Historic Ejection Seat

Bear in mind that during the design stages of the Arrow they were already looking at increasing its range with subsequent versions! The flyers seem to have something like 1100 KM range -with no images of any with either probes or tanks it looks decidedly slim on range!

To operate an Arrow in the U.K would have taken a massive security operation to achieve little. Seems to me that it would have been far easier to send some test pilots out to Canada to fly it rather than risk a development aircraft on a long transatlantic journey which could have ended with either loosing it at sea or going tech at some airfield en route !

It makes a nice seasonal conspiracy theory but not much of it stands up to examination!

Also worth remembering that sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain sight. You are looking at an era were aerospace innovation was fast paced and we were at the sharp end. Most people wouldn’t know what they were looking at especially when you consider the amount of experimental and test aircraft about. If it flew in and was immediately moved to cover you would also be relying on someone being there with the knowledge to recognise it or having a camera just at the right moment.

I’m sure refuelling stops could have been carried out in greenland and iceland without too much of an issue, especially at night. Does anyone even have the vaguest idea of the ferry range of an Orenda PS.13 Iroquois engined Arrow with maximum internal and external fuel loads? In terms of operating the aircraft they could have used llanbedr or Machrihanish.

Never say never, it’s not that outlandish of an idea. Stranger things have happened.

Problem with all this is that Manston is probably one of the most photographed RAF airfields in the country for that period. The fire dump area is easily visible from the road. The main airfield has a public road running through it -to get onto the fire training area aircraft are towed over a public road.

Adding to that -the Arrow program would have had a large amount of co-operation with U.K Avro -why would they need to bring an Arrow over here to exploit technology when the information would have been readily available?
Avro in the U.K were pioneering delta research for the Vulcan programme -what could the Arrow teach us? Very little I suspect!

Lastly I am not aware of the Arrow having a refuelling probe -so effectively you need to do fairly short hops! So you need to ensure that it isnt photographed at any place it lands ! Then once in the U.K you need to fly it
without being seen! Presumably with RAF aircrew or company test pilots who have after all these years still remained silent!

Its a fantastic story -however if I wanted to exploit the technology of an aircraft I would find somewhere remote and uninhabited -kinda like Canada !

I like the alternative view -one seat ex Arrow came out of RAF Cardington in the last ten years -other parts of the Arrow would have been used for development work and with the U.K Connection through manufacturers the transfer of this material would have been easy.

I’ve spoken to Chris about this, and the guy who recalled seeing the Arrow is absolutely convinced about what it was, and was an avid ‘spotter’ at the time. If the cheeky young scamp didn’t see an Arrow on the day in question…what could it have been!? What other aircraft could meet the description he vividly recalled (see below)? Any ideas?

“..a white, high delta wing aircraft with a black nose and no national markings or registration. He described the aircraft in detail including the large fin, long extended nose undercarriage leg, small pilots canopy, rectangular section air intakes etc. He had seen Avro Arrow aircraft in magazines and news papers and knew exactly what he was looking at. He is adamant that what he saw was an Arrow….”

Interesting point David about Manston being high profile and therefore unsuitable for a discrete arrival..maybe that wasn’t the planned destination, and the Arrow had to divert there for whatever reason?

I seem to recall an Arrow seat came out of RAF Cardington when it had a clear out a few years ago. The seats were offered to BAPC members amongst other parts disposed of. I guess development work was carried out on these in the U.K by M.B hence why they seem to survive against the odds.

As for the ‘missing Arrow’ theory – Manston would be the last place I would choose to dispose of an aircraft quietly! It was then a combined civil and military airfield – it is a very well photographed airfield and whilst a nice story I can think of easier and more discrete ways of getting rid of an Arrow

I doubt an Arrow made it to the UK, however, the legend of the escaped Arrow has been going around since they were scrapped. There are pictures of the scrapped Arrows and there is one serial missing, I believe. Again, I doubt a complete one flew to the UK, but I guess components could have made it over here for research purposes. Nice to see them survive! I love the Arrow 🙂 Maybe one day enough components will surface to enable a rebuild.

I know little of the Arrow story. Is the info on the listing creative sales patter or is it a theory that is held up as true by some ?

I cant see anything other than conjecture either!

Its not an advert to sell – its an advert to advise of availability; no more, no less.

Nice thing though!

Bruce

I can`t see anything on that listing which bears any reference to the item`s “value”.

Quote
“As this is in my opinion an Item of Canadian National Treasure that truly deserves to go to a good home, preferably in Canada,”
. . . So put a price tag on it just to ensure it never goes on public display.

Pete