Avro Arrow - the myth debunked

[Jessica]

Agreed. While the YF-12 was awesome, in hindsight it is hard to see a real operational requirement for it.

The YF-12's real operational requirement was to serve as disinformation and distraction. Oxcart was a spyplane first, last and always. The existence of the YF-12 was revealed to lull Soviet agents into seeing what the US wanted them to see, so if a Soviet agent came across intelligence of a Mach 3 aircraft, or parts and paper trails thereof, that agent would write it off against the seemingly dead-end YF-12.

[Giorgio N]

Of beauty and military aircrafts: the Phantom was the best western military aircraft of the '60s and part of the '70s. Many countries adopted the type and most of those that didn't would have liked to but could not afford it or justify it. Yet it was one of the ugliest things to ever fly

At the same time History is full beautiful aircrafts that totally failed to live up to the expectations... so much for the "it it looks right it will fly right"...

Of the Starfighter: like it or not, the 104 was a type that managed to work as both an interceptor and as a strike bomber, something that none of the various competitors of the day achieved. It was not the best interceptor, it was not the best striker, but when it was introduced it allowed many NATO countries to fulfill both missions with a single type and as a consequence field a good number of aircrafts at a time when having these numbers was considered vital to the balance of power with the Soviet Union.

On the YF-12: it was not a mere distraction for the enemy agents but a program that had started immediately after the green light to the original A12 and the two variants progressed in parallel. When the program was revealed, work had been carried on for 4 years in total secrecy and tests continued with plenty of money being poured into the various tests and development work

The USAF search for a Mach 3 interceptor was a long and complicated affair starting with the F-103, going through the F-108 and ending with the YF-12. At the end in 1968, when the USAF had found a type that could work, everybody realised that there was no real need for this anymore.

[Adam Maas]

Almost fully correct Barney. The Museum was shut-down by Mayor Rob Ford and Toronto City Council. It was one of the first things he did as mayor.

The Museum also hadn't payed its rent in quite a long time and was functionally bankrupt. And it was shut down by the Park, not City Council, although the latter was involved (mostly in failing to ask the Provincial government for aid). And Ford had been Mayor for a year when this occurred (and his only role was in ignoring the situation). Essentially what happened is that the Museum got way behind on its rent, they were working things out and then the Park got a better proposal and decided to evict the Museum instead.

There was some interesting stuff but the Museum was poorly managed, difficult to get to and overshadowed by the nearby Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton. Hopefully the latter will get the Arrow replica to go with their excellent collection of cold war RCAF and CF aircraft.