-dollar contract to build 200 air frames for the F-104G. Along with this goes a bonus of20 per cent of the West German order with Lockheed in the U.S.A. for 66 F-104Cs. The Canadian Government will buy 14 two-seater F-104 trainers in the U.S.A., as it would have been uneconomic to produce such a small number of a substantiallydifferent type in Canada. Orenda Engines Ltd. of Malton, Ontario, will build under a$80 million order the engines for the aircraft, the entire pro- gramme to be completed about mid-1963. The J79 engine wascreated by the General Electric Co. and about 5 per cent of the total $420 million contract cost will go to Lockheed and GeneralElectric in the U.SA. in the form of licence and royalty fees. The rest of the contracts, for armament, electronic fire controlsystems, instrumentation spares and ground handling equipment, have not yet been awarded. The Canadian Government hasassured the industry that the majority of these will be let in Canada. For those sub-contractors once committed to the AvroArrow and now expectantly awaiting Lockheed business, the seven months' famine of no government orders will stretch outindefinitely. The Canadian government indicated that the profit estimate of the two companies would work out at about 5 per centand that Orenda Engines Ltd. would be able to employ a total of 3,000 in 18 months' time when the contracts are in full production,and wind up in 1963. The end of the Arrow last winter affected 11,000 employees ofA. V. Roe Canada Ltd., Canada's largest skilled aviation workers' pool, who were all let out within hours of the announcement oftermination. Many will go back to Orenda. But many will not. About 1,000 have returned to the United Kingdom over thesummer. Another 1,000 have been wooed away to the U.S-A., and the rest are still in Canada, remaining unemployed or inother industries. A few had gone back to Avro Aircraft under a short term Canadian Government arrangement with Avro tomaintain and pay a skilled pool of about 1,000 technical personnel, which expired on August 20 last. Apart from the inevitable criticism over choosing a U.S.machine, reasons for final government choice of the Starfighter are easy to follow. First, it's the cheapest modern fighter on themarket today, going for about $750,000 per unit compared with Republic's F-105 (which was the R.CLA.Fs first choice), butwhich costs $3 million per unit. [The F-105 is a larger aircraft, with a higher attack potential.—Ed.] Nevertheless, the F-105 isthe only one of a dozen types considered which was already in production. Actually, the so-called F-104G exists only on paper.It's the F-104C with Canadian adaptations everyone talks about. Combustion chambers of a Rolls-Royce Dart under discussion in the company's School of Instruction in Montreal The Starfighter's first public appearance over Ottawa was adestructive one. It broke the sound barrier only once. But in doing so it caused $100,000 damage to Ottawa's spanking new airterminal, yet to be officially opened. The R.CA.F. will officially designate the F-104G as the CF-111.Though the Lockheed contract has brought back a good deal of life into Canada's most moribund heavy industry, the failure toannounce sub-contractors near the date of the prime contract announcement still causes hardship among this diversified groupin Canada. Some, such as Sperry Gyroscope of Canada Ltd., and Computing Devices of Canada Ltd. indicate that they are hopefulof a sub-contracting position, Sperry with instrumentation for the F-104G and Computing Devices of Canada with its originalposition and homing indicator. Other companies are naturally non-committal, though Dowty Equipment of Canada Ltd. whichhas made undercarriages for almost all commercial and military aircraft built in Canada since 1945, is hoping for the F-104G sub-contracting job as well. One problem for both the prime- and sub-contractors, is that a great deal of U.S. machinery will have tobe imported to do the job, especially where Canadian companies have been working with British engines and British aircraft.Though Avro Aircraft Ltd. is not yet benefiting from the prime contract, it does have more adequate machinery, such as heavy-duty skin-milling machines left over from the Arrow's construc- tion, which fabricate complete wings from aluminium slabs, whichCanadair Ltd. apparently does not possess. Remembering the slight wings of the Arrow, an Avro official said this week, "We canbuild wings for the F-104G cheaper than anyone else in the country." Initial tooling for the airframe parts to be manufacturedby Canadair Ltd. will, of course, come from Lockheed in the U.S.A. Behind the final decisions for the prime contracts were certainconsiderations which automatically cut out some companies in Canada. Since it was agreed earlier in the year that OrendaEngines would have first try at quoting a price for manufacture of GE's J79 engine, this presumably left out such companies asCanadian Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Co. Ltd. when Orenda's bid was accepted. It would also eliminate from early considerationcertain suppliers in Canada equipped, for example, to handle a Rolls-Royce engine but not American-made equipment. Though the final working-out of both prime contracts and sub-contracts is not yet complete, the announcement of this replace- ment decision for the defunct Arrow business again roused interestin Canada's future air-defence picture. Inevitably, it has become tied in with the continuing health of Canadian nationalism.Among the more pragmatic and more crucial determinants of the NORAD structure the ever intangible, but ever-present aspect ofCanadian independence in defence matters played a major role in its creation. Certainly, whatever the Canadian Government's Department ofNational Defence does in the present interim period between the coming end of the manned aircraft era and the up-comingguided-missile phase, appears not only to be temporary, but in all instances, frustrating. This, of course, is because Canada, as asmall military power, is neither large enough, nor is her populace willing enough, to assume a huge arms load. The announcementthat Canada would take on the SAGE system (semi-automatic ground environment) along with the minimum of two Bomarcsquadrons needed for it (to cover the southern Ontario and St. Lawrence Valley industrial complexes), not only pointed up this
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