One has to feel a bit sorry for the decision makers and aircraft companies in that period.

Technology was moving rapidly, and the Cold War was demanding new weapons systems quickly, cheaply and with amazing skills to predict the future.

Many of the aircraft cancelled then were very good, but doomed as much by changing requirements as costs or even politics.

The UK famously lost the TSR-2. But one has to ask the question of whether it was adaptable enough to have had a long service career. It would never be another Canberra. 

The US lost the B-70, simply, with SAMS, the days of high altitude bombers were over. And again, it would not have been as adaptable as the B-52 has proven to be. Other advanced types, the B-58 and Navy Vigilante,  had short production runs and careers.

Canada lost the CF-105. A few months back, FlyPast published a Peter from a Canadian who repeated the old conspiracy theory that it was scuttled by the US who was afraid of competition. Anyone with an once of sense knows that by the late ’50s, most people thought (per the Sandy’s report), missiles were the next big thing. More to the point, by that time the USAF was cutting back its interceptor programs. Example: the F-106, the “Ultimate Interceptor” being developed throughout the ’50s was bought in very small numbers, much less than the “interim” F-102.

In short, by the time the CF-105 was cancelled, the USAF was turing away from single mission fighter types, so the American contractors had nothing to fear from a competitor in a dead market.

Think about it, aside from the MiG-25, I can’t think of a dedicated interceptor built after the Arrow cancellation.

Also, American companies were set to make money on the Arrow. Hughes was doing the avionics, an expensive part of the aircraft. Also, note the Americans supported CF-105 development by giving Canada a B-47 as an engine test bed. Hardly the sign of a worried competitor.

The B-47 was so altered for testing that when it was returned, it was immediately retired and scrapped. Pretty generous, and again not something a country would do if it were afraid of the end product.

So, instead of fostering conspiracy theories, Arrow fans should admit that it was scrapped for the stated reasons, it was a technologically advanced, very expensive airplane for a small (population, not size) country.

Instead, the Canadians got free F-101s, which were replaced after a decade by free upgraded VooDoos. The Americans didn’t make any money on the deal.

So, in aircraft, you can have a great product but offered at the wrong time.

Witness the Concorde, it would have dine better but it came out around the time of the Arab oil embargo and “fuel crisis”.

Also emerging at the same time was the environmental ” green” lobby which killed.public funding for the U.S. SST, and protested against sonic booms over the American mainland, killing U.S. sales for the Concorde.